Mulan is a fictional folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era of Chinese history. According to the legend, Mulan takes her aged father’s place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as a man. In Chinese, her given name literally means’magnolia’ and her family name is ‘Zhu’ or ‘Wei’
About Hua Mulan in brief
Mulan is a fictional folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era of Chinese history. According to the legend, Mulan takes her aged father’s place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as a man. She retires to her hometown, where she is reunited with her family and reveals her sex, much to the astonishment of her comrades. The Ballad of Mulan was first transcribed in the Musical Records of Old and New, a compilation of books and songs by the monk Zhijiang in the Southern Chen dynasty in the 6th century. The story of Hua Mulan has been taken up in a number of later works, including the 16th-century historical fiction Romance of Sui and Tang , and many screen and stage adaptations. In Chinese, her given name literally means’magnolia’ and her family name is ‘Zhu’ or ‘Wei’ The story is commonly attributed to the Northern Wei dynasty due to geographic and cultural references in the ballad.
The Northern Wei was founded by the Tuoba clan of ethnic Xianbei who united northern China in the 4th century and became partially sinified as they ruled and settled the northern steppes. The Chinese dynasty took on their own surname and moved the capital from Pingcheng, modern day Shanxi Province, to modern day Datong, Luoyang Province, south of the Yellow River, in the Central Plain, the heart of China. Mulan may have been the sinified version of the Xian bei word, ‘umran’, which means prosperous. There is still a debate whether Mulan is an historical person or just a legend, as her name does not appear in Exemplary Women.
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This page is based on the article Hua Mulan published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
