Hua Mulan

Hua Mulan, heroine in Chinese legend who—disguised as a man—joined the army in place of her father. After performing great military feats, she was honored by the emperor. Her story is immortalized in the folk song “Mulan Ci” (“The Ballad of Mulan”). Hua is traditionally considered to be her family name, although it does not appear in the original folk song. Hua, in Chinese, means “flower,” while Mulan means “magnolia.”

The earliest surviving version of “The Ballad of Mulan” is found in the Yuefu Shiji (“Music Bureau Poetry Collection”), an anthology compiled by Guo Maoqian in the 11th or 12th century during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 ce). This collection includes Chinese songs from antiquity through the Tang dynasty (618–907 ce). Scholars believe that “The Ballad of Mulan” originated in the 5th or 6th century ce during the northern Wei dynasty (386–535 ce). Although the ballad may have been included in earlier anthologies, these are lost to time. Mulan has long been a popular figure in Chinese folklore, but her legend gained particular prominence in the literature and art of the Ming (1368–1644 ce) and Qing (1644–1912 ce) dynasties. It was later popularized in the West through the animated Disney movie Mulan (1998). Notably, the Hua Mulan crater on Venus is named for her.

Plot summary

The song tells the story of Mulan, a young woman whose father is summoned by the emperor (also referred to in the folk song as the Great Khan and the Son of Heaven) to go to war against nomadic, horse-riding invaders. Recognizing that her father is aging and she has no elder brother who might represent the family, Mulan disguises herself as a man and enlists in her father’s place. She distinguishes herself as a soldier over the course of 10 years in the army and is eventually summoned by the emperor to be rewarded. Mulan asks for no reward other than a swift horse to carry her home. After reuniting with her family, she reveals her true identity to her astonished comrades, who had never guessed that she was a woman throughout their years at war.

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“The Ballad of Mulan”

Historical background and cultural significance

Traditionally, “The Ballad of Mulan” was considered in China to be historical truth. Modern historians note that no surviving evidence supports this. If the song has any historical basis, it is likely that it describes the wars between the northern Wei dynasty and the Rouran (juan-juan). The Wei dynasty was founded by Tabgatch (Tuoba) tribespeople; their language was basically Turkic, and scholars presume that their ancestry can be traced to proto-Turkic, proto-Mongol, or Xiongnu peoples. This is why Mulan refers to the emperor as “Khan.” The northern China of Mulan’s time was not purely a Han Chinese civilization.

The story of Mulan strikes a remarkable balance between upholding the traditional Confucian virtues of filial piety, and simultaneously offering a subtle critique and satire of the patriarchy and hierarchy of traditional Chinese society. While Mulan’s primary motivation is to protect her father, exemplifying filial piety, she also defies her family’s and society’s expectations by impersonating a man to enlist in the army. At the end of the song, she openly critiques her society’s perception of gender roles.

Legacy and adaptations

Mulan is featured in the Wu Shuang Pu (“Table of Peerless Heroes”), a book of woodcut prints created by Jin Guliang during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). This work tells the stories of 40 Chinese heroes and heroines throughout history.

Additional Qing dynasty adaptations of the story include a 16th-century play written by Xu Wei, titled Ci Mulan ti fu cong jun (“The Heroine Mulan Goes to War in Her Father’s Place”), and a 17th-century novel written by Chen Renhuo known as Sui Tang Yanyi (“Romance of Sui and Tang”). Both versions vary significantly from the original folk song. Xu Wei’s emphasizes the practice of footbinding, and Sui Tang Yanyi rewrites Mulan’s story drastically, having her die by suicide to avoid becoming an imperial concubine.

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Film adaptations, such as Mulan Joins the Army (1939), began appearing in the early 20th century. Some of these films emphasized the nationalistic overtones of the story in response to Japan’s occupation of China. In general, retellings of the story tend to emphasize the values of the time period they were created in. The tale gained prominence in American culture through Maxine Hong Kingston’s 1976 memoir The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, which blends nonfiction with folk legends.

The most prominent adaptation of the story is the 1998 Disney animated feature Mulan. The film was followed by a sequel in 2004 as well as a live-action adaptation, also by Disney, in 2020. The live-action film featured an all-Asian cast, a first for Disney. Both Disney adaptations veer significantly from the original poem. For instance, the 1998 adaptation featured Mushu, a talking dragon voiced by Eddie Murphy, while the 2020 adaptation was criticized for historical inconsistencies in its costumes and set pieces.