Hua Mulan is a legendary female warrior from the Northern and Southern Dynasty period of Chinese history. The name and tale of Hua Mulan are famous in the west because of the Disney movie Mulan; however, the tale has been changed and twisted throughout time. The beginning of the tale of Mulan goes back to the “Ballad of Mulan.” “The Ballad of Mulan” was transcribed in the Musical Records of Old and New in the 6th century, but the text version is found in the 11th or 12th century of the Music Bureau Collection. Guo Maoqian helped put the “Ballad of Mulan” in the Music Bureau Collection which contains literature from the Han dynasty (206 – 220 CE) throughout the Tang dynasty (618 – 907 CE) to the Five Dynasties (907 – 979 CE). The “Ballad of Mulan” is dated around the northeastern conflicts of the Northern Wei period (386 – 533 CE). The “Song of Mulan” is dated 755 – 779 CE during the Tang Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644 CE), the playwright Xu Wei created the play “The Female Mulan Goes to War in Her Father’s Place.” Later Hua Mulan was made into a character in the Sui-Tang Romance called the Historical Romance of the Sui and Tang. In 1903 a Perking opera script was published called Mu Lan Joins the Army. In 1939 film Mulan Joins the Army was produced in China during the Japanese occupation of China.

“Depending on the time, region and genre in which the version was created, each is unique and brings its own perspective and meaning to the story.” The story of Mulan takes on different emphases depending on the time period and the author. Honour, family, courage, nationalism, and self-sacrifice are the worldviews that are pushed throughout every story in which Hua Mulan appears. These worldviews are derived from Confucianism and Taoism. In the early stories, the emphasis is on honour and family with Mulan taking her father’s place than slipping back into her role as a demure girl in her family. In later tales, the emphasis is on nationalism; if a girl can go to war, than any man can and should go to war for his country. One of the 16th-century plays of Mulan was not concerned with giving the audience a moral but entertainment. In Xu Wei adaptation, Mulan is driven to commit suicide to express her pureness; “Mulan has to go to the extremes of suicide to make her mark in history.” In the 1917 interpretation, Mulan Joins the Army “the patriotic Mulan [is] over the virtuous and filial Mulan.” When reading the different versions of Mulan, one can see the author’s purpose for the story with what is emphasized within the story. The different dynasties of China and Chinese cultural had reason to use Mulan with different emphasis.


The people involved in the creation of Mulan vary. Hua Mulan’s surname sometimes changes into Zhu or another surname. Knowing who the authors of Mulan are is imperative because then the reader knows that what and why is being emphasized in Mulan; is it virtue or patriotism, does Mulan go back to her role of a demure daughter, commit suicide or take on a different role as she is welcomed back into her family. When Mulan’s thinking is changed in the versions that make a difference in her actions and the overall portrayal of the story. The purpose of the Mulan varies depending on the author. The lessons morph to what the time-period needed it to be. In modern-day Disney Mulan, Mulan is trying to be true to herself in the face of her culture, which is almost the total opposite of the Chinese Mulan was trying to portray. Chinese Mulan wanted to do what was best for her country and family; her parents had not many objections when she volunteers to take her father’s place. The conclusion of the far-east versions of Mulan is family before self, nation before self, and honour before all else. The western version is more lighthearted than all else. “Mulan is ultimately not a role model to women, who are expected to stay at home to serve the family as her sister does, but a role model to men.” Mulan is a role model to Chinese men; realistically, most Chinese women could never hope to do what Mulan did. Mulan has been transformed in the hands of writers and directors, that she has transformed.
“Committing acts of daring beyond the abilities of men, morally or martially, should not be immediately interpreted as evidence of a willingness to valorize women over men … Mulan’s moral superiority may just be another way of arguing for the necessity of keeping her contained within the safe and protected confines of the domestic sphere. Through the interpretations and variations of the legend of Mulan may differ, Mulan herself endures: she is, after all, no stranger to change.”
Mulan shows how Chinese culture changes throughout time and how women and men are perceived throughout time.

I appreciated Mulan: Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend with Related Texts. I was interested in reading this book after listening to the History Chicks “Mulan” podcast and doing more research on the live-action Mulan Disney movie that is supposed to come out soon. I did not realize how butchered the Western version of the Disney Mulan was, and how the Chinese people did not like that version at all. My interest helped propel me to pick Mulan: Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend with Related Texts up. I loved it the translators do a great job with relating the text and putting it into history. If you are interested in Chinese history and culture, then you should read Mulan: Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend with Related Texts. The different versions of Mulan are entertaining and humorous, and the commentary on the different stories add a new depth to the stories itself.