This was an excellent episode of The Apothecary Diaries second season. One of the most fun parts of this series is watching Maomao unravel mysteries in the palace. Another favorite aspect of mine – which is more serious – is the focus on classism. Episode 31 provides an engaging mystery to solve while reminding us that it’s difficult to live in a society that allows sexual slavery and strict social hierarchy. There was also some fascinating world-building in this installment. Let’s review.
Episode 31: The Shrine of Choosing
Episode Rating: 9/10
At the start of the episode, Jinshi had a dream reliving a vague memory from when he was a small child. It was a convoluted recollection involving his father, mother, and grandmother. An old man – Jinshi’s biological father and the previous emperor – tried to pass a shiny golden item to Jinshi, but his mother interrupted. As the old man was led away, he dropped the shiny gold item on the floor. I don’t know what this memory means, but it was clearly stressful for Jinshi to remember.
One day, Maomao paid a visit to Xiaolan to see how her studies were going. She could now read and write a few characters. While they were hanging out, Xiaolan introduced Maomao to the old eunuch in charge of teaching the servant girls. He knew Luomen, Maomao’s adoptive father, when he worked at the palace. We don’t hear the old man’s name in this episode, but I like him a lot.
Before we learn about the shrine of choosing, I’ll review the legend of the Mother Royal, which the old eunuch was teaching. The mother of the royal line of Li was regarded as a Goddess. She came from a foreign western country and supposedly became pregnant by the gods, giving birth to the first emperor of Li. Obviously, she slept with a man in reality – but the story was embellished to push the narrative of the emperor’s divinity. (Most likely, the Mother Royal married into the previous regime’s royalty and took over from the inside to ensure her lineage persisted.)
(Side Note: Throughout the first season, I assumed that the country of Li was supposed to literally be the equivalent of Ancient China. However, it’s become clear to me recently that Li is only loosely based on the Ming Dynasty. The land of Li has its own history and mythology unique to this anime. There’s also no guarantee the geography is anything like what we see in our world. That means the envoys from the Caravan don’t necessarily need to have come from Eastern Europe like I previously thought.)
Let’s get back to the main events. When Maomao asked about a nearby shrine with strange architecture, the old man explained that it was a special shrine from before the current regime. It’s rarely used anymore, but the elderly eunuch still maintained the building. Later, Maomao found out it was called “The Shrine of Choosing.” The emperor wanted to enter it that night and partake in the ritual once used to choose the next heir to the throne. He brought along Maomao, Jinshi, and the old caretaker.
The shrine contained a room with three colorful doors: red, green, and blue. In order to proceed, the emperor must choose one. He did so and the next room contained three more doors with a different color assortment. There were several more rooms like this that repeated one after the other until the emperor reached a dead end. There was only an empty room and a sign that said, “Child of royalty, yet not child of the Mother Royal.” This is the same result the emperor got in the past, too. Everyone left the shrine.
The old eunuch teased Maomao, telling her that Luomen could have figured out the Shrine of Choosing. Feeling provoked, Maomao put her mind to work and soon solved the mystery. She led the emperor and company through the correct doors to reach the desired ending, which acknowledged the participant as a child of the Mother Royal.
Explaining it in detail here would take too long, but it boils down to this: color blindness runs in the family of the Mother Royal. Normally, only a colorblind person would make the choices Maomao made. Since the current emperor could see in full color, he could never get it right. The mystery of the Shrine of Choosing was thus solved.
This episode showed us that the current emperor is fairly lenient and laidback. Naturally, he’s a tyrant, but he doesn’t just behead servants for opening their mouths. When the old eunuch suggested Maomao be added to the bloodline as a concubine, the emperor seemed to actually consider it – quite a progressive and impulsive idea. He decided against it in the end, light-heartedly pointing out that Maomao wasn’t his type due to her small breasts.
Despite the amiable nature of the emperor, he still holds complete power over Maomao and everyone else in the palace. That makes Maomao extremely courageous for interacting with him so calmly. I might be too frozen in fear to even be able to answer questions if asked by someone that powerful. I hope I would still be able to say what’s important, but who knows? Once again, this show is surprisingly in-depth with its exploration of a heavily classist empire.
Maomao somehow still doesn’t know that Jinshi is royalty. She’s normally so quick to pick up on things, but she seems to have a sort of mental block when it comes to Jinshi and his true identity. Anyway, that’s all for today. Sayonara until next time!
~Thanks for reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
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