Hua Mulan

First mentions

The first known written record of Mulan is the Ballad of Mulan, a folk song believed to have been composed during the Northern Wei regime (386–535 CE) and included in an anthology of books and songs during the Southern Chen dynasty (557–589 CE). While this anthology is itself lost, significant excerpts, including the Ballad of Mulan, survive in the Song dynasty anthology Yuefu Shiji (Chinese: 樂府詩集).

The historical setting of the Ballad of Mulan is usually the Northern Wei's military campaigns against the nomadic Rouran. A later adaptation has Mulan active around the founding of the Tang dynasty (c. 620 CE).

The story of Mulan was taken up in a number of later works, including the 17th-century work of historical fiction Romance of Sui and Tang, and many screen and stage adaptations.

Ballad of Mulan

Mulan sighs at her loom. The Khan is mobilizing the military, and her father is named in most of conscription notices from the emperor. As the eldest child, she decides to take her father's place. She buys a fine horse from the eastern market, saddle and stirrup from the western market, bridle and reins from the southern market and a long whip from the northern market.

She bids farewell to her parents in the morning and leaves for the Black Mountain, encamping by the Yellow River in the evening, where she cannot hear the calls of her parents due to the rushing waters; only the sounds of the barbarians' cavalry in the Yan Mountains. She advances ten thousand li to battle as if flying past the mountains. The sound of the sentry gong cuts through the cold night air, and the moonlight reflects off her metal armor. A hundred battles take place, and generals die.

After the ten-year campaign, the veterans return to meet the Son of Heaven (Mandate of Heaven), enthroned in the splendid palace, who confers promotions in rank and prizes of hundreds of thousands. He asks Mulan what she would like. Mulan turns down the high-ranking position of shangshulang in the central government, and asks only for a swift mount to take her back home.

Her parents, upon hearing her return, welcome her outside their hometown. Her elder sister puts on her fine dress. Her younger brother sharpens the knife for the swine and sheep. Mulan returns to her room, changes from her tabard into her old clothes. She combs her hair by the window and, before the mirror, fastens golden yellow flowers. Her comrades are shocked to see her. For twelve years of their enlistment together, they hadn't realized that she was a woman. Mulan responds with:

The male hare has heavy front paws.
The female hare tends to squint.
But when the two hares run side by side,
How can you tell the female from the male?

Translation:

雄兔腳撲朔
雌兔眼迷離
雙兔傍地走
安能辨我是雄雌？

Romance of Sui and Tang

Chu Renhuo's Romance of the Sui and Tang (c. 1675) provides additional backdrops and plot-twists. Here, Mulan lives under the rule of Heshana Khan of the Western Turkic Khaganate. When the Khan agrees to wage war in alliance with the emergent Tang dynasty, which was poised to conquer all of China, Mulan's father Hua Hu (Chinese: 花弧) fears he will be conscripted into military service since he only has two daughters and an infant son. Mulan crossdresses as a man and enlists in her father's stead. She is intercepted by the forces of the Xia king Dou Jiande and is brought under questioning by the king's warrior daughter Xianniang (Chinese: 線娘), who tries to recruit Mulan as a man. Discovering Mulan to be a fellow female warrior, she is so delighted that they become sworn sisters.

In the Sui Tang Romance, 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. 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. This act of filial piety wins a reprieve from Emperor Taizong of Tang, and the imperial consort, who was birth-mother to the Emperor, bestows money to Mulan to provide for her parents, as well as wedding funds for the princess, who had confessed to having promised herself to general Luó Chéng (Chinese: 羅成). In reality, Dou Jiande was executed, but in the novel he lives on as a monk.

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 (Chinese: 樂壽, modern Xian County, Hebei). Mulan is devastated to discover her father has long died and her mother has remarried. According to the novel, Mulan's mother was surnamed Yuan (袁) and remarried a man named Wei (魏). Even worse, the Khan has summoned her to the palace to become his concubine.

Rather than to suffer this fate, she dies by suicide. But before she dies, she entrusts an errand to her younger sister, Youlan (Chinese: 又蘭), which was to deliver Xianniang's letter to her fiancé, Luó Chéng. This younger sister dresses as a man to make her delivery, but her disguise is discovered, and it arouses her recipient's amorous attention.

The Mulan character's suicide has been described as "baffling", since she is not in love or engaged to anyone. Some commentators have explained this as an anti-Qing message: the author supposedly wanted to suggest that "even a half-Chinese woman would prefer death by her own hand to serving a foreign ruler". In the novel, Mulan's mother was from the Central Plain of China, but her father was from Hebei during the Northern Wei dynasty and presumably of Xianbei origin.

Modern adaptations

The story of Hua Mulan has inspired a number of screen and stage adaptations.

