Bones of Hehuang

- Historical setting: During the Xining era of the Northern Song (1068–1077), Wang Anshi’s reforms promote the campaign to expand the frontier in Xihe. Song forces push into the Hehuang region, now eastern Qinghai and southern Gansu, entering a complex struggle with the Tibetan Gusiluo regime, the Tangut forces, and local tribes.

- Central conflict: Su Jingnian, a Han Chinese official who arrives in Hehuang with the ambition to expand the territory and secure the frontier, finds himself torn between military conquest and cultural integration, and between his personal ideals and the suffering of ordinary people. His fate becomes entwined with Muya, the daughter of a Tibetan tribal chief, and Chen Shisan, the son of a local Han Chinese merchant, as the three face war, plague, and power struggles together.