Episode 71 – Mulan – Myths Your Teacher Hated

Episode 71 Show Notes

Source: Chinese Folklore

This week on MYTH, we’ll meet the deadly Chinese cross-dressing warrior. You’ll discover that Mulan was way more of a badass than Disney let on, that you should never rescue a chauvinist, and that bandits make great kings. Then, in Gods and Monsters, you’ll learn why you should never go swimming in the dark. This is the Myths Your Teacher Hated podcast, where I tell the stories of cultures from around the world in all of their original, bloody, uncensored glory. Modern tellings of these stories have become dry and dusty, but I’ll be trying to breathe new life into them. This is Episode 71, “Mulan”. As always, this episode is not safe for work.
This week, a tiny talking dragon and a handsome but stern commander are going to make a man out of you! Okay, neither of those things is actually part of the episode, but we are going to learn the story behind the classic Disney animated feature Mulan. The 1998 film was a runaway success (though not as commercially successful as some of the other Disney stories we’ve already discussed, including Aladddin and Beauty and the Beast). As you’ve almost certainly come to expect by now, the children’s movie made a lot of changes from the original story though in this case, getting to the original version is a much thornier problem.
The story of Hua Mulan is an old one, with the earliest written version being the Ballad of Mulan, a short epic ballad from the 6th Century describing the bare bones of the story, although the earliest actual surviving version is from an 11th or 12th century anthology. The story has been retold and adapted many, many times throughout history, with each teller adding new details and twists, making it extremely difficult to pick through the tellings for any kind of definitive version. The story as it has come down to us is also heavily influenced by the stage play ‘The Heroine Mulan Goes to War in Her Father’s Place’ by Xu Wei in 1593 and the novel The Sui-Tang Romance by Chu Renhuo. I actually managed to track down an ebook translation of this last version to try and use for this episode, but the translation is nigh indecipherable. I’ll therefore be pulling the story from a couple of different summaries and academic documents to pull together as complete a version of the Sui-Tang Romance version (arguably the most influential one) as I can, with some details pulled from the other two mentioned versions as needed. I’ll spend a little time at the end of the episode discussing the differing versions and what came from which to try and clear up any confusion.
The story begins in the Northern Wei era, a dynasty that ruled northern China from 386 to 534 AD, a period of political turbulence and new ideas. Later versions added all sorts of anachronistic details to the story. The Sui-Tang version has Mulan instead living under the rule of Hshana Khan, a minor lord who was eventually subsumed by the Tang Dynasty, who you might remember from the title of the book. Mulan’s story is actually a relatively minor subplot, not appearing until Chapter 56 of the 100 chapter tome.
At the time our story begins, Mulan is around 17 and biracial (half-Han-Chinese and half-Turkish, at least in this version) and is set against a lot of very real historical figures. The Khan had entered into an alliance with the Tang ruler Li Yuan and his son Li Shimin and his daughter Princess Pingyang, who had entered into open rebellion against the collapsing Sui Dynasty (that other name from the title of the book). They had risen in rebellion against the weak Emperor Yang over his failure to conquer the northern Korean peninsula during the last war, with all three raising and commanding armies in service to their rebellion (very much including the militan Princess Pingyang).
Mulan’s father Hua Hu, has heard rumors of the coming war. He is an old and sickly man, with a wife, two daughters, and an infant son to provide for. Since he has no of-age sons, the family fears that he will be conscripted into the army, a dangerous and lengthy adventure that he was unlikely to ever return from. The name Hua means ‘flower’ and the name ‘Mulan’ means magnolia, meaning that her name roughly translates to Flower of the Magnolia, a symbol used for China itself since ancient times. In a very real way, Mulan is the embodiment of the spirit of China.
Unlike in the Disney version however, Mulan doesn’t need no goddamned training montage to learn to fight. At the start of the story, she’s already a certifiable badass, trained in martial arts, sword-fighting, and archery in addition to the traditional female arts, especially weaving. She’s incredibly intelligent and clever, and picked up all of these skills from her father at a young age and is a pretty solid example of both the masculine and feminine ideals of ancient China at the same time, making her quite the contradiction.
