Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages. Sanping Chen

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      From Mulan to Unicorn

       The Ballad of Mulan

       Anonymous

      Click, click, forever click, click;

      Mulan sits at the door and weaves.

      Listen, and you will not hear the shuttle's sound,

      But only hear a girl's sobs and sighs.

      “Oh tell me, lady, are you thinking of your love,

      Oh tell me, lady, are you longing for your dear?”

      “Oh no, oh no, I am not thinking of my love,

      Oh no, oh no, I am not longing for my dear.

      But last night I read the battle-roll;

      The Qaghan has ordered a great levy of men.

      The battle-roll was written in twelve books,

      And in each book stood my father's name.

      My father's sons are not grown men,

      And of all my brothers, none is older than me.

      Oh let me to the market to buy saddle and horse,

      And ride with the soldiers to take my father's place.”

      In the eastern market she's bought a gallant horse,

      In the western market she's bought saddle and cloth.

      In the southern market she's bought snaffle and reins,

      In the northern market she's bought a tall whip.

      In the morning she stole from her father's and mother's house;

      At night she was camping by the Yellow River's side.

      She could not hear her father and mother calling to her by her name,

      But only the song of the Yellow River as its hurrying waters hissed and swirled through the night.

      At dawn they left the River and went on their way;

      At dusk they came to the Black Water's side.

      She could not hear her father and mother calling to her by her name,

      She could only hear the muffled voices of Scythian horsemen riding on the hills of Yan.

      A thousand leagues she tramped on the errands of war,

      Frontiers and hills she crossed like a bird in flight.

      Through the northern air echoed the watchman's tap;

      The wintry light gleamed on coats of mail.

      The captain had fought a hundred fights, and died;

      The warriors in ten years had won their rest.

      They went home; 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 Qaghan and asked her what she would take.

      “Oh, Mulan asks not to be made

      A Counsellor at the Qaghan's court;

      She only begs for a camel that can march

      A thousand leagues a day,

      To take her back to her home.”

      When her father and mother heard that she had come,

      They went out to the wall and led her back to the house.

      When her little sister heard that she had come,

      She went to the door and rouged her face afresh.

      When her little brother heard that his sister had come,

      He sharpened his knife and darted like a flash

      Toward the pigs and sheep.

      She opened the gate that leads to the eastern tower,

      She sat on her bed that stood in the western tower.

      She cast aside her heavy soldier's cloak,

      And wore again her old-time dress.

      She stood at the window and bound her cloudy hair;

      She went to the mirror and fastened her yellow combs.

      She left the house and met her messmates in the road;

      Her messmates were startled out of their wits.

      They had marched with her for twelve years of war

      And never known that Mulan was a girl!

      For the male hare has a lilting, lolloping gait,

      And the female hare has a wild and roving eye;

      But set them both scampering side by side,

      And who so wise could tell you “This is he”?¹

      On January 23, 1999, the Associated Press reported from Istanbul, in an article titled “Turkey Nationalists Protest ‘Mulan,’” that a Turkish nationalist party wanted to ban the Disney movie Mulan in Turkey, claiming, “This animated film distorts and blackens the history of the Turks by showing the Huns as bad and the Chinese as peace-lovers.”

      As this chapter demonstrates, it is ironic that the very name of the heroine Mulan, much less the cultural background of the legend on which the Disney film was based, was not even Sinitic or Hàn Chinese to start with, but came from a nomadic and Turco-Mongol milieu. Furthermore, as the title of this chapter suggests, the true meaning of the name Mulan may turn out to be very close to that of another popular figure in animated cartoons. These facts are in addition to another, perhaps bigger, irony—namely that the dominating “Chinese” of the Mulan story were none other than the Tuoba, a Turkic group according to some linguists, ancient as well as modern.

       The Name Mulan

      The Mulan story comes almost entirely from a folk ballad, “The Ballad of Mulan,” of unknown origin and time, but generally believed to be of the Tuoba Wei (the Late or Northern Wei, 386–534) era. Parts of the poem, especially the following six lines, show traces of literati refinement of later periods, hence the speculation that the poem may also be from the time of the Tang dynasty (618–907):

      A thousand leagues she tramped on the errands of war,

      Frontiers and hills she crossed like a bird in flight.

      Through the СКАЧАТЬ