The First Jasmine
The First Jasmine is a 40-episode Chinese historical romance drama from CCTV. It aired from June 9, 2026 to July 5, 2026, and all episodes are out. In the US it streams officially on Viki (subscription, episodes 1-5 free) and WeTV (VIP, episode 1 free), checked October 27, 2026. It is adapted from a novel by Feng Qing.
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The story, without spoilers
What to Expect
We haven't watched this one. This section is based on the official synopsis, Baidu Baike's episode summaries and WeTV and Viki's listings.
The core of the drama is a revenge plot run by a heroine who keeps her face still. Ye Li works through the men behind the Lishan persecution one at a time. Baike's summaries have her tear up a straw figure for each name she crosses off, and the methods are inventive rather than bloody: one official dies in a robe laced with phosphorus. She also heals Mo Xiuyao's legs by breaking and resetting them, which tells you the tone. This is a couple who treat each other as useful before they treat each other as family.
The romance is slow and grown-up. Both leads are guarded, both are hiding something, and the drama gets its tension from two schemers sharing a house. The second half turns darker. The writers added post-traumatic stress to Ye Li's story, which isn't in the novel, and episodes 31 to 34 deal with it head-on. Expect a court and war plot in the last stretch, with a rebellion, a siege of the palace and a battle at the frontier.
Reception in China was mixed. Douban users rated it 6.3 from more than 115,000 votes in July 2026, while Tencent's own score was 9.3 and Viki's was 9.4 when we checked. Chinese coverage also followed rows over the costumes, the screenwriting credits and claims about body doubles.
The Story
Ye Li comes down from the mountain after eight years. Her family's academy at Lishan was crushed by the court, and she was the one left behind. Back in the capital, her fiancé, Prince Li, swaps her for her half-sister, and the Empress Dowager marries her instead to Prince Ding, Mo Xiuyao, who uses a wheelchair and whose household has fallen out of favor. Both weddings happen on the same day. The First Jasmine (莫离) follows the marriage that comes next: Ye Li smiles through court life while quietly taking down every official who destroyed Lishan, and her husband, who is plotting his own revenge, starts to notice. Bai Lu and Ryan Cheng (Cheng Lei) lead this 40-episode CCTV-8 and Tencent Video drama, adapted from Feng Qing's web novel Sheng Shi Di Fei (盛世嫡妃). It aired in June and July 2026 and streams outside China on WeTV and Viki.
Release Notes
The First Jasmine has 40 episodes of about 45 minutes. It was filmed over 133 days at Xiangshan Film City, from May 31 to October 11, 2025, with the Prince Ding mansion built as a new set. CCTV-8 and Tencent Video premiered it on June 9, 2026. Tencent VIP members got four episodes on day one, then two a night at 6 pm, dropping to one a night from June 22, with no new episodes on June 29 and 30 and one a day from July 1. By that schedule, VIP members reached episode 40 around July 5, and SVIP members a day earlier. Some databases list June 28 as the finale, which doesn't fit Tencent's published schedule.
When we checked from the US on October 27, 2026, WeTV had all 40 episodes with English subtitles, with episode 1 free and the rest for VIP members. Viki had all 40, with episodes 1 to 5 free and the rest on Viki Pass. In China, CCTV-8's ratings peaked at 0.63%, and Maoyan counted more than a billion views. The theme song is Xin Shijie (心世界).
Does The First Jasmine have a happy ending?
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We have not finished this one ourselves; this is based on outside sources. The drama changes how the novel ends.
In Brief
Ending spoilerShow the ending in brief
The First Jasmine has a happy ending. Ye Li and Mo Xiuyao stay together, the Lishan scholars are cleared, Prince Li dies in a failed coup, and the Empress Dowager is stripped of her titles. Lishan Academy reopens in the last episode. The road there is rough: Ye Li learns that almost everyone she thought survived Lishan died eight years earlier.
