Mulan in oral tradition in Huangpi. Beyond my expectation, the work went very well. The villagers were very kind and friendly to me. The first informant, 柳云林 (Liu Yunlin), had no hesitation in telling what he knew to me, and neither did most of the villagers. Only a few declined my request because of lack of time or knowledge of Mulan. Sometimes, an ongoing interview in the living room or in the front of the house attracted an audience, or even motivated another person to narrate. 雷用寿 (Lei Yongshou) came close and joined in the interview with 罗登凤 (Luo Dengfeng), admitting that he knew something about Mulan. I was surprised that he sought me out and told me he had forgotten something when I was walking in the village on the second day after my interview with him. He had recalled something that night and decided to tell me. 陈银春 (Chen Yinchun), though she did not tell much, went home to ask her husband 陈克念 (Chen Kenian) if he knew and then led me to their house. Chen Kenian, an old man of seventy-five walking with a cane, insisted on leading me to the tomb, interpreting its feng-shui, and telling details about the tomb. I was worrying about him and tried to stop him climbing the tomb, but he persisted. Other tellers welcomed me to their house, asked me to sit down, gave me a cup of tea, and were pleased to tell what they knew. A few hesitated to tell something to me because they thought it was impolite or improper to tell things to an unmarried woman, such as how Mulan was slandered for allegedly losing her chastity.
Their attitudes towards the reality of Mulan ranged from believing to unbelieving.
雷道平 (Lei Daoping), 刘金华 (Liu Jinhua), and 雷用寿 (Lei Yongshou) were on
General Mulan was real and that was proved by the poem from 武则天 (Wu Zetian) (624-705 AD), the only empress in Chinese history, as well as the recognition by the national government regardless of the competition among the various towns which claimed Mulan.
Lei Shaoyun: General Mulan was from Dacheng Tan—her hometown, and had the surname Zhu. It is six km from here. Dacheng Tan, right on the north. Jing: Which Dynasty?
Lei Shaoyun: Tang! According to Ballad of Mulan, she was living in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, earlier than Tang Dynasty. Did you read Ballad of Mulan? Actually, she was in Tang Dynasty, in the years of Emperor Taizong—Li Shimin. Wu Zetian, the first emperor of China, wrote a poem for Mulan. It had been proved. Some places did not recognize Mulan from here, didn’t they? Some said she was from 安徽 (Anhui). After the liberation, the local old men contributed materials to the competition. Competition for General Mulan[‘s hometown]. It was real that Mulan was identified and proved by the nation. That Hua Mulan was from Bo County of Anhui. Their General Mulan had the surname Hua, not Zhu. Our Huangpi argued with Anhui. It was real after proof. It meant that General Mulan here was real, and all others are not.
Jing: How did you know that?
Lei Shaoyun: I read the documents. General Mulan here is real, and had the surname Zhu. (April 2nd, 2010, interview in his house)
The two pieces of evidence were not reasonable at all, but he believed them without any doubt. The poem by 武则天 (Wu Zetian) is available in Mulan Zhuan, which could be the source of his telling. He could not point out the document, he simply emphasized the “proof” presented by the national government, so I speculated that he learned the arguments and the propaganda of Huangpi as one hometown of Mulan from the mass media or publications. He was proud of his knowledge about the old tradition and information from the mass media.
real and historical, despite the supernatural motifs in the legends, such as the blood flowing backwards and the fight with the goblin fox. However, they did not identify those aspects as unbelievable. Lei emphasized that “the reality of General Mulan should be examined and identified by the nation….They were real person and real story. General Mulan was from Zhu family of Dacheng Tan. I’m sure” (April 21st, 2010, interview in Liu Jinhua’s house).