Sure enough, the conscription order comes down, demanding that her father suit up and join the fight on behalf of the Tang-Khan alliance in rebellion against the Sui Dynasty. As soon as she hears about the order, she drags a servant out to go shopping for everything she would need to fight. She knows that convincing her family to let her crossdress and go to war in her father’s place is going to be a hard sell, and Mulan figures that she’ll have an easier time of it if she already looks like a badass warrior queen when she asks. No introspective musical number, no wrestling with inadequacy and self-doubt: Mulan knows exactly who she is and is committed from the beginning to doing the right thing for her father and family while still being loyal to their rulers. She unbinds her feet (an anachronism, as that particular practice didn’t start until long after this period), even though she fears that she’ll never be able to get her feet small and feminine again (making it harder for her to get a husband if she survives the war), but she needs her feet to fit into men’s shoes so she does what needs to be done without hesitation. Given how cruelly painful and disabling the practice was, severely limiting the mobility of the women, it’s all the more impressive that she is such a badass fighter. For good measure, she runs through a series of drills in armed and unarmed combat to make sure that her skills are still sharp. Then, she goes in to confront her mother and father.
Her father does not speak during the entire exchange, torn between the obvious merit in Mulan’s argument and the equally obvious risk to his eldest daughter. Mulan’s mother, on the other hand, has a great deal to say. In a definite sign of the times, she is much more concerned about whether Mulan is going to end up with a dick inside her than a sword. She simply can’t see how Mulan could possibly remain a virgin while sleeping amongst all of the young, strong, brave men she would be fighting alongside.
It takes some doing, but her family eventually sees the wisdom in letting Mulan go off to fight in place of her father. As much as it pains them to admit it, her parents know that Hu doesn’t stand a chance of surviving the war. When the recruiter comes back to take all of the brand new soldiers away, Mulan rides out with them with the ancestral sword of her family strapped to her hip. Given that she’s joining a militia, Mulan probably has more experience and training in combat than a lot of the other recruits, so it’s not that much of a surprise that everyone takes her completely at face value as a soldier.
They camp beside the Yellow River, where Mulan’s company joins with the Tang army under the command of General Xiu Ping (you might remember Ping as the name that Mulan takes as her own in the Disney film – here, she’s going by her father’s name of Hu). The khan is soon captured by Xianniang, Warrior Princess of Xia. When exactly this falls within the timeline of the civil war that ended the Sui dynasty is unclear, but there are some context clues to help place it. The stage play explicitly mentions a bandit leader as the cause of the draft, and the Sui-Tang Romance version names Dou Jiande as Xianniang’s father and one of the pivotal figures in the war, so that means we’re probably sitting in or around 611 AD.
Back in 598, Emperor Wen had ordered his fifth and youngest son, Yang Liang, to invade and conquer the northern Korean peninsula with an army of around 300,000. In spite of their huge numbers, they suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the local Goguryeo forces, the unseasonable rain, and the deadly native diseases. The emperor had died soon after, most likely at the hands of an assassin sent by his son and successor Emperor Yang in 604 (who had only become the crown prince in 600 by outmaneuvering his older brother in the murky world of court politics). He was a terrible tyrant, causing much of the countryside to rise up in revolt in the coming years. The state of the empire only grew worse when, in 612, he decided to launch a second invasion of the peninsula, then a third in 613, then a fourth in 614, losing horribly each time and bankrupting the country in the process.
It should come as no surprise then that much of the country rose up in revolt, with many of the rebel armies being led by former Sui generals who were fed up with pointless wars. In 611, the former bandit leader Dou Jiande had led a successful revolt and had taken control of a chunk of territory north of the Yellow River, eventually calling himself the King of Xia. The Sui dynasty had to contend with armies of the Wang, Tang, and Xia kingdoms, all of whom had recently been under the Emperor’s rule. Given everything we know, it’s likely that it was here that Mulan’s company was headed: off to fight the rebel who would one day become the King of Xia for control of the Yellow River and to try and free the captured khan.
In the stage play, the bandit leader’s army is all but wiped out by the time that Mulan gets there, and they capture the bandit king easily, which doesn’t match with history at all. The Sui-Tang Romance version cleaves much closer to the truth. By the time the two armies come to blows along the banks of the Yellow River, Mulan has already proven herself to be a capable soldier, trusted by General Xia Ping. She is in the front ranks, part of the war party assigned to capture the rogue King of Xia and end his claim on his territory (although Dao wouldn’t name himself king until later – at this point, he was serving under a rebel duke as a general).
