1.1 The Ballad of Mulan^[13]

A household name in China，a country with 5，000-year-long civilization，Hua Mulan has great influence among generations of people there. The Ballad of Mulan，the first literary record of the girl’s legendary experience，was composed during the Northern Wei Dynasty （386-534AD），which was full of political turbulence and social changes. Co-existing with the Northern Wei Dynasty were the kingdoms established by some national minorities，such as Erzhu，Rouran.^[14] These governments were always at war as a result of territorial disputes. The war mentioned in The Ballad of Mulan referred to the decades-long struggle between two governments，Northern Wei and Rouran. At that time，under the governance of the Tuoba family who was the offspring of the nomadic Xianbei tribe，the residents，even the girls，were good at riding and martial fighting.^[15] They enjoyed more freedom than their counterparts from other dynasties did as the latter should stay at home all day long and avoid any meeting with male strangers，especially adults. However，ordinary women like the heroine Mulan，still could not take part in the political or military affairs as they were traditionally male professions.^[16] Then what should women do？

They were supposed to focus on domestic issues，like doing housework，giving birth to and taking care of children，^[17] and act under the moral rules of “San Cong Si De” （三从四德） （or “Three Obediences and Four Virtues”^[18] in English） in Confucianism which is “the body of ideas and institutions that have shaped Chinese civilization and perpetuate an empire-state for 20 centuries”，^[19] aka，the core of national culture. According to Rodney L. Taylor，Three Obediences originated from the Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial，requesting a woman to be obedient to her father or elder brother before marriage，to her husband after marriage，and to her son if her husband passed away. Four Virtues appeared in the Rites of Zhou，listing four points about which the females should be careful，those are，morality，proper speech，modest manner and diligent needlework.^[20] Blair and McCormack gave a more detailed explanation of this：

Womanly character means not extraordinary talents or intelligence，but modesty，cheerfulness，chastity，constancy，orderliness，blameless conduct and perfect manners. Womanly conversation means not eloquence or brilliant talk，but refined choice of words，never to use coarse or violent language，to know when to speak and when to stop speaking. Womanly appearance means not beauty or prettiness of face，but personal cleanliness and faultlessness in dress and attire. Lastly，womanly work means not any special skill or ability，but assiduous attention to the spinning room，never to waste time in laughing and giggling and work in the kitchen to prepare clean and wholesome food，especially when there are guests in the house.^[21]

Generally，as a girl living in ancient China，she should be obedient in every way to the male elders in the family as an expression of filial piety，including accepting the marriage set by them. She should be good at housework like weaving and embroidering，and always be careful about her words to avoid improper speech. Talent or excellent personal skill was not emphasized. The heroine，Hua Mulan，born and grew up in such a world，was supposed to act like all this，but her following practices of breaking the idée fixe made her stand out from the ordinary and become a legend.

The Ballad began with the heroine weaving at home. However，she was not in the mood for working and sighed time and again，as her ailing father，the only male adult in her family was to be recruited to the army. After thinking twice，she decided to pretend to be a boy and replaced her father to fight for the country. Followed were detailed descriptions of her preparations for war and her homesickness on the way to the battlefield. The latter reflected the girl’s deep-seated passion for her parents and family. Despite being the main background of the story and the fundamental reason of Mulan’s action，war itself was merely depicted in simple and abstract words in the original text，with only six sentences saying that “A thousand leagues she tramps on the errands of war. Frontiers and hills she crosses like a bird in flight. Through the northern air echoes the watchman’s tap；the wintry light gleams on coats of mail. The captain has fought a hundred fights and died；the warriors in ten years have won their rest”.^[22] Lack of any detailed description of the battle or record of the protagonist’s military life unless a brief emphasis on its hardships，The Ballad of Mulan left much space for the later scriptwriter’s wild imagination.

