The Original story of Mulan!

The Legend

There are many versions of the original legend, but they all follow roughly the same story (except for Disney of course).

The story starts when Mulan is washing her clothes in a nearby river, and she hears that the army will recruit one man from each family to go fight in the war. Now, contrary to what most people believe, Mulan already knew how to fight, as China had decided that women should know how to fight as well as the men. So, she cuts her hair short and disguises herself as her father's "son" to go fight in his place in the war.

Mulan fought for roughly ten or twelve years, and gained high merit, even achieving the rank of general, but refused any awards. During the war, she meets an officer called Jin Yong, whom she falls in love with, and upon finding out that she is a woman, he reciprocates the feelings. In time, other soldiers also started to finding out that Mulan was a woman.

The day before a particularly difficult battle, Mulan chose to go out onto the battlefield dressed in women's clothing, to reveal her true identity. The soldiers were so inspired and in awe of grace and wisdom that they won the battle.

After this military success, the emperor wanted to reward Mulan, though surprised to find out that one of his bravest warriors was not a man. She asked only for a horse ride back to her hometown, where she finds out that her father has died while she was at war.

In many versions of the story, Mulan is haunted by her experiences on the battlefield, and her feelings of loneliness and of being misunderstood eventually drove her to committing suicide.

Why this is different from the Disney adaptation

While the Disney adaptation does start off in a similar fashion, it has several key differences. To start off with, Mulan needs to learn how to fight from scratch when she joins the army, and is depicted as rather useless and weak at first, even though she does grow to become an amazing fighter. Not to mention that she is accompanied by a talking dragon throughout the film.

Secondly, when her fellow soldiers find out that she is a woman, she is met with distrust and scorn, instead of awe and admiration, as she was in the original legend.

Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, the ending. The Disney adaptation ends with her happy, about to get married, and her father very much alive. There are no scenes that even hint at her having any kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD for short).

Is Mulan real?

This topic has been debated for centuries. Many people in china do believe that Hua Mulan was, in fact a real person. There is evidence that she was, such as ancient paintings and tapestries depicting her adventures, and ballads about her great deeds. However, most of the world is still skeptical, choosing to believe that she is simply a character of folk lore, created for entertainment.

Modern day Mulan

To this day, Mulan is still a very popular character, and her story is taught in schools across China. She is a symbol of bravery and honour, and is used in many artworks, as well as being the heroine of no less than ten plays and movies. She even has a crater on Venus named after her!

Her story is brought to life every time China needs hope and inspiration, and as long as she keeps being a role model to people, maybe it doesn't matter if she might not be real.