Hua Mulan is a legendary figure from ancient China who was originally described in a Chinese
poem known as the Ballad of Mulan. In the poem, Hua Mulan takes her aged father's place
in the army. She fought for twelve years and gained high merit, but she refused any reward
and retired to her hometown instead. The historical setting of Hua Mulan is uncertain.
Xu Wei's play version from the 16th century places her in the Northern Wei dynasty, whereas
the later romance Sui Tang Yanyi has her active around the founding of the Tang, ca. 620.
The novel is consistent insofar as it describes Mulan's father as stemming from the people
of the Northern Wei. The Hua Mulan crater on Venus is named after
her.
History The Ballad of Mulan was first transcribed
in the Musical Records of Old and New in the 6th century, the century before the founding
of the Tang Dynasty. The original work no longer exists, and the original text of this
poem comes from another work known as the Music Bureau Collection, an anthology of lyrics,
songs, and poems, compiled by Guo Maoqian during the 11th or 12th century. The author
explicitly mentions the Musical Records of Old and New as his source for the poem.
The poem is a ballad, meaning that the lines do not necessarily have equal numbers of syllables.
The poem consists of 31 couplets, and is mostly composed of five-character phrases, with a
few extending to seven or nine. There was no treatment of the legend since
the two 12th century poems, until in the late Ming Dynasty playwright Xu Wei dramatized
the tale as The Female Mulan, in two acts. Later, the character of Mulan was incorporated
into the historical romance Sui Tang Yanyi (zh), written by Chu Renhuo (zh) in the 17th century
early in the Qing Dynasty. Over time, the story of Hua Mulan rose in
popularity as a folk tale among the Chinese people on the same level as the Butterfly
Lovers. It is one of the first poems in Chinese history to support the notion of gender equality.
Name In Chinese, mùlán refers to the magnolia.
The heroine of the poem is given different family names in different versions of her
story. According to History of the Ming, her family name is Zhu, while the History of the
Qing say it is Wei). The family name 花, which was introduced by Xu Wei, has become
the most popular in recent years in part because of its more poetic meaning.
Plot The poem starts with Mulan worried, as one
male from each family is called to serve in the army. Her father is old and weak and her
younger brother is too young, so she decides to take his place and bids farewell to her
parents. After twelve years of fighting, the army returns and the warriors are rewarded.
Mulan turns down an official post, and asks only for a swift horse to carry her home.
She is greeted with joy by her family. Mulan dons her old clothes and meets her comrades,
who are shocked that in their years traveling together, they did not realize that she was
a woman. Sui Tang Yanyi
Chu Renho's romance Sui Tang Yanyi provides additional backdrops and plot-twists. Here,
Mulan lives under the rule of the Turkic khan. When the khan agrees to wage war in alliance
with the emergent Tang dynasty, Mulan's father Hua Hu fears he will be conscripted into military
service, since he only has two daughters and an infant son. Mulan cross-dresses as a man,
and enlists in her father's stead. She is intercepted by the forces of the petty king
Dou Jiande, and is brought under questioning by the king's militant daughter Xianniang,
who tries to recruit Mulan, but upon discovering Mulan to be of kindred spirit, is so overwhelmingly
delighted that they become sworn sisters. In the Sui Tang Yanyi, Mulan comes to a tragic
end, a "detail that cannot be found in any previous legends or stories associated Hua
Mulan," and believed to have been interpolated by the author Chu Renho. Princess Xianniang's
father is vanquished after siding with the enemy of the Tang dynasty, and the two sworn
sisters with knives in their mouths surrender themselves to be executed in the place of
the condemned man. The act of filial piety wins reprieve from the Emperor, and the imperial
consort who was birth-mother to the prince bestows money to Mulan to provide for her
parents, and wedding funds for the princess who confessed to having promised herself to
general Luo Cheng (zh). Mulan is given leave to journey back to her
homeland, and once arrangements were made for Mulan's parents to relocate, it is expected
that they will all be living in the princess's old capital of Leshou. But Mulan is devastated
to discover her father has long died and her mother has remarried. Even worse, the khan
has summoned her to the palace to become his concubine. Rather than to suffer this fate,
she commits suicide. But before she dies, she entrusts an errand to her younger sister,
Youlan, which was to deliver a letter from the princess Xianniang's letter to her fiancé
Luo Cheng. This younger sister dresses as a man to make her delivery, but her disguise
is discovered, and it arouses her recipient's amorous attention.
