Hua Mulan

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This article is about a person named Hua Mulan who might be historical or fictional. See "Mulan" for the Disney film based on this person.

Oil painting on silk, "Hua Mulan Goes to War"

Hua Mulan (Traditional Chinese: 花木蘭; Simplified Chinese: 花木兰; pinyin: Huā Mùlán) is the heroine who joined an all-male army described in a famous Chinese poem known as the Ballad of Mulan. The poem was first written in the Musical Records of Old and New from the 6th century; the work is no longer extant, and the existent 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 12th century. The author explicitly mentions the Musical Records of Old and New as his source for the poem. Whether she was a historical person or whether the poem was an allegory has been debated through centuries. It might have simply been a peasant's yarn. One thing for certain is that her original identity is lost forever.

1 Overview
2 Name
3 English language literature
4 Miscellaneous
5 Footnotes
6 External links

[edit] Overview

In the story, Mulan disguised herself as a man to take her elderly father's place in the army. She [cross]dressed as a man and disguised herself as a soldier. She was later offered a government post by the emperor himself after her service was up. However, unwilling to commit anymore to the forces, she turned down the position so to return to her family immediately. Her former colleagues visited her at home, they were shocked to see her dressed as a woman. The poem ends with the image of a female hare (Mulan) and a male hare (her comrades) running side by side, and the narrator asking how anyone could tell them apart.

The time setting of the story is uncertain. The earliest accounts of the legend state that she lived during the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534). However another version reports that Mulan was requested as a concubine by Emperor Yang of Sui China (reigned 604–617). Evidence from the extant poem suggests the earlier interpretation. The Emperor ("Son of Heaven") is also referred to as a "Khan" (可汗), which was a title used by rulers descending from the Altaic Xianbei nation in ancient China. The rulers of the Northern Wei were of the Xianbei ethnicity. Alternatively, the reference to the Khan may reflect the date of the poem, rather than the date at which the story is set.

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.

There are three uses of onomatopoeia in the poem. The sound of Mulan's weaving (or her lamentations) is 唧唧 jǐ-jǐ (i.e. "click-clack"); the Yellow River babbles 濺濺 jiàn-jiàn (i.e. "splish-splash") to her as she departs from it; at the military encampment the horses cry 啾啾 jiū-jiū (i.e. they whinny).

The story was expanded into a novel during the late Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). On June 5, 1998, Disney released an animated movie entitled Mulan loosely based on the story. In 2005-2006, the movie was replicated as a playable world in Kingdom Hearts II.

[edit] Name

The word "mulan" refers to the "Magnolia liliiflora". ("Mu" by itself means "wood" and "Lan" means "orchid".) The heroine of the poem is given many different family names in the various 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 Ballad of Mulan doesn't gives her family name. The Ming scholar Xu Wei offers yet another alternative when, in his play, he gives her the family name Hua (meaning "flower"). This latter name has become the most popular in recent years. Her complete name is then "花木蘭", transcribed as Huā Mùlán in Pinyin and Hua¹ Mu⁴-lan² in Wade-Giles.

The Disney cartoon film popularised the version "Fa Mulan". This "Fa" pronunciation of "花" is to be found in various Chinese dialects, including Cantonese, while "Mulan" is the transcription from Mandarin. Mulan was from a village on the banks of the Yellow River in Henan, where Mandarin dialects are now spoken; however Middle Chinese dialects were different from those today. The Mandarin transcription of her surname, "Hua", is closer to the Middle Chinese pronunciation than Cantonese;^[1] while the Cantonese transcription of "木蘭" (Muk⁶-laan⁴ IPA: [mukla:n]) is closer to the Middle Chinese pronunciation than the Mandarin. ^[2] Thus, had the two been reversed, with Mandarin for the surname and Cantonese for the given name, the result, something akin to "Hua Muklan", would have been closer to Middle Chinese pronunciation.

[edit] English language literature

Maxine Hong Kingston re-visits Mulan's tale in her text, The Woman Warrior.

Yao Mulan, Lin Yutang's main character in his English novel Moment in Peking, is named after the legendary warrior.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Hua Mulan crater on Venus is named after her.

A character inspired by Hua Mulan is the mascot of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2007 in China.

[edit] Footnotes

^ The character 花 is given with the initial 曉 in Middle Chinese rimebooks; linguistics reconstruct this as /x/ or /h/, as is the case in Mandarin. /f/ in Cantonese is a later development due to labialization. Note that both Mandarin and Cantonese have more or less preserved the Middle Chinese rime of 花, which was given as 麻合口, generally reconstructed as a low vowel like /a/ preceded by labialization.
^ The character 木 is given with the rime 屋 in Middle Chinese rimebooks; linguistics reconstruct this as ending in /k/, akin to /uk/, as is the case in Cantonese. /u/ in Mandarin is a later development after /k/ dropped out. Note that both Mandarin and Cantonese have preserved the Middle Chinese rime of 木, which was given as 明, generally reconstructed as /m/. Also, 蘭 in Middle Chinese is given with the initial 來, probably /l/, and the final 寒, probably a low vowel followed by /n/; this is similar to both Mandarin /lan/ and Cantonese /la:n/.