(1) The beauty in the golden house (金屋藏娇) is an idiom about Emperor Wu of Han and his empress Chen Jiao. As a child, the emperor had promised to build a golden house for Chen, thus securing the betrothal and giving birth to this widely sung tale. In truth, the relationship between the two was far from amicable after their marriage.
(2) This is the first time the show drops the name of the Promote Stability Society (筹安会), composed of Yang Du, Sun Yuyun, Yan Fu, Liu Shipei, Li Xiehe, and Hu Ying. All were prominent public figures and political activists of the time, and they all supported Yuan Shikai‘s bid for constitutional monarchy despite being certainly against any kind of return to autocracy. Lest it be said Yuan Shikai did what he did with no public approval whatsoever.
(3) The Chinese script used Xiangqi instead of international chess, with chariot, cavalry, and cannon for the respective pieces. Cannon and bishop both seem like suitable metaphors for the foreign influence in this picture.
(4) The regency of the Duke of Zhou took place immediately after the Zhou dynasty established itself. He acted as loyal regent for his young nephew King Cheng of Zhou, securing for all history his legacy as the loyal and capable official and exemplar for all future chancellors. There remains some dispute about whether the duke styled himself “king” during the regency.
(5) The Qing dynasty normally handed out diminishing peerage. That is to say, they could only be inherited at a lower grade, for instance from prince to duke. The rare privilege of having a fully-inheritable princehood was colloquially referred to as “iron-hat prince” (铁帽子王). There were only twelve such princehoods. Most were granted in the earliest days of the dynasty to those who contributed to establishing it. The most recent was granted by Empress Dowager Cixi to Yikuang for the title of Prince Qing.
(6) Annual rites dedicated to Heaven and Earth, conducted for example at the Temple of Heaven, were among the most important ceremonial duties of the Chinese emperor. This is also analogous to almost every other monarchy, where invariably the monarch carries out certain duties of a religious authority, which is one facet of monarchical power. It is rather odd than Yuan Shikai, as a president, would conduct such a rite in 1914. Many read this as a sure sign of his imperial ambitions.
(7) I would say a fair number of Qing emperors had good ends, but Yuan Shikai in the show is probably just referring to the most recent ones to pass. Among them, Emperor Daoguang died partially due to the stress of losing the First Opium War, Emperor Xianfeng died in retreat while the capital was occupied in the Second Opium War, Emperor Tongzhi died young due to some mysterious illness, said to be smallpox or syphilis. And of course, Emperor Guangxu died one day before Empress Dowager Cixi probably due to arsenic poisoning.
(8) The British monarch was at least at this point Emperor of India, among their other titles.
(9) The London Times and the Shuntian Times were the two prominent papers in China at the time which were under British and Japanese ownership, respectively.
Chinese Shows Translated 