How Much Sorrow Do You Have

How Much Sorrow Do You Have
DVD cover
Also known as	The Real Warrior Li Hou Zhu and Zhao Kuangyin Love for the Country and the Beautiful Woman[1]
Traditional Chinese	問君能有幾多愁
Simplified Chinese	问君能有几多愁
Hanyu Pinyin	Wèn Jūn Néng Yǒu Jǐ Duō Chóu
Genre	historical fiction
Starring	Nicky Wu Liu Tao Howie Huang Wu Yue Pan Hong Xiong Naijin Serina Liu
Country of origin	China
Original language	Mandarin
No. of episodes	40
Production
Running time	45 minutes
Production company	Beijing HualuBaina Film & TV

How Much Sorrow Do You Have, also known as The Real Warrior in some countries,^[2] is a 2005 Chinese historical drama produced by Beijing HualuBaina Film & TV Co. It was first broadcast on China Television in Taiwan in August 2005. In mainland China it was first broadcast on CCTV-8 in 2006. The title is directly taken from a poem by Li Yu, the protagonist of the drama.

Essentially a soap opera, many relationships are fictionalized, but recorded historical events including the Conquest of Southern Tang by Song are followed relatively faithfully. Over 60 historical characters appear in this series, including 9 monarchs of 5 different states (Later Han, Later Zhou, Later Shu, Song dynasty and Southern Tang).

Set in the 10th century, the story revolves around two monarchs: Zhao Kuangyin, the first ruler of the Song dynasty, and Li Yu, the last ruler of the Southern Tang dynasty. It is the third TV series focusing on the complex friend-foe relationship between these two historical characters (though in history no such relationship exists), after the 1986 Singaporean series The Sword and the Song and the 1996 Taiwanese series Love, Sword, Mountain & River, but the plot-lines differ somewhat.

Li Yu and Zhao Kuangyin were two emperors during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Li Yu was kind and respectful, while Zhao Kuangyin was rough and ambitious. They had different backgrounds and attitudes towards life, resulting in two drastically different futures.

Zhao Kuangyin and Zhou Ehuang fell in love at first sight and they planned to visit Southern Tang together. They met Li Yu, and they formed an unlikely friendship. However because of fate, Zhou Ehuang ultimately married Li Yu and she became the Queen.

The marriage between Zhou Ehuang and Li Yu deteriorated when Li Yu also had an affair with Zhou Ehuang's sister, Zhou Jiamin, who later became Queen Zhou the Younger and their second son died at the age of three. Zhou Ehuang soon died from sorrow. Zhao Kuangyin was angered by her death, and wanted to wage war against Southern Tang.

After Zhao Kuangyin conquered Southern Tang and the other kingdoms, he spared Li Yu and his family. He also unexpectedly met Madame Huarui, who looked exactly like Zhou Ehuang.