As the sun rose over the water, the two armies rushed out to destroy each other. Mulan fights with honor and distinction, but the day turns against the Tang army led by the future Li Shentong, cousin to the Tang ruler Li Yuan. Mulan leads a daring assault on Dou’s army, freeing the captured Khan before charging back into the battle. The Khan tells this mysterious warrior that he owes this man a debt for saving his life. Mulan’s skirmish is one of the few good things for the Tang alliance. Dou managed to not only win the battle, but to capture General Li Shentong and a large portion of his army, including Mulan.
Dou was an honorable and just man (sharing the spoils of war with the common soldiers and earning their loyalty), as well as being a surprisingly capable general, and he treated his captives well. I mean, well-ish considering they are prisoners in a very bloody civil war. Mulan’s fighting prowess has been noted by the Xia army and especially by King Dao’s daughter, Princess Xianniang, herself a deadly warrior and a leader in her father’s army. In the real history, Dou’s family had been murdered by the local government while he was away in retribution for his banditry. She begins to question several of the prisoners, including the still-disguised Mulan. She develops a great deal of respect for her enemy soldier and tries to recruit Mulan into the Xia army.
Mulan, recognizing a kindred spirit in this badass warrior princess, tells Xianniang her great secret – she too is a badass woman. Xianniang is ecstatic to find someone she can actually relate to, and they soon become bestest friends, adopting each other as laotong (which translates as ‘old sames’ and was a special relationship between two Hunan women: a rare and formal bonding as adopted sisters). It was common for this sisterhood to be a lifelong, unbreakable bond of honor, with each woman only having one laotong in her life, if any. The formation of such a powerful bond between two soldiers on opposite sides of a civil war speaks volumes about how close these two women became over their shared experience as powerful women in a man’s world.
Mulan does in fact end up joining with the rebel Xia army (I mean, she had originally been conscripted by a different rebel army, so it’s not that odd for her to shift her loyalty to the honorable and respected father of her best friend in the world, who’s small kingdom is fighting the same Sui empire that the Tang army was already fighting. Dou’s army of around 200 joined up with the bandit leader Gao Shida, who had claimed the title Duke of Donghai. As the war raged across the land, many leaders fell, and many of their followers flocked to the banners of Gao and Dou, who were steadily making a name for themselves. By 616, the bandit army had swelled to more than 10,000 men and (according to the legend) two women.
That was when the Sui dynasty sent an army, led by Governor Guo Xuan, against Gao to try and crush the rebels and bring them back into the empire. In a surprise move that shocked the empire, Gao and Dou had a very public falling out, culminating in Gao publicly executing Dou’s wife. In response, Dou betrayed his former comrade and led an army of 7,000 (most likely including the trusted Mulan) to join up with Guo and the Sui army. The two then wheeled on Gao to launch an attack that was certain to bring the wayward Duke down. Guo assembled his army for the charge against the city, when hundreds of his soldiers suddenly sprouted arrows in their backs. The entire spectacle had been a trap, including the execution of Dou’s wife (who was actually some random woman who they had planned to execute anyway for unrelated reasons). This stunning ambush took the Sui completely by surprise and broke the army, raising Dao’s fame immensely in the process.
Later that same year, another Sui General, Yang Yichen, defeated and slaughtered the army of another rebel leader, who’s survivors fled to join up with the famous General Dou, with Yang’s army hot on their heels. Dou scouted the enemy and realized that, while they could survive a siege, they would likely lose a direct confrontation. Yang was perhaps the most dangerous general the Sui had, and momentum was on his side. He advised Gao to ride out the storm until Yang’s soldiers began to grow tired and bored; then, they could launch a sneak attack and have a fighting chance. Gao, who had previously admitted that Dou was the better general, disregarded this advice and rode out to battle. They clashed, and Gao drove Yang back, claiming the field. In celebration, Gao feasted on the battlefield in a show of blatant disregard for the very real threat the Sui army still posed.
Sure enough, Yang renewed the attack, defeating Gao a few days later and killing him on the battlefield. Yang marched on Dou’s much smaller remaining army and, as he had known it would when Gao first marched out, his rebel band collapsed and fled. Dou (along with Mulan and Xianniang) fled along with them. Yang considered the threat neutralized and withdrew, giving Dao the chance to gather what remained of the army Gao had lost. After a public period of mourning for Gao, Dou began to conquer the surrounding area. Many rebels at the time hated the Sui so fiercely that they would massacre the bureaucrats and scholars when they took a city, but Dou was kinder and more clever. By treating the functionaries with respect, he earned their respect and more than once, cities were surrendered to him without a fight. By 617, he commanded an army of over 100,000. In the spring, he claimed the title Prince of Changle.
