How is the story of Mulan different from a legend?
Answers
Answer:
The original Mulan story is quite different from both Disney’s 1998 animated film and the new live-action movie. The earliest printed version of the story still in existence today was first featured in an anthology from the 12th century, known as the Ballad of Mulan. It’s a short poem thought to have originated as a folk tale in the fourth or fifth century because of references to the period, known as the Northern Wei dynasty, which lasted from the fourth through the early sixth centuries.
“Anything not contained in this original poem has been made up by much later authors, and cannot be historically substantiated,” says Sanping Chen, an independent scholar and author of Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages. This original version follows a simplified storyline of the tale many are familiar with (without the talking dragon introduced in the animated film, of course). In the tale, Mulan’s father is called to battle, and she volunteers to go in his place. While the original poem doesn’t describe her father as old or ailing, as later versions did, it says that there were no adult sons in the household to take his place. After 12 years of war, Mulan returns to her hometown along with her comrades, who are shocked to learn that she is a woman..