Besides those from the older generations, many tellers identified the existence of General Temple, the tomb and everything in and around the temple, as well as the series of place names as evidence. 刘金华 (Liu Jinhua) interrupted when 雷道平 (Lei Daoping) did not tell where the real tomb was, “The real tomb, and all the history were here. 搭命塘 (Daming tang, Losing-life Pond), and General Temple do stand here. What he told is real. I heard them from the old. A few generations told like that. Furthermore, everything about Mulan was recorded in the temple, and the statue was there before. All of them were dismantled.” He also took the visible relics as evidence and explained, “I believed those I could see by myself; and suspected those I
couldn’t” (April 16th, 2010).
Three tellers expressed explicitly their suspicion of the reality of Mulan and her legends. 徐占魁 (Xu Zhankui), an old man spent his whole life in his home village and on Mulan Mount, said, “those stories about Mulan were hearsays, not real history.” In his view, the history of Mulan, written by a official in the Qing Dynasty (1616-1912 AD), could not be proved, and “was hearsay, disseminated among the folks, and was not recorded in books” because “it happened a thousand years ago.” He
differentiated clearly between history and legend, arguing that one is real but the other is not. He even identified the death of Mulan as a myth, which meant “fabricated stories” (May 19th, 2010, interview in his house). I spent a few hours with him and his wife talking, picking vegetables in their garden, washing them, preparing and enjoying lunch. He was very pleased and proud to recall his adolescent and working years on Mulan Mount, his master 万昭虚 (Wan Zhaoxu), and his knowledge about Mulan Mount. However, he did not talk much about Mulan and her legend.
Two brothers, 雷建怀 (Lei Jianhuai) and 建国 (Jianguo) emphasized that Mulan legends were “legends” and explained how the legends emerged:
What I only remember is the temple. In terms of General Mulan, I couldn’t [agree] one. They were legends, and did not take place in modern times. No one knew them. So I couldn’t tell. Some told like this, and some told like that. Many people did not know many legends about General Mulan. She didn’t contribute much to this place. The people around here didn’t know her contributions. They only heard of General Mulan, but did not see her. Her going to the army in the place of her father was recorded in books.…In this place, even the old heard of them from others, told like others. The old heard from those elder than them. For instance, we were talking here, and the youth heard, talk about them and then handed them down. That’s the case. General Mulan had legends and stories. However, no one saw, no one saw her. (April 18th, 2010, interview in Yinjiachong Village)
The three unbelievers had the same reason: legends about Mulan were disseminated among the folk through oration, and could not be proved, from any written record.
A few tellers did not deny the existence and the reality of Mulan, and emphasized that some legends about Mulan were history, though some were fabricated. 徐治魁 (Xu Zhikui) believed that General Mulan was a lady from the Zhu family of Dacheng Tan in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), and had been buried at General Temple.
However the accounts of her death, the origin of One-li River, and the story of selling 无心菜 (Wuxin cai; Vegetable without Heart) were “folk legends,” and “fabricated stories,” which means he thought them unbelievable.
Some tellers could be located in the middle of the spectrum. They did not express their attitudes explicitly, just told me that they were handed down from old
generations, everyone was talking like that, and it could not be clarified. 张辉魁 (Zhang Huikui) explained, “How to make them clear? Lady, the folks are talking about those things unseriously. Spread like that. How to clarify those things that happened in the Tang dynasty” (Zhang Huikui, May 25th, interview in his living room in Xianhedian Village)?
徐占魁 (Xu Zhankui) said: “it is difficult to tell whether General Mulan was real or not, because there was too long a history” (May 19th, 2010, interview in his
house) . On the one side they respected the legends from old generations, and held by the community; on the other side, they could not believe all of them. Some tellers differentiated the believable from the unbelievable, but some did not. They just told the narratives as the old generation did before.