Despite their numbers, Dou’s army scattered as an army of 30,000 under the command of General Xue Shixiong traveled through his territory on the way to attack the much more feared rebel leader Li Mi. Understandably, Xue figured Dou was already defeated and didn’t bother to pursue. Dou gathered a small force of 280 of his best soldiers (including Mulan I would imagine) to lead personally in a daring night assault, with the bulk of his regathered army trailing behind to attack in the chaos. They planned to launch their attack if they reached the enemy army during the night, but surrender if it was already daylight. Naturally, they arrived just as the sun rose, leaving him unsure what to do. If they were spotted before they could sneak into the midst of the army, they would be crushed and killed to the last man. Should they attack or surrender?
As he tried to decide, a thick fog rose out of the earth, shrouding everything in impenetrable gray silence. Dou told his men that this was a sign – the heavens were on their side! Dou launched the attack, catching Xue completely by surprise. His army collapsed and he barely made it out alive. Xue rode away with less than 100 men from his 30,000, only to die in his city not long after. In 617, the former Sui general Li Yuan declared himself Emperor Gaozu of Tang. Not long after, the Sui Emperor Yang was killed in a coup, leading the Sui General Wang Cong, who had defeated Dou on a number of occasions, to declare a mourning period for the dead ruler. Dou sent a messenger to express his condolences and, to everyone’s surprise, Wang surrendered to Dou. Many of his soldiers wanted the hated enemy put to death but Dou, in the same wisdom and benevolence that had led him to raise Mulan up to a trusted soldier and leader, brought Wang into the fold and made him a prefect.
Yuwen Huaji, the Sui general who had killed the old emperor, declared Yang’s cousin Yang Hao to be the new Sui emperor and then almost immediately had him poisoned. Dou, who considered himself a loyal Sui subject despite having been in open rebellion for years, declared himself at war with Yuwen Huaji and set out to battle once more. With Mulan on the front lines, the army defeated Yuwen over and over, eventually besieging the city and capturing the traitor and executing him. In thanks for his service, the new emperor of Sui, Yang Tong, recognized Dou’s self-appointed title and officially named him Prince of Xia. Mulan had served with distinction in each of these daring engagements and was honored multiple times for her bravery and valor. During this period, Princess Xianniang gets involved with a Tang General named Luo Cheng, a legendary warrior in his own right (though he shares only a name with the historical person). They fall into a forbidden love, and are forced to keep their trysts a secret since they fight on opposite sides of the civil war. Only Mulan, as Xianniang’s sworn sister, knows about their love.
As prince, Dou entered into an alliance with the Eastern Turks (thus completing the symbolism of Mulan’s half-Chinese, half-Turkish heritage from the beginning of the story). He ruled wisely and well in a time of great conflict, making his kingdom safe for his people despite the constant warfare at their borders. Time and again, Dou recruited the best of his enemies to become his allies, earning their loyalty and increasing his fame. Unfortunately, Dou was led astray by the advice of his generals beginning in 620, leading him to execute two of his best generals on false charges of treason. Losing two of his best hurt the Prince of Xia immensely.
Some time around this point, a Tang soldier is captured in one of the many back and forth battles of the war. In his pocket, he carries a message about the Princess. He offers it up to his captors and they deliver it to the young woman. Butterflies swirl in her stomach as she recognizes the handwriting – it’s from her beloved enemy, the warlord Luo Cheng. The letter is addressed to a matchmaker, asking for her help in arranging to ask for Xianniang’s hand in marriage. Torn apart by the war however, she has no way to send her reply – an emphatic yes.
It was around then that the Tang emperor led a major assault against the Zheng capital. Although Xia and Zheng had not been on great terms, they asked for Dou’s help and his remaining advisors recommended that he agree – if Zheng was defeated, the Xia would be Tang’s greatest rival. He led an army out against the Tang, winning victory after victory but also driving farther and farther into enemy territory. In the summer of 621, Tang General Li Shimin, grandson of Tang Emperor Gaozu, made a critical gamble in the fight against Dou. The Tang army, which had been besieging the Zheng city of Luoyang, was about to meet the Xia army coming to break the siege. Most of Li’s advisors warned him to avoid fighting the famous, dangerous Dou and retreat, but Li refused – if they left, Dou would control all of eastern China, forcing the Tang dynasty to abandon any hope of unifying China under their rule. Li decided to leave most of his army to maintain the siege and meet the Prince of Xia with only a portion of his army.
