I have finished Jianghua's 君临天下. There are several things I like in the series, the actors who played Nian Gengrao 年羹尧, Longkeduo 隆科多 and Dai Duo 戴铎 are amazing. I like all the princes and Kangxi. The drama is building up consistently throughout the series, and I love it up to the point that Yongzheng sent 14th prince into house arrest and his death. It drops a little bit when Yongzheng is going crazy because his wife, Miaoxin, ran away. But that is fine, there are only 4 episodes left.
The centre point is of course Yongzheng, the first part of the series when he is fighting for the throne really breaks my heart. The second part of the series concentrates on how he ruled and defensed his right to rule. The first episode of the second part is the highlight of the whole series, how he got the throne from Kangxi by murdering his father. Jianghua is impeccable in it. With such determination and ruthlessness, he overcame all the obstacles that his father had always looked down and biased on him. In order to obtain the throne, he also broke through all the ethical high grounds he had set up for himself. He is descending into evil, but at the same time he is alleviating all the burdens he brought on himself. He told his staff that there is no right or wrong when fighting for the right to rule. At the last scene with Kangxi, he intent to kill his father but he also gave his father a choice to step down. Jianghua makes me feel that Yongzheng at this moment treated the throne as his business, very calm with it. He would not be too scared to do whatever it takes to get the throne, no matter how terrible it might be. But he would also be willing to let his father step down peacefully, as long as Kangxi would oblige. Historically, Yongzheng is a very suspicious person and infamously harsh with his ministers, but he still didn't kill his brothers. In the series, he didn't kill them until they formally revolted against him.
I wished that there are HD version of the whole series. Yongzheng Dynasty embroidered the image of Yongzheng by portraying him almost like a saint; while the other precedents demonized him. 君临天下 although locating right in the scope of romanticization, it gave the character of Yongzheng a more full-body taste.
When Jianghua played Yongzheng again after almost 10 years in TVB, his characterization is already under the influence of Yongzheng Dynasty.

擅长于民族国家叙事的ATV故事常常有种崇高感，通过具有金属感的交响背景音乐的烘托，把观众身上的家国基因飙到无限。这种集体意识，往往还通过一个群像来表现。
本剧开篇的木兰秋狝就是这个群像的典型场景，一阵大气音乐的烘托，康熙九子分队出现，左边八爷党，胤禩胤禟胤誐等，右边趾高气扬的太子等。演员都是当时的演技派中青年啊，个个出彩：《射雕》中演欧阳克的黄允材把大阿哥装好人，实际上腹黑的神态描摹地出神；旁边的八爷吴廷烨也是一贯演心机深沉的阴谋家，瘦长的脸既用余光偷瞟其他阿哥 ，又坚定地面对皇阿玛；眼睛很爆的去年在杜琪峰《夺命金》中演“凸眼龙”的姜皓文扮演胤禟，惟胤禩马首是瞻，又桀骜不驯；还有在《天蚕变》中出演路丹的罗颂华演的十三阿哥，和他的其他角色一样，这里的十三阿哥不显山不露水，不温不火；那一边，老戏骨郭峰演备受宠爱的太子胤礽，年纪显然比其他阿哥大，又脾气火爆；旁边是三阿哥胤祉，刘宗基，和无线亚视里许多不温不火的绿叶一样，也正好符合“九龙夺嫡”里三阿哥的文人风度；再过去就是主角四阿哥胤祯了，他看都不看太子一眼，和其他贝勒贝子不同，他的心机更深，早就把眼光放到了皇帝的位子上去；但在这之前，即使击败了太子，八爷，他的旁边还有一位最年幼的弟弟——他的亲弟——十四爷胤禛，他的扮演者甄志强出身模特，既能演正直无限的青年，又能演无比邪恶的反派，比如后来《剑啸江湖》中楚江南（原型来自古龙小说中的律香川）。
九龙一字排开，康熙大帝出现了，不像大陆的焦晃那么老态龙钟，不像张国立那么欠扁的脸，也不像英国的张铁林那么色迷迷，这位清朝大帝让潘志文来演，真是合适至极，两撇胡子，把唯我独尊的外族皇帝表现得十分生动，像佛祖身边配有善财童子一样，潘志文的旁边配了武功高强的发小——黄树棠演的韦棠，像其他电视中忠心耿耿的家奴一样，韦棠极力劝阻废太子，而韦棠一死，康熙的死神也将临近，主仆关系即使如此。萧笙这位画家到此还没为他的康熙出游图完笔，还添上了最善解人意的文颂娴。
这样一个宏大的开篇，包含了接下来无限爆炸的情节，ATV的故事结构成“T”字行，一线排开：四阿哥与太子，太子与大阿哥，太子与八爷党，四阿哥与八爷党，最后，那个异族皇帝能否继续掌控大局？是谁在更大的围猎游戏中胜出？像一场人生赛跑那样，电视剧给你的是起跑线上每个人的摩拳擦掌，但殊不知，这一切，最后只是为了突出其中四号跑道的那位不看观众，眼睛只盯着终点线的那位，他完成了这一切，“T”字的那条竖线一直孤独地延伸，甚至死也要自己安排。
我们观众沉醉了半天的群殴，在独夫民贼的眼里，都只是他欲望的投射，他意念的延伸，不仅大阿哥，太子，三阿哥，八爷党，年羹尧，文觉，戴铎，苗老三，村民，天下的命运在他的手中，连我们观众的观看都要被他左右，放佛整部戏，就是江华一个人的独角戏。

