Before there was the righteous Justice Pao (包青天) (1993) or the cunning Sima Yi in The Advisors Alliance (军师联盟) (2017), there was The Legend of Liu Bowen (劉伯溫傳奇) (1992). Liu Bowen was one of the founding members of Ming Dynasty, who was wise enough to retire before the newly crowned Emperor began to prune his court by killing the founding members. His retirement gift from the Emperor was a sword that grant him the authority to investigate and execute bad guys he encountered during his cross country sightseeing.
Liu Bowen’s smiling face, his wisdom, and his fortitude left such a strong impression on my young mind that I continued to associate the actor Zhang Fu Jian to that character. To me, his face is synonymous to warmth and safety of a father figure. As long as he’s around, everything is going to be A-OK.
For the Love of Drama 