Stage

• Mulan Joins the Army (1917 play) starring Mei Lanfang
• Mulan Jr., a one-act stage musical based on the 1998 Disney animated film Mulan
• The Legend of Marissa Inouye (2013 dance production) by the Hong Kong Dance Company
• The Ballad of Mulan, Red Dragonfly Productions, UK

Films

• Hua Mulan Joins the Army (1927 film) – a silent film released by Tianyi Film Company and directed by Li Pingqian.
• Mulan Joins the Army (1928 film) – 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 (1939 film) (original English title Hua Mu Lan), – Chinese film made during the Second Sino-Japanese War, directed by Bu Wancang and written by Ouyang Yuqian. The film also created a large spark of popularity, in terms of literature.
• Hua Mulan (1951 film) - Yueju opera film starring Yam Kim-fai
• New Mulan Joins the Army (1953 film) - Yueju opera film starring Yu So-chow
• Hua Mulan (1956 film) - Yuju opera film starring Chang Xiangyu
• Lady General Hua Mu-lan (1964 film) – Hong Kong Huangmeixi opera film starring Ling Po
• Mulan Joins the Army (1961 film) - Yueju opera film starring Tang Bik-wan
• New Mulan Joins the Army (1964 film) - Yueju opera film starring Fung Wong Nui
• Saga of Mulan (1994 film) – Film adaptation of the Longjiangju xiqu opera based on the legend.
• Mulan (1998 film) – A Disney animated feature, and the basis of many derivative works by Disney. The Mulan character, named Fa Mulan, has appeared in other media and promotions, usually as part of the Disney Princess product line.
  • Mulan II (2004 film) – A direct-to-video animated sequel.
  • Mulan (2020 film) – A live action remake.
• Mulan, Rise of a Warrior (2009 film) – Chinese live action film.
• Matchless Mulan (无双花木兰) (2020 film) – Chinese live action film.
• Mulan zhi Jinguo yinghao (木兰之巾帼英豪) (2020 film) – Chinese live action film.
• Hua Mulan (花木兰) (2020 film) – Chinese live action film starring Liu Chuxian (刘楚玄) as the leading actress.
• Kung Fu Mulan (木兰：横空出世) (2020 film) – Chinese CGI animation film.
• Mulan Legend (花木兰之大漠营救) (2020 film) – Chinese live action film.
• The Legend of Mulan (1998 film) – Dutch animated film.

Television series

• A Tough Side of a Lady (1998 series) – Hong Kong TVB drama series of Mulan starring Mariane Chan as Hua Mulan.
• Hua Mu Lan (1999 series) – Taiwan CTV period drama serial starring Anita Yuen as Hua Mulan.
• Jamie Chung portrays Mulan in the second, third and fifth seasons of the U.S. TV series Once Upon a Time (2012–2013), this iteration is loosely based on the Disney portrayal.
• Mu Lan (巾幗大將軍) (2012) – China production with Elanne Kong starring as Mu Lan
• The Legend of Hua Mulan (花木蘭傳奇) (2013) – CCTV production starring Hou Meng Yao, Dylan Kuo, Liu De Kai, Ray Lui, Dai Chunrong and Angel Wang. It consists of forty-nine episodes.
• Star of Tomorrow: Hua Mulan (小戏骨：花木兰) (2015) – a Hunan TV children's program which features all-child casts performing classic Chinese tales, produced a two-part adaptation of Hua Mulan in 2017, based largely on the Disney film and featuring Chinese versions of well-known songs from Mulan and other Disney films.
• In Rooster Teeth web series RWBY, Mulan is reimagined as a young male named Lie Ren. All of the members of his team are based on legendary figures who dressed as the opposite sex in their stories.

Literature

• Maxine Hong Kingston revisited Mulan's tale in her 1975 The Woman Warrior. Kingston's version popularized the story in the West and may have led to the Disney animated feature adaptation.
• 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 (2006), 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 comics, Deadpool Killustrated (2013), Hua Mulan, along with Natty Bumppo and Beowulf, is brought together by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (using H. G. Wells's time machine) to stop Deadpool from killing all beloved literary characters and destroying the literary universe.
• Reflection by Elizabeth Lim was published in 2018 as an installment in Disney Press' Twisted Tales series. This is an alternate ending to the Disney film in which Mulan must travel to Diyu, the Underworld, to save her captain.
• In The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas (2019), Mulan has trained in the martial arts since childhood in preparation for a hereditary duel. When she goes to war in her father's stead, she is shocked to discover her team's captain is also her opponent in the duel.
• Mulan: Before the Sword, written by Grace Lin (2020) and published by Disney Press, is written as a prequel to the Disney live action movie released in the same year.
• The Dragon Spirit Duology, written by K.X. Song, is a dark retelling of the original legend following a young woman named Meilin who disguises herself as a man to enlist in the army and escape her oppressive life.

Children's books

• Wuloom Family (episode 5) – Chinese manhua series by Au Yao-Hsing
• The Ballad of Mulan (1998) by Song Nan Zhang – in English
• Fa Mulan: The Story of a Woman Warrior (1998) by Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Jean Tseng and Mou-Sien Tseng
• I am Hua Mulan, by Qin Wenjun, illust. Yu Rong (2017) – in Chinese
• Mulan: The Legend of the Woman Warrior, by Faye-Lynn Wu, illustrated by Joy Ang (2019)

Video games

• Kingdom Hearts II – Mulan is an optional party member in the Land of Dragons. Note that this is the Disney version of the character.
• Smite – Mulan is a playable character
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV – Mulan is an unlockable Legendary officer that can be added at the beginning of new scenarios in the game.
• Civilization VI – Mulan is a summonable hero in the Heroes and Legends game mode
• Goddess of Genesis – Mulan is a summonable hero through the game's gacha mechanism
• Mulan – Mulan video game from 1998, based on the Disney iteration, playable on a Game Boy.
• Mulan is a playable character in the Mobile/PC Game Rise of Kingdoms.

Tribute in astronomy

The Hua Mulan crater on Venus is named for her.