I felt compelled to tell the story, and to keep the honor of one of the first Chinese heros a girl learns about. This is a story in which every Chinese girl learns. It teaches honor, loyalty bravery, self reflection, personal responsibility, admitting mistakes, and standing for one’s priniciples.
It is shameful that someone who has been taught that morals and ethics come from a book who’s author humans find it impossible to comprehend, nor can they question without suffering grave torture for eternity.
Mike Pence...shame on you. Perhaps you can find a Biblical character that you can politicise.
First, it is not known if Hua Mulan is a real person, but the legend comes from a song of the Wei Dynasty in the 6th century. The music is no longer known, but the poem is found in a collection of poetry from Guo Maoqian, who clearly stated where he got the poem from.
This is a story that almost every Chinese girl knows. It is a story in which a young woman wanted to honor her family, a story of personal self reflection, and a story of putting one’s life on the line to stand for principles that come from humanity.
Although there are variations of this story, the one I heard is authenticated by the revival of the legend in the Ming Dynasty in a two act play in 1593 by Xu Wei called ‘The Female Warrior’. There is another popular version which romanticised the character from a novel of Sui-Tang Romances from the 17th century.
The story is about Hua Mulan, (Magnolia Flower) a young lady out doing the family chores hears the call of the army recruiting soldiers from every home. Knowing that her father Huan Hu was too ill to fight, she ran home, put on his clothes and grabbed his sword, and committed her self to fight for the household as Huan Hu’s ‘son’. She became a great warrior, and strategist and helped the Emperor's army fight hard against the Mongols for 10 to 12 years.
However great she was, what she had to do to win battles weighted heavy on her conscience, and she became weary of war.
There came a time in which the Emperor insisted on lavishing gifts and rank and treasure on her, in which she constantly refused...until one day, to make it clear she didn’t want any of the things the Emperor offered, she disrobed in front of him.
She was sent away, and allowed to disappear into Chinese life.