In the novel, Mulan's father was of the ethnically Mongolic Xianbei tribe, while her mother was
Han Chinese from the Central Plain. But "even a half-Chinese woman would prefer death by
her own hand to serving a foreign ruler," as some commentators have explained as this
Mulan character's motive for committing suicide. Modern adaptations
The story of Hua Mulan has inspired a number of screen and stage adaptations in the modern
era, which include: Stage
Mulan Joins the Army starring Mei Lanfang New Tang Dynasty Television's 2006 Chinese
Spectacular featured a stage performance of the story of Mulan.
The Legend of Mulan by the Hong Kong Dance Company
Films Hua Mulan Joins the Army – a Chinese silent
film released by the Tianyi Film Company and directed by Li Pingqian.
Mulan Joins the Army – Mingxing Film Company production, directed by Hou Yao. The film
was unsuccessful, in part due to the Tianyi film that was released the previous year.
Mulan Joins the Army – popular Chinese film made during the war, directed by Bu Wancang.
Lady General Hua Mu-lan – Hong Kong opera film.
Saga of Mulan - Film adaptation of the Chinese opera based on the legend.
Mulan – Disney animated feature based on the legend of Mulan, and the basis of many
derivative works. Disney's version of the Mulan character has subsequently appeared
in other media and promotions. Mulan II – Sequel to Disney's 1998 film.
Mulan: Rise of a Warrior – Live action film about the Chinese Legend.
In Rooster Teeth Productions RWBY, Lie Ren of Team JNPR is a reserved and dutiful warrior
of unspecified Asian origin who is written to be a male version of Hua Mulan.
TV series A Tough Side of a Lady – Hong Kong TVB drama
series of Mulan starring Mariane Chan as Hua Mulan.
Hua Mu Lan – Taiwan CTV period drama serial starring Anita Yuen as Hua Mulan.
Jamie Chung portrays Mulan in the second and third season of the U.S. TV series Once Upon
a Time. Literature
Maxine Hong Kingston re-visited Mulan's tale in her 1975 text, The Woman Warrior. Kingston's
version popularized the story in the West and led to an adaptation by Disney, but contained
many arbitrary changes that have been widely criticized by other Asian-American scholars,
such as Frank Chin. The Legend of Mu Lan: A Heroine of Ancient
China was the first English language picture book featuring the character Mulan published
in the United States in 1992 by Victory Press. In the fantasy/alternate history novel Throne
of Jade, China's aerial corps is described as being composed of all female captains and
their dragons due to the precedent set by the legendary woman warrior.
Cameron Dokey created 'Wild Orchid' in 2009, a retelling of the Ballad of Mulan as part
of the Once Upon A Time series of novels published by Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
In the comic, Deadpool Killustrated, Hua Mulan, along with Natty Bumppo, and Beowulf are brought
together by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to stop Deadpool from killing all beloved
literary characters and destroying the literary universe.
Bibliography Dong, Lan. Mulan's Legend and Legacy in China
and the United States 263 pages; Traces literary and other images of Mulan from premodern China
to contemporary China and the United States. See also
Woman warrior List of women warriors in folklore
Footnotes Explanatory notes
Citations
References
External links Ode to Mulan The original poem in Chinese
and English side-by-side translation. The poem in Chinese calligraphy, simplified
characters, traditional characters, and an English translation
The poem in printed Chinese, with hyperlinks to definitions and etymologies
The female individual and the empire: A historicist approach to Mulan and Kingston's woman warrior
Information on the historical Mu Lan