It was one hell of a risk, since Li’s defeat with his smaller army would leave the besieging army too weak to defend itself, giving Dou the city and a clear path to the heart of the Tang empire in one stroke. With only 3,500 men, Li rode out to Hulao Pass 60 miles east of Luoyang to dig in and wait for Dou. He joined forces with the local garrison, swelling his army to somewhere less than 10,000. Dou fought Li for a solid month in various skirmishes and diversionary strikes at different parts of the local area, but he was unable to achieve anything definitive. Dou’s army was tired and demoralized, leading Li to decide that the time was right for the final showdown.
Li sent 1000 cavalry across the Yellow River as bait, and Dou swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. He led a large part of his army into the Hulao valley, where Li had established a strong defensive position. Mulan, Xianniang, and Dou’s army hurled themselves bravely against the Tang, but the defenses were too strong. The Xia army grew tired, leaving them ripe for a counterattack. The battle was long and bloody, but the Xia were exposed and exhausted, while the Tang were relatively fresh and eager. 3,000 Xia soldiers fell, and 50,000 were captured. The prisoners included Mulan, Xianniang, and Dou Jiande himself, who had been wounded and unhorsed. Xianniang is doubly devastated by the loss. Now, her father is as good as dead, and with him dies any chance she had of ever marrying her beloved Luo Cheng. Surely a hero of the empire will never deign to marry a disgraced captive.
Li is ecstatic to have finally captured the elusive and deadly Prince Dou, and brings him back to the capital to present to his father, Emperor Gaozu. The emperor spares many of the soldiers, but orders the very public execution of Dou, who has been one of the biggest thorns in the empire’s side of late. Mulan and Xianniang talk it over and agree that they cannot allow Dou to die. Together, the two women go to see the emperor with daggers in their mouths, a symbol of their willingness to risk their lives to beg an audience. The Emperor is impressed with their devotion and grants them an audience. Together, Mulan and Xianniang stand before their captor and offer their lives in place of the defeated Dou Jiande.
The emperor is moved by their offer and agrees to spare the general so long as he vows to never take up arms again and live as a monk, which he agrees to. The two proud women stand bravely to face their deaths, and Xianniang asks that Lou Cheng be told that, had she lived, she would gladly have accepted his offer of marriage. The emperor refuses to take the offered lives of the two valiant women who were to be the blood price, instead sparing them for their selflessness (though in reality, no one came to save Dou and he was executed by the emperor for his rebellion).
The Emperor and his mother, the imperial consort, bestow gifts upon the two women. Xianniang is given the money to fund her nuptials for her beloved general; Mulan is given funds to care for her aging parents, who raised an incredible daughter. Xianniang, laughing and crying over everything that has happened, embraces her sworn sister Mulan and entrusts her with a letter to Lou Cheng telling him of her love and of her acceptance of his marriage proposal. Mulan agrees to deliver the message to Lou after she returns home to see her family again, which Xianniang is happy to agree to since, both by the actual historical timeline and the events of the story, Mulan has been off fighting in the wars for somewhere between 10 and 12 years at this point. She promises to bring them back to the capital with her so that she can be present for her laotong’s wedding.
Mulan begins the long journey home, excited to finally see everyone again. She’s been gone a long time, but she returns a decorated war hero, praised by the emperor himself! Word of Mulan’s deeds, and of her having served as a soldier in the army while pretending to be a man for over a decade, spread like wildfire, moving faster than Mulan herself. She rides into her village to find everything in a weird uncanny valley sort of state. It’s clearly the place where she grew up, but it’s also just as clearly a different place. A lot can change in ten years.
Mulan rides up to her family’s home and knocks on the door. A smile spreads across her face at the thought of seeing her beloved father, who’s name she’s borne for so long, once again. The door opens, and her smile fades. A stranger stands there in her father’s place. Her mother steps up behind this man and puts her hand on his shoulder. No, this can’t be happening. Mulan’s sister, Youlan, takes her aside and tells her what she’s missed: Hua Hu died years ago, and her mother had remarried to a man with no loyalty to the daughter he had never met. As you might remember, Mulan’s mother was mostly concerned with whether her daughter would still be marriage material when the war was over, and even though she’s won incredible honor and the esteem of an emperor, all her mother sees is a sullied woman.