这部剧不是历史剧，不要被片名迷惑，否则估计要被气死。
这部剧不是一部言情剧，若要期待美好感情请点叉，相爱相杀不是不可以，但处理不好就狗血淋头了。

严格说来，这部剧应该归为历史戏说武侠剧比较妥当，刀光剑影一片，而政治斗争的情节太过简单苍白，并且严重偏离历史，但以其时代背景来看，拍成这样已然不错了，起码比如今花样百出的脑残雷剧要好太多。

剧本以雍正皇帝为主角，可谓我所见过的影视作品中最为心狠手辣，十恶不赦的了，在剧情上堪称借用全部野史，这样的情节若是不融合武侠到真是乏善可陈了，上部康熙九子江湖气息浓厚，下部血溅太和殿转为宫斗（真心不想用这个词），一共四十集不算长，私以为下部可看性更强，如果你能忍耐得了前六集，那么恭喜你，后面终于慢慢渐入佳境了。

下部斗争情节虽然单一，却贵在紧凑，张扬狂妄，没有神经病似的纠结摇摆，虐人虐己，根本就是挡我者死，逆我者亡，一条道走到黑，杀他个片甲不留！让你不得不一集集追下去，大呼痛快！看完此剧方得知编剧要表达的观点就是，好人无好报，恶人有恶报！笑~

说完剧情再说表演方面，演员们都是实力派，但表演痕迹太重，稍显做作，情感外露的过分，看着比较别扭，估计那个时代的影视剧都这样，唯一可圈可点的是主角选的极其成功，江华把雍正的狠辣和心机表现得淋漓极致，单凭气质来讲，算上所有演过四爷的，无人出其左右。虽说称不上完美，但天皇贵胄，胆识不凡，一身煞气，敢爱敢恨，坏的彻底，坏的坦荡，真正是最有魅力的反派人物，比剧中作为正义化身却瞻前顾后，妇人之仁的十四阿哥和文觉大师出彩太多，甩他们这两个角色几条街不止。可以说，如果不是江华来演雍正的话，恐怕这部剧只能沦为下乘。

另外此剧插曲完全借用黄霑的给另一部戏《情定少林寺》的配乐，为剧情增色不少，如果没有版权纠纷，即可谓之另一大亮点。