Around General Temple, the natives called Mulan “General Mulan” with great respect. In the local repertoire of legends about her, the death of Mulan is the most often repeated one, with many details; it is the most vivid part and the focus of the repertoire. Except in 张保华 (Zhang Baohua)’s and 徐占魁 (Xu Zhankui)’s repertoires, Mulan made a bet with her sister-in-law. She cut open her belly to prove that she had no baby. Sometimes two motifs were added: placing a red cloth under a
stone to be an indicator of chastity, and how the sister-in-law played a trick to make Mulan’s cloth fade. They are popular motifs in Chinese legends. That Mulan’s
sister-in-law was beheaded is supposed to be believable among the people around the General Temple because 柳云林 (Liu Yunlin) and 雷绍仁 (Lei Shaoren) mentioned that they saw a statue of a warrior with a woman’s head in his hand beside the statue of Mulan in the temple (Liu Yunlin, March 19th, 2010; Lei Shaoren, April 2nd, 2010). During my fieldwork I only heard this idea around General Temple. Mulan’s chastity and heroism are the focus of this legend in which a maiden proves her virginity at the cost of her life. In ancient China, the chastity of unmarried and married women was considered a serious concern for them and for their families. If a woman lost her chastity, her family, the village, and even the clan would lose their reputations, and the woman would be punished, or even killed. Mulan had to deal with slander about her chastity through a tragic and cruel way—cutting open her belly to see if she had a baby because she had gained some weight after her twelve-year service in the army. She had no other choice when her red cloth appeared worn out or faded because of her sister-in-law’s trickery. Her blood dyed the river red and flew backwards, motifs which were told with vivid details though they were part of unbelievable “myths” and “legends.” Such supernatural plots and episodes represented Mulan’s chastity. Her sister-in-law lost the bet, was killed, and her head was removed. Such an end expressed sympathy with Mulan and the hatred of slander.
These most frequently repeated legends identified 节烈 (chastity and heroism) as the focus of the repertoire of the tellers around General Temple, even though most
of them did not speak out. Only Lei Daoping could recall the popular four virtues of Mulan—忠孝勇节 (loyal, filial, brave and chaste) and explained them briefly one by one. Lei Shaoren remembered them with a difference—忠孝节烈 (loyal, filial, chaste and heroic), but he could not explain their exact meanings.
Loyalty and filial piety were not emphasized in the repertoire, but contributions to the nation were highly praised. 雷用寿 (Lei Yongshou) declared:
[She] made achievements for the nation. [Her legends were] handed down from one generation to another. The old people fired money paper to her on the
Brightness Festival in memory of her. So many years, [her legends were] handed down from generation to generation, not to forget her….[She]
contributed to the nation. [She] made efforts to guard the nation, contributed her blood and sweat, and even sacrificed her own life. (April 16th, 2010, interview in his house)
The Brokers
A few tellers, 张保华 (Zhang Baohua), 徐占魁 (Xu Zhankui) and 徐治魁 (Xu Zhikui), could be viewed as the brokers between the native group around the General Temple and Mulan Mount. All of them were men who were born in villages around Mulan Mount, had stayed on the Mount for a very long time, had learned legends from the Taoists there and then resided in the villages around the General Temple.
Unlike the common tellers in the villages around the General Temple, 张保华 (Zhang Baohua) and 徐占魁 (Xu Zhankui) could describe Mulan’s family members with particular details. 张保华 (Zhang Baohua) admitted that “the history” of Mulan was recorded clearly in an old book:
Mulan Mount was named as Qingshi Mount before and there were no people living on it. Zhu Tianlu had no son so he went to Qisi Peak to pray for one. Finally he got a daughter. Zhu Tianlu was a general in the royal court before and returned home when he was very old. He was recruited when a war broke out. He was anxious about it. Mulan saw it and decided to go the army. Taoist Tieguan gave her three embroidery bags. One goblin on Mulan Mount—Hu Bing-chi went to the battlefield, too. He hanged Mulan’s parents on the wall to force Mulan to surrender. Mulan won with the help of one embroidery bag and found that her parents were transformed by goblins. Later, Hu wanted to flirt with Mulan in an inn. Mulan used one embroidery bag to beat him and removed his one leg. Goblin Dushou!14 A female general in the enemy—Hua Azhen—fell in love with Mulan
and joined Mulan’s army. Mulan told her the truth in the wedding room and they swore to be sisters. Zhu Mulan changed her name to Hua Mulan. They returned home.
