Chinese historical dramas that are like that are in the fantasy and Wuxia sections. There are a lot of dramas without fantasy, some are:
AH :
- +1 The Princess Wei Young
- +1 The Story of Ming Lan
- +1 Story of Yanxi Palace
- +1 The Romance of Tiger and Rose - A few characters "have kung fu" so they have strong fighting skills and can do that flying thing you see in full on wuxia dramas, there are a few small scenes involving "mystical items" or heavenly blessings (really just good medicine, a successful mine, and an oil field, so you can chalk this part up to superstition), one scene where three characters make offerings to the gods and the heavens appear to indicate whether each character is worthy of a certain position, and the overall plat involves the FL entering her own fictional story and it turns out in the very end that she and the ML had a shared dream, which I would classify as fantasy.
- Sound of the Desert
- The Imperial Doctress
- Arsenal Military Academy
- The King's Woman
- The Rise of Phoenixes
- Legend of Lu Zhen
Thanks! I was thinking of trying The Rise of Phoenixes...
Depends how recent historical you want to go. If early 1900's is not too recent for you:
Also a good genre to check for more ancient, but no powers/fantasy is Gong'an. Most recent in the Justice Bao incarnations premiered just over a year ago and a sequel is coming this year. Look for Detective Die Renjie for another set of succesful drama's in the same genre. A nice "time travel" twist on Justice Bao is Intern Female Constable . One that has some fantasy qualities, but is overall quite rational and definitely worth the watch is Ancient Detective.