was preserved, expanded, and elaborated upon into the twentieth century.
It has also jumped cultures into popular modern Western entertainment,
demonstrating both itsflexibility as a tale and its enduring attraction.
The continued resonance of the character of Mulan cannot be separated
from her mixture offilial regard for her father coupled with her martial
service in the army. She becomes a veteran soldier who turns down an
official post after ten years of campaigning. Her story assumes not only
that an adult male was subject to military service but also that a woman
was perfectly capable of performing that service. Women were not subject
to military service because they were women, not because they were
incapable of the martial arts required of a soldier. Also, it is clear that the
Mulan of the original poem is not Chinese, based upon her purchase of a
horse and horse accoutrement to go to war (serving in the cavalry being
characteristic of steppe culture, or at least indicative of being part of a
Chinese family who practiced steppe culture), and that the ruler she serves
is not a Chinese ruler. Yet the poem was written in Literary Chinese and
emphasizes the critical Chinese value offilial piety.
Mulan does not lay claim to particular martial arts skill, though she
successfully performs her duties over a decade of service. Setting aside the
conceit of her sex remaining disguised for so long and in such close
quarters with men, we see an idea of army life that valorizes extended
military service and martial service to the ruler. Yet her disguised sex and
subsequent offer of a government post argue that she was not, in fact, a
common soldier, but rather a higher-ranking member of a steppe com-
munity living in China. This would also explain her knowledge of martial
arts, something unmentioned in the poem but virtually assumed by her
ability to serve in her father’s place. Among many steppe groups, women
learned and practiced the skills of riding and shooting. The ballad was
written in Chinese to satisfy an ethnically hybrid ruling class who func-
tioned in both steppe and Chinese culture.
The ballad itself is worth recounting (in part):
...
Last night I saw the draft list–
The Khan’s mustering a great army;
The armies’rosters ran many rolls,
Roll after roll held my father’s name!
And Father has no grown-up son,
And I’ve no elder brother!
So I offered to buy a saddle and horse
And campaign from now on for Father.Mulan 87