In contrast to this brevity，the author gave a vivid depiction of Mulan going back home after the final victory of the war against the enemy，when she refused the emperor’s offer of a high rank. Much ink was poured on the celebration of her return，as her elder parents went out to meet her by supporting each other with hands，her elder sister was busy decorating herself and her teenage brother was killing livestocks for celebration. Mulan’s dressing back to be a girl was also demonstrated in detail. All this were used to strengthen the happiness of domestic life and the intimacy between her family members，as the main idea of the original text was the assertion of traditional family virtues. Having dressed up，the heroine went out and showed her real gender to her fellow soldiers，which took them by surprise. As for twelve-year fighting together，they did not realize Mulan as a girl. The poem ended with a metaphor，stating that “for the male hare has a lilting，lolloping gait and the female hare has a wild and roving eye；setting them scampering side by side，who so wise could tell you ‘This is he’”.^[23] This was to say that with clever disguise，the protagonist succeeded in concealing her real gender for a long period，just like a female rabbit which could not be easily distinguished from its male partners，a praise for her intelligence.

The overall structure of the ballad suggested that its main focus was the family issue，especially the filial piety that Mulan showed to her father. Filial responsibility，being the core of Confucius values which were the ruling theories in ancient China，asked the children to love and respect their parents and ancestors.^[24] In detail，the offspring should do whatever they can，even to sacrifice their lives，to ensure the happiness of their parents and carry on the honour of their forerunners. This belief was also the fundamental reason that urged Mulan to face all these difficulties caused by cross-dressing. Being a girl who hardly had any chance to go out of family，to disguise as a man for a long time，she had to face many problems，of which the three biggest were the possible punishment （which used to be death penalty） that she would get if her real identity was exposed，the natural disadvantages of women in comparison with men，and the practical living problems，as all her companions in the army would be male. Therefore whatever the reason was for a female to go in disguise，it was supposed to be a very good one. Described in the ballad，filial responsibility was a qualified cause for the girl to die for. On the other hand，the assertion of filial piety in the ballad deprived it of any description of the love story of the heroine，as in ancient China there was a quite controversial idea that a real filial child should accept the match chosen by their parents，instead of finding the proper mate by themselves. Some later filmic adaptations attempted to fill this vacancy under the guidance of their themes，such as showing the heroine finding a husband by herself. It was a clear sign to establish a kind of new social rules on breaking old ones.

Besides，the ballad also spoke highly of Mulan’s patriotism. Different from other concurrent girls who cared more about embroidery over national problems，the heroine was brave enough to take actions and actually fought for the country. Her military experience was described as “the captain has fought a hundred fights and died；the warriors in ten years have won their rest”，^[25] just a rough idea of the hardships of war without certain details，it could still be imagined that she had struggled quite a lot to survive battles over protecting her motherland. Filmic texts focusing on war elements took full advantage of this character of hers.

Thirdly，her cleverness was further reflected in the original text，not only from her successful concealment of her real gender identity for twelve whole years，but from her refusal of the emperor’s rewards and return to hometown. “They saw the Emperor’s face；The Son of Heaven was seated in the Hall of light. To the strong in battle lordships and lands he gave；And of prize money a hundred thousand strings. Then spoke the Kehan and asked her what she would take. ‘Oh，Mulan asks not to be made a counsellor at the Kehan’s court；she only begs for a camel that can match a thousand leagues a day，to take her back to her home.’”^[26] Not lordship，not gold strings，instead of proving herself with the power or money that the emperor offered，she had a clear idea from the very outset that the cross-dressing action was merely to help her father over current difficulties. All her smartness served for her sacrifice for filial and patriot pursuits.

Generally speaking，Mulan is a filial girl who is also brave，clever and patriotic. Her legend can be and has been described from different angles，such as to praise the traditional Chinese virtue of filial piety，to speak highly of her courage of cross-dressing to join the war，to emphasize the personal ability of females by arguing that they are not weaker than the opposite sex，and to assert that Mulan adds some feminine characteristics to the battlefield filled with masculine powers. 398 words in total，^[27] the short but vivid The Ballad of Mulan is like an iceberg which leaves much treasure under water for the following generations of talents to explore.