Mulan went to Mulan Mount to see her master and met Hu Bingchi. She burned the third embroidery bag and the master came. Hu was crushed under Qipan Stone.
The emperor asked “Who will take my throne” and a minister told him that a man with surname 武 (Wu) would. He killed all people with the surname Wu. He (the emperor) asked it again and the minister answered the same. The emperor thought about Mulan who was titled as MarquisWu. Mulan had no way to escape, and cut open her breast in Yili River beside Xianhe Dian. Her heart was carried to the royal court in a box and was still red. Finally, it was Wu Zetian who wanted to take over the throne. However, the royal court recorded Hua Mulan, not Zhu Mulan. (April 16th, 2010, interview in his house)
His repertoire was very similar to that of the Taoists on Mulan Mount, who
heightened the connection between Mulan and Taoism. It is likely that the source of his repertoire was the book which was supposed to be 木兰传 (Mulan Zhuan, the
Romance of Mulan). Although he has lived in the village more than forty years, it
seemed that his repertoire had not been learned from those around the General Temple. The differences between some legend patterns in the two locations are very obvious, particularly in their accounts of the death of Mulan. His telling of the Mulan legend
14 In other versions, this episode took place when she was learning martial arts on Mulan Mount before
was very complete and fluent, without any hesitancy, which is a characteristic of those telling directly from written tradition. He emphasized that what he told was from an old book which had about forty chapters but he could only remember twenty-four. I tried to find out why he had read such an old book and which one it was. He did not want to continue and declined another interview and then left. His wife took over the interview and talked much more about him.
张保华 (Zhang Baohua), born in Zhangjiachong village under the west foot of Mulan Mount in 1942, was brought to Taoist Wan’s 玉皇阁 (Yuhuang ge; the Jade Emperor Pavilion) to become an apprentice because of his extreme poverty when he was young. He grew up, read books and helped to take care of the temple until 1966 when all religious affairs were stopped and all the Taoists and monks were forced to leave. Zhang resumed a secular life and chose to join a family in Xiaojiatian Village that had only two girls, and he married the older one. His wife, who did not want to tell me her name, was very proud of her husband’s life with Taoist Wan, his
comprehensive reading, as well as his abundant knowledge about Mulan and Mulan Mount.
The respect for old books and his adherence to tradition made him clearly differentiate those stories that were traditional and those that were new, and Baohua kept those new stories out of his repertoire. He did know the legend in which others blamed Mulan for lost chastity, and had seen a TV show in which Mulan got married and even had a son, but he strongly expressed his dissatisfaction with these frivolous rewritings about Mulan’s love stories and marriage that he did not hear before, not
only in a TV series about Mulan but also in other TV series based on folk legends and tales.
Before the telling of the legend, he emphasized that his telling was from an old Taoist who had lived before New China, though he had read three other new
publications in recent years, including Wang Hanqing’s book. Besides the Taoist, he said that a book 木兰传 (Mulan Zhuan), abbreviated as “Zhuan,” was written by an official in Huangpi in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), and was lost during the Cultural Revolution. He told a version that he could remember clearly:
General Mulan’s father was 朱天禄 ( Zhu Tianl) and her grandfather was 朱若 虚 (Zhu Ruoxu). 朱天禄 ( Zhu Tianl) was a 千户 (Qianhu, an officer in local government) and 朱若虚 (Zhu Ruoxu) was a great general before. They were landlords in Shuanglong Town where was a busy market with convenient traffic. Mulan had two masters—Taoist Teiguan and Monk Sangwu who was Wu Yunzhao, a general before. She declined the emperor’s rewards and asked to return home after twelve-year service. The emperor entitled her as “Princess of 武 昭” (Wuzhao). The emperor was worried about who would take over his country and a minister reminded him of a personage with the surname of Wu (武). Almost all with the surname Wu were killed, but the minister told the emperor that that