To make matters worse, word of the female warrior had reached the ears of Hshana Khan (remember him? The guy who’s ass Mulan had saved way back when and had sworn a life debt to her in thanks?). He mulls over the implications of having his life saved by a woman. He decides that, since she doesn’t have a dick, he doesn’t owe her jack shit (he’s a real piece of work). Instead, he decides that he simply has to have her as his concubine (I’m guessing he wants to prove to himself that he’s still a big, virile man by wielding power over a powerful woman, thus trying to steal her glory as his own in some twisted fashion. Fuck that dude).
Since Mulan had been using her father’s name, it wasn’t hard for him to track her family down, and he had sent an order to her mother to sell Mulan to him as his concubine and she, convinced that her daughter could do no better, had agreed. Her new stepfather had probably had more than a little to do with this decision, I’m guessing. This message had beaten Mulan to her village, and so, instead of the happy reunion she had been dreaming of, she got the cold shoulder and her mother’s demand that she go and be the khan’s concubine.
Mulan takes the news stoically, in true warrior fashion. She nods slowly, and asks to see her father’s grave. Only after saying her goodbyes to him will she submit to the khan’s demand. The family goes together, giving Mulan time to have a quiet conversation with Youlan. Dressed in travel clothes and bearing her ancestral family sword, Mulan kneels at the grave and sheds a few quiet tears at his loss. She takes a deep, steadying breath, then stands up on the grave. She declares to her mother and her new step-father that she has been to war and done more than enough for her kingdom and her people but now she wants only to be with her father and, drawing his blade, she slits her own throat. She refused to submit, and knew that death was her only way out.
It’s one hell of a tragic ending to such a badass boss warrior, but I’m at least glad that she gets to keep her hard-earned agency in this version. To wrap up the loose ends, Mulan had entrusted Youlan with Xianniang’s letter before her death. In her sister’s memory, Youlan dressed as a male scholar and went to deliver the letter to Lou Cheng. She makes the journey with little trouble, and delivers the message. Some servant women find out that Youlan is actually a woman and it becomes the hot gossip of the city in no time. Lou Cheng overhears this, and bizarrely decides that he needs her to prove that she is in fact a man. Even weirder, he insists that the only proper way to do this is for them to share a bed, but it’s totally not weird to force that on someone you just met and don’t want to bone. Just two totally straight dudes sleeping in a little bed together for no reason whatsoever. As you might have guessed, he’s completely full of shit. He definitely knows that this scholar is a woman.
Smash cut to several months later, when Princess Xianniang finally arrives at her beloved general’s city and hears the gossip that he and the foreign scholar have been sleeping together, even though everyone knows that he is secretly a she. Devastated and betrayed, the princess summons Youlan and shows her a magical jade pendant (because apparently we have magic now for some reason) that can verify if a woman is a virgin or not. Shockingly, Youlan passes the test. They have been sharing a bed, but not actually getting down and dirty. Xianniang decides that this means he must still love her as much as he once did. Lou Cheng, who absolutely knew that Youlan was a woman this whole time, marries both of them, which both of them are somehow totally down for because it was written by a man. In this whole story, this is by far the most unrealistic bit (way more than having Eddy Murphy as a wise-cracking dragon).
Now, as I mentioned at the beginning, there are a lot of different versions out there, and they all have different stories and very different endings. In the original ballad, Mulan rides off to war, fights for a decade, then returns and takes up her weaving again like nothing had happened. Her comrades in arms are all shocked at her revelation that she is a woman, and she responds ‘when two rabbits run side by side, can you tell which is female and which is male?’ It’s a very cut and dried version of the story, and not terribly satisfying. In the Wei play version, after easily capturing the rogue bandit leader, she takes her prisoner to the capital and is offered a position at court as a reward. She declines, saying that she needs to check on her family, but promises to return one day. She rides home, but has a bit of an identity crisis on the way, unsure whether she is worthy of the reward offered, since it was her male alter-ego Hu that earned them, not her. She goes back to her family and returns to life as a demure woman and is quickly married off to her neighbor. Despite being a badass warrior, she is shy and nervous at his visit, showing that her time doing her duty has not changed who she is (the exact opposite of the message from the Disney version).
