Biya’s Journey: A Look at The Arban and the Saman

Good morning and happy Year of the Wood Dragon! 春节快乐! As we start the new year, I want to explore and discuss one of my most forgotten and under rated novels: The Arban and the Saman.

Set in 1211 at the start of the Mongol invasions of the nuzhen-ruled Jin dynasty, the Arban and the Saman is a wartime romance between a mongol officer (arban) and the shaman priestess of a small village not far from the Jin capital of Zhongdu (modern Beijing). Her name is Biya which yes, was my name in the ...