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So while we don’t know for sure if Mulan was arranged to be married with a matchmaker like the movie shows, it’s very likely to have happened. We do know that arranged marriages began as a custom in China somewhere between the year 400 and 200 BC. That would, of course, cast even further historical doubt on the plot in the film.īack in the movie, another major plot point comes into play with Fa Mulan being set up for marriage.
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So it’s very possible the Huns weren’t even around during the time of Mulan. It didn’t take long after his death for the Huns to break apart-their raiding of various civilizations came back to bite them when they couldn’t withhold peace within their own ranks. This is important to the story of Mulan, though, because after Attila died, his sons quarreled over the Hunnish empire. Although, since we can’t really prove Mulan’s timetable one way or another, there’s always the possibility these two legends of history were alive at the same time. That’s at least a couple decades before Mulan was supposedly alive. Even though we’re not entirely sure when Mulan actually lived, we know Attila was most likely born around 406 and he died on his one of his wedding nights in the year 453. While this story isn’t about Attila, it’s worth pointing out that Attila most likely wasn’t alive during Mulan’s lifetime. If you’ve heard of the Huns, it’s probably because of their most famous leader, Attila the Hun. This let them do things other cavalry couldn’t do, most notably striking with a quick succession of arrows that had deadly accuracy. Using stirrups, Huns mounted on horseback could stabilize themselves much better than other cavalry at the time. They were able to roam so far and be successful in their raids thanks to a technology that no one else had at the time-stirrups. Throughout history, we have evidence to suggest Huns would raid India and Persia, that’s modern-day Iran, and even as far west as Germany and France in Europe. But they weren’t the only civilizations to be raided by the Huns, perhaps just the most convenient due to geographical location. One of these, as the movie implies, were the Chinese. They made a name for themselves throughout history by raiding quite a lot of other civilizations. The Huns were a nomadic people, living in what’s now Mongolia. Well, they had enemies so they were bad guys to some people, sure, but everyone is someone else’s bad guy. In truth the Huns weren’t really the big, bad guys the movie makes it seem. We don’t ever really know the reason why they’re attacking in the film, but the idea is clear that they’re the bad guys. And they weren’t the evil, ninja-like characters we see in the movie. To the best of our knowledge, the Huns never crossed the Great Wall around the time of Mulan. The initial purpose for the wall was, as the movie implies, to keep the Huns out. While I don’t think it’ll come as much of a surprise to learn that pretty much everything here, and really throughout most of the film, is made up, there are some elements of truth as a backdrop to the story.įor example, most historians believe the construction on the Great Wall could’ve began as early as the Qin dynasty in the year 206 BC. The movie begins as we see soldiers of the Hun army climbing over the Great Wall, something no one thought possible. Many historians place Mulan as living in the northern of these, referred to as the Northern Wei, which was located just south of modern-day Mongolia in modern-day China.Īlthough the Sui Tang Romance play place her about a hundred years later, around the year 620, as the Tang dynasty was beginning around the same area.
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They were aptly referred to as the Northern and Southern Dynasties because, well, one of them was geographically northern while the other was to the south. Mulan lived somewhere in an eighty year period on either side of the year 500 during a period in history where the country we think of today as China was split into two dynasties. Special thanks to Kelly, who pointed out that Hua and Fa are actually the same name-both meaning “flower.” The difference is that Hua is the Mandarin pronunciation while Fa is Cantonese. Perhaps the most prominent of these being either the song known as Ballad of Mulan or an ancient play known as Sui Tang Romance.Īccording to the movie, her name is Fa Mulan, while the Ballad of Mulan calls her Hua Mulan. Her story is one that has passed from generation to generation and is more legend at this point than known history. Our story today begins by setting some expectations, because not much is known about the real Mulan.