Full Ending Explained
Full spoilersShow the full ending
This account comes from Baidu Baike's episode summaries, not from watching.
The will and the Marquis (episodes 26 to 30). Princess Lingyun is murdered and Ye Li is framed. She answers by producing the late emperor's will. The Marquis of Muyang, Zhou Jing, is tried and dies after drinking poisoned wine brought by his own son. Mo Xiuwen and his 30,000 Black Cloud Cavalry (黑云骑) are cleared. Zhou Jing's parting blow is a secret: Ye Li's mother, Xu Wanzhou, once tricked Mo Xiuwen out of that will.
The truth about Lishan (episodes 31 to 34). The revelation breaks the couple. Mo Xiuyao writes a letter of divorce, and Ye Li goes back to Lishan. Her condition gets worse, and the drama reveals that her maid Qingshuang, a teacher called Master Zhu and a child version of herself are people only she can see. Mo Xiuyao's hair turns white overnight, and he follows her as imperial envoy to Lishan. There he finds the academy empty. A plague eight years earlier killed everyone inside except Ye Li: 46 of 47 people, Qingshuang included. The academy had refused to open its gates and submit to the Empress Dowager. Ye Li buried them all in the bamboo grove and dug a grave for herself. Mo Xiuyao helps her face it. Back in the capital, the emperor and his officials push the Empress Dowager into retirement at a detached palace.
Lishan cleared (episode 35). The Lishan scholars are cleared after their deaths. Xu Qingyun, Ye Li's grandfather, is honored as Marquis Wenzheng (文正侯), and Ye Li is made a county princess, Wenzhao (文昭县主). She and Ye Ying make peace.
Prince Li's rebellion (episodes 36 to 39). Mo Jingli, who faked his death, takes the Suixue Pass (碎雪关) with 80,000 rebels, and Li Duo goes over to him. Ye Li dyes Mo Xiuyao's white hair black before he leaves for war, and the Empress Dowager keeps her in the palace as a hostage. Mo Xiuyao wins at Luoxia Pass (落霞关), and Li Duo kills himself. Mo Jingli tells Ye Ying he never loved her. At the lantern festival he sets fires across the capital and storms the palace, and Duke Hua is wounded. Mo Xiuyao enters the city without waiting for orders, and Mo Jingli dies in a storm of arrows. Five months later, after the purge, Ye Li rides out to meet her husband on his way home.
Episode 40. Li Feibai, the Ye family guard, was hurt in the blast and is losing his sight, so he leaves quietly, and Yusheng goes after him to look after him. The Empress Dowager, dying, asks the emperor to judge her fairly. She is stripped of her titles and buried as a commoner. Qin Zheng is exiled to Lingnan. Lishan Academy reopens with Wei Zhuang, one of its former students, as head, and Ye Li and Mo Xiuyao pay for poor students to study there in her name.
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Cast and characters
The novel behind it
The drama adapts Sheng Shi Di Fei (盛世嫡妃), roughly "The Legitimate Princess Consort of a Golden Age," by Feng Qing (凤轻). It was serialized on the women's fiction site Xiaoxiang Shuyuan (潇湘书院) and runs to about 2.55 million Chinese characters. Baike also lists Sheng Shi Di Fei as the drama's working title. As far as we know, there is no official English translation.
Differences from the Novel
Ending spoilerShow the differences
Baidu Baike lists the main changes, which are big:
- No time travel. In the novel, Ye Li is a modern woman who wakes up in the past. The drama drops that, and Ye Li is simply a scholar's granddaughter from Lishan.
- No frontier arc. The novel's long stretch at the borderlands is cut, and all 40 episodes stay in the capital, apart from the trips to Lishan and the war in the last act.
- Trauma added. Ye Li's post-traumatic stress, the imagined companions and the truth about the plague are new to the drama.
- From use to rescue. The book's couple starts as a partnership of mutual use. The drama reframes them as two damaged people who save each other.
