Hua Mulan
Encyclopedia
Hua Mulan is a legend
ary figure from ancient China who was originally described in a Chinese
poem known as the Ballad of Mulan (木蘭辭). In the poem, Hua Mulan takes her aged father's place in the army. She fought for 12 years and gained high merit, but she refused any reward and retired to her hometown instead.
The historical setting of Hua Mulan is uncertain. The earliest accounts of the legend state that she lived during the Northern Wei
dynasty (386–534).
. The original work no longer exists, and the original text of this poem comes from another work known as the Music Bureau
Collection (樂府詩), an anthology of lyrics, songs, and poems, compiled by Guo Maoqian
(郭茂倩) 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 is mostly composed of five-character phrases, with just a few extending to seven or nine.
The story was expanded into a novel during the late Ming Dynasty
(1368–1644). 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
.
" and lán means "orchid"). 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 Huā (花, meaning "flower") has become the most popular in recent years in part because of its more poetic meaning.
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
ary figure from ancient China who was originally described in a Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
poem known as the Ballad of Mulan (木蘭辭). In the poem, Hua Mulan takes her aged father's place in the army. She fought for 12 years and gained high merit, but she refused any reward and retired to her hometown instead.
The historical setting of Hua Mulan is uncertain. The earliest accounts of the legend state that she lived during the Northern Wei
Northern Wei
The Northern Wei Dynasty , also known as the Tuoba Wei , Later Wei , or Yuan Wei , was a dynasty which ruled northern China from 386 to 534 . It has been described as "part of an era of political turbulence and intense social and cultural change"...
dynasty (386–534).
History
The Ballad of Mulan was first transcribed in the Musical Records of Old and New (古今樂錄) in the 6th century, the century before the founding of the Tang DynastyTang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
. The original work no longer exists, and the original text of this poem comes from another work known as the Music Bureau
Music Bureau
Music Bureau , also known as the "Imperial Music Bureau", discontinuously and in various incarnations was an organ of the imperial governmental bureaucracy of several Chinese dynasties...
Collection (樂府詩), an anthology of lyrics, songs, and poems, compiled by Guo Maoqian
Guo Maoqian
Guo Maoqian , also known as Kuo Mao-ch'ien, compiled an important collection of lyrical pieces in his work Anthology of Yuefu Poetry, which contains almost all of the surviving Music Bureau style, or Yuefu from the Han dynasty through the Tang dynasty and to the Five Dynasties, and which includes...
(郭茂倩) 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
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
, meaning that the lines do not necessarily have equal numbers of syllables. The poem is mostly composed of five-character phrases, with just a few extending to seven or nine.
The story was expanded into a novel during the late Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
(1368–1644). 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
Butterfly Lovers
The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai , whose names form the title of the story...
. It is one of the first poems in Chinese history to support the notion of gender equality
Gender equality
Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
.
Name
In Chinese, the compound word mulan (木蘭) refers to the "Magnolia liliiflora" (mù by itself means "woodWood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
" and lán means "orchid"). 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 Huā (花, meaning "flower") has become the most popular in recent years in part because of its more poetic meaning.
Appearance in popular culture
The story of Hua Mulan has inspired a number of film and stage adaptations without taking into account pre-modern Chinese plays and operas about the subject. These include the following:- Hua Mulan Joins the Army (1927 film) – a Chinese silent film released by the Tianyi Film Company and directed by Li Pingqian.
- Mulan Joins the Army (1928 film) – Mingxing Film CompanyMingxing Film CompanyMingxing Film Company was one of the largest Chinese production companies during the 1920s, and 1930s in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The company lasted from 1922 until 1937 when it was closed permanently by the Second Sino-Japanese War.-History:...
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 ArmyMulan Joins the Army (1939 film)Mulan Joins the Army is a 1939 Chinese historical war film. It is one of several film adaptations of the Hua Mulan legend, which have included two silent versions: Hua Mulan Joins the Army by Tianyi Film Company, and a less successful Mulan Joins the Army produced by Minxin...
(1939 film) – popular Chinese film made during the war, directed by Bu WancangBu WancangBu Wancang was a prolific Chinese film director and screenwriter active between the 1920s and the 1960s. He is also known by his Cantonese name, Baak Maan Chong, and his English name, Richard Poh. He was born in Anhui.-Career:...
. - Lady General Hua MulanLady General Hua MulanLady General Hua Mulan is a 1964 Hong Kong Huangmei opera musical film, directed by Yuek Feng, depicting the story of Hua Mulan.- Synopsis :...
(1964 film) – Hong Kong opera film. - A Tough Side of a Lady (1998 film) – Hong Kong TVB drama series of Mulan starring Mariane Chan as Hua Mu Lan.
- Mulan (1998 film) – Disney animated feature based on the Mulan legend. Its sequel, Mulan IIMulan IIMulan II is a 2004 American direct-to-video Disney animated feature directed by Darrell Rooney and Lynne Southerl and is a sequel to the 1998 animated film Mulan. The entire cast from the first film returned, except for Eddie Murphy , Miriam Margolyes , Chris Sanders and Matthew Wilder...
, was released in 2005. - Hua Mu Lan (1999 series) – Taiwan CTV period drama serial starring Anita YuenAnita YuenAnita Yuen Wing-yi is a Hong Kong film and television actress. She was the winner of the 1990 Miss Hong Kong Pageant.-Pageant career:At the age of 18, Yuen entered the Miss Hong Kong 1990 pageant. She was a heavy favorite to win the crown from the semifinal to final. During the semifinals on August...
as Hua Mu Lan. - MulanMulan (2009 film)Mulan, known in Chinese as Hua Mulan, is a 2009 Chinese film starring Zhao Wei as the titular protagonist. The director, Jingle Ma, has explained that this film is vastly different from the 1998 Walt Disney animated film and adheres more to his imagination...
(2009 film) – Live action film about the Chinese Legend. - Maxine Hong KingstonMaxine Hong KingstonMaxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United...
re-visited Mulan's tale in her 1975 text, The Woman WarriorThe Woman WarriorThe Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston, published by Vintage Books in 1975. Although there are many scholarly debates surrounding the official genre classification of the book, it can best be described as a work of creative non-fiction.Throughout...
. 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 ChinFrank ChinFrank Chin is an American author and playwright.- Life and career :Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California, but was raised to the age of six by a retired Vaudeville couple in Placerville, California. At six his mother brought him back to the San Francisco Bay Area to live in Oakland Chinatown...
. - Cameron DokeyCameron DokeyCameron Dokey is an American author. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her three cats and her husband. She has a collection of over 50 old sci-fi and horror films.Cameron was born in the Central Valley of California...
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 & SchusterSimon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
. - 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.
- Hua Mulan Crater on VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
is named after her. - New Tang Dynasty TVNew Tang Dynasty TVNew Tang Dynasty Television is a television broadcaster based in New York City, with correspondents in over 70 cities worldwide. The company was founded by Falun Gong practitioners...
's 2006 Chinese Spectacular featured a stage performance of the story of Mulan. - Kingdom Hearts IIKingdom Hearts IIis an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and published by Buena Vista Games and Square Enix in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console...
, an RPG by Square-Enix and Disney Interactive Studios that features a world based on the Disney film
External links
- Ode to Mulan The original poem in Chinese and English side-by-side translation.
- The poem in Chinese calligraphy (images), 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
- Mulan in Legends
- The Legend of Mu Lan: A Heroine of Ancient China A bilingual Chinese/English picture book of the Mulan legend