I recently started watching my first cdrama, the Story of Yanxi Palace, great series.

I really love the sageuk kdrama series like Empress Ki, Dong Yi, Queen Seon Duk. A strong female lead that goes from the bottom of the society (slave) to the highest (queen, empress, consort). With stratagems, plots, love and drama.

Can you recommend great cdrama like this?

The Princess Wei Young is one of my favorite palace dramas of all time because of how clever/strong/independent the main girl is. While she starts out in a high position, she does have a lot of trouble for a while in the middle. I don't want to spoil too much, but it seems like what you're looking for. I very highly recommend

https://mydramalist.com/15338-the-princess-wei-young

Actress Sun Li, usually does strong characters, thus try:

doesnt really check out eberything you've mentioned, but most are about strong FL:

  • Story of Minglan - neglected concubine-born daughter to wife of a general/high official/noble man. Highly recommended. probably my top 3 Cdrama historical with strong FL (Along with Legend of Miyue and Story of yanxi)
  • Empress of China
  • The Sword and the Brocade - another neglected concubine-born daughter to wife of a noble official
  • The King's Daughter, Soo Baek Hyang 
  • Ja Myung Go 
  • Jang Ok Jung - Since you've watched Dongyi then you probably are familiar with the title character in this drama,. the MC here is the main villain in Dongyi. But still the same journey of low born  to concubine/queen, but with sad ending