The script went through several teams before Zhao Na (赵娜) rewrote it. Who deserved credit became a public dispute in June 2026, which ended with an apology from the writer who had accused Bai Lu.
Novel Ending
Full spoilersShow how the novel ends
The novel also ends with Ye Li and Mo Xiuyao together. Because the drama cut the time travel and the frontier storyline, its last act is new, and we haven't found a reliable summary of the book's final chapters to compare it with. We'll update this section if we do.
- Original title
- 盛世嫡妃
- Author
- Feng Qing 凤轻
- First published
- Other
- In English
- No official translation that we know of
Words and customs you'll hear
Why "Jasmine"
The Chinese title, Mo Li (莫离), means "don't leave." It joins the hero's family name, Mo (墨), with the li (离) of Lishan and of parting. Said aloud, moli is also the Chinese word for jasmine (茉莉), which is where the English title comes from.
Tang-style looks
The drama is set in a fictional Great Chu dynasty, but the costumes and makeup borrow from the Tang. Look for the high-waisted skirts, the piled-up hair and the painted mark on Bai Lu's forehead in the poster, a decoration called huadian (花钿). The styling drew criticism when first photos leaked in July 2025.
Lishan Academy
Private academies (书院, shuyuan) were centers of learning and political opinion in imperial China, and courts did sometimes close them for dissent. Lishan's refusal to bow to the Empress Dowager, and the posthumous honors in episode 35, follow that history. The names given to Xu Qingyun and Ye Li both use wen (文), "learning," the usual word in honors for scholars.
The First Jasmine FAQ
How many episodes does The First Jasmine have?
The First Jasmine has 40 episodes of about 45 minutes each, so the whole series runs around 30 hours. It premiered on CCTV-8 and Tencent Video on June 9, 2026, and finished in early July. WeTV and Viki both carry all 40 episodes with English subtitles.
Where can I watch The First Jasmine?
Outside mainland China, The First Jasmine streams on WeTV and Viki. When we checked from the US on October 27, 2026, WeTV had episode 1 free and the rest for VIP members, and Viki had episodes 1 to 5 free and the rest on Viki Pass. Both had all 40 episodes with English subtitles.
Is The First Jasmine on Netflix?
We found no Netflix listing for The First Jasmine. It's a Tencent Video production, and Tencent's international app, WeTV, carries it under the same title, as does Viki. If Netflix picks it up, we'll add it to the where-to-watch box on this page.
Does The First Jasmine have a happy ending?
SpoilerShow the answer
Minor spoilerReveal whether it ends happily
Yes. Ye Li and Mo Xiuyao end up together, Lishan's scholars are cleared and the academy reopens. Prince Li dies in a failed coup, and the Empress Dowager loses her titles. The guard Li Feibai leaves with failing eyesight.
What really happened at Lishan?
SpoilerShow the answer
Ending spoilerReveal the Lishan twist
A plague hit Lishan Academy eight years earlier, and it refused to open its gates to the Empress Dowager. Everyone died except Ye Li, 46 of 47 people, and she buried them. Her maid Qingshuang, who seems to be with her all along, is one of the dead. Episodes 31 to 34 reveal it.
Who is Qingshuang in The First Jasmine?
SpoilerShow the answer
Ending spoilerReveal the truth about Qingshuang
Qingshuang died at Lishan eight years before the story starts. The maid at Ye Li's side is a figure only Ye Li can see, along with a teacher and a younger version of herself. The drama reveals it in episode 31, when Ye Li's stress gets worse after her divorce.
Is The First Jasmine based on a novel?
Yes. It adapts Sheng Shi Di Fei (盛世嫡妃) by Feng Qing, a long web novel from Xiaoxiang Shuyuan. The drama cuts the book's time-travel setup and its frontier arc, and adds Ye Li's trauma. Our novel section above covers the main changes.
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