The Disney version has several close calls for Mulan, with her comrades in arms nearly discovering her gender more than once, but most of the traditional versions never even come close. The Wei stage version has Mulan going off alone to take a piss every time, which everyone thinks is a bit odd, but everyone just assumes Hu is a private guy and moves on. In every version I’ve encountered, Mulan reveals herself voluntarily (and often nonchalantly), often by inviting her fellow soldiers to visit her at home and greeting them as a woman. No one gets angry or says anything about dishonor; instead, they all agree that this is pretty goddamned amazing, slap each other on the back in wonder, and then go home. All in all, I think I like the historical drama of the Sui-Tang romance better. And so, with the war over and the Tang dynasty firmly in control (for a little while, anyway), it’s time for Gods and Monsters. This is a segment where I get into a little more detail about the personalities and history of one of the gods or monsters from this week’s pantheon that was not discussed in the main story. This week’s monster is the jingwei.
The classic version of the jingwei myth comes from Shanhaijing, or Classic of Mountains and Seas, which was compiled sometime between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC. Nuwa was the youngest daughter of Yandi the Yan Emperor, a legendary ruler of China from predynastic times (and is probably the same guy as the legendary emperor Shennong). His name literally translates to Flame Emperor, although this may also have been a title given to multiple emperors who came after Shennong, the first Flame Emperor.
Nuwa was spirited, rebellious, and heedless of danger in the way that only teenagers can be. She developed a desire to see the sun rise over the flat expanse of the sea and so, the next morning, she rose before the palace was awake and snuck out. Nuwa went down to the shore of the Eastern Sea and, not having the slightest idea how to navigate a boat, she swam out instead. She was a fairly powerful swimmer, so she made her way out some distance from shore with little difficulty, then floated on her back to watch the sun come up over the water.
The spectacle was every bit as glorious as she had hoped, and so she turned to make her way back to shore. Unfortunately, not being a sailor, she wasn’t familiar with a bit of common knowledge at sea: red sky by night, sailor’s delight; red sky by morning, sailors take warning. The splendor of the sunrise was so spectacular because a storm was rising over the sea. It struck before she could reach the distant shore, and poor Nuwa drowned.
For reasons unknown (perhaps due to her heritage as a descendant of the Flame Emperor), death was not the end for Nuwa. Out of the depths of the sea burst a great bird, crying in despair at the loss of all the joy it had known as a human. It looked like a massive crow, but with a patterned head, a white beak, and red feet. Its cries gave the bird its name, Jingwei, which translates to ‘spirit guardian’. Jingwei is very, very angry with the sea for taking her life from her, and she vows to fill it up. Each day, Jingwei carries a pebble or twig in her mouth and drops it in the Eastern Sea.
The sea laughed at the futility of this gesture and cried out in a salty voice that she will never succeed in her Quixotic quest: even if she tried for a million years, she could never fill up the sea. Jingwei screams back: “then I will continue for ten millions years, or one hundred million years, or however long it takes! One day, I will end you, and you will devour no other lost souls like you did me!” It is said that she lingers there to this day, collecting sticks and pebbles from the western mountains each day and watching over children to try and protect them from danger (especially the sea itself).
That’s it for this episode of Myths Your Teacher Hated. Keep up with new episodes on our Facebook page, on iTunes, on Stitcher, on TuneIn, and on Spotify, or you can follow us on Twitter as @HardcoreMyth and on Instagram as Myths Your Teacher Hated Pod. You can also find news and episodes on our website at myths your teacher hated dot com. If you have any questions, any gods or monsters you’d want to learn about, or any ideas for future stories that you’d like to hear, feel free to drop me a line. I’m trying to pull as much material from as many different cultures as possible, but there are all sorts of stories I’ve never heard, so suggestions are appreciated. The theme music is by Tiny Cheese Puff, whom you can find on fiverr.com.
Next time, we’ll pick up the epic story of the aftermath of the Trojan War and one man who just wants to go the fuck home. You’ll learn why you should never leave early, why the wind just won’t blow, and why you should never trust a drunk soldier. Then, in Gods and Monsters, we’ll learn how wine, sex, and babies are related (and it’s only kind of what you think). That’s all for now. Thanks for listening.