The story of the legendary virgin-warrior, Mulan: beautiful truth or fiction?

The story of the Chinese girl-warrior Mulan is extremely popular in contemporary art. About the heroine made the animated film Studio Disney about it, write books and plays, produced comic books and shoot films. Where did the virgin warrior and how real her heroic story?

Let's start with the fact that scientists are not sure, lived a girl named Mulan, or Mulan, once, or she's just a folk hero of the Chinese epic. The poem "Song of Mulan" was written in the distant sixth century, but its original text has not survived. Until we reached a later edition of the XI century, written by Maijanen.

Already based on this work in the sixteenth century in the Ming dynasty, the famous playwright Xu Wei created the play "maiden Mulan" in two acts, specially for the Imperial theatre. In the play the girl goes to war with China, attacked the barbarians, instead of his father. At that time every family had to give the warrior and Mulan decided that will cope not worse than men.

According to the version of Xu Wei, Mulan was not a "green" newbie to the military. Before you go to war for many years she spends training, learning martial arts and sword fighting. Her mentor was the father experienced, but no longer a young warrior who has seen many battles. Going on your first fight, the brave Mulan swears:

In the play of the XVI century is a moment that seems strange. Before leaving for the war girl rabbinovich legs and it is today unclear to many. The fact that the feet of Chinese girls were bandaged begun in early childhood to give them the most diminutive.

Bandaging, in fact, mutilate women, depriving them of the ability to move quickly and putting in a full dependence on men. For the Chinese deformed feet were a symbol of fragility and sensuality of women and, of course, no warrior from a crippled girl could not.

Historians explain this discrepancy by the fact that the practice of binding the feet appeared much later than Mulan lived. The most common it was time for the moment when Xu Wei wrote his play. In the XVI century girls nezabitovskiy feet belong to the second class and the playwright just had to mention about foot binding character.

Most art historians believe that rosenthaliana legs in the play is... erotic scene. Hidden from prying eyes, tiny feet were a fetish of most Chinese men of that time and value of pieces for men this time significantly increased.

In the disney cartoon Mulan is the only child of father and mother. But in the play from Mulan has a brother and a sister. But her brother is too small to hold arms, and the father old, so the war goes exactly the heroine. Before leaving the parent house, she says:

She runs secretly and openly sent to the market to buy all necessary in a military campaign. Mulan chooses to saddle a horse and armor, as well as necessary in the way of supplies. Addressing the girl, mother gives her needle and thread as a reminder that she is still a woman, even in war.

In the cartoon Mulan cuts her hair, but the real Mulan never would have made it. In China at that time long hair was a sign of a decent person, regardless of gender. Short trimmed only criminals to those can be distinguished from other people. Also carefully shaved head priests — Buddhist monks.

Legend has it that Mulan 12 years fought shoulder to shoulder with the men and no one discovered her secret. In the play the girl's mother laments that her daughter will reveal when "it comes to you-know-what." But comrades almost do not pay attention to strange behavior of the young soldier who always hides to pee. They only occasionally make fun of him because of excessive modesty.

In the army, Mulan finds his love — officer Jin Yun. He is not angry when he finds out that his soldiers were the girl and the couple continues to fight on, shoulder to shoulder. Beloved carefully guards the secret of the girls and behaves with her as comrades.

In one of the earliest versions of the legend of Mulan is captured by the other girl-warrior — Princess Dou of Cannan. She did not stand on ceremony and treats a prisoner like a real barbarian. The girl agrees to go on the side of the Princess, but only on the condition that she was allowed to see my parents.

Cruel, but noble launched Cangnan rastrovana such a manifestation of the love of parents, whom she did not expect to meet among reputed savages of the North. She lets go of Mulan free and the girls become friends. Unfortunately, almost all versions of the legend of the Chinese Joan of Arc come to an end sadly. She returns home and finds that her old father died while she was protecting the homeland from enemies.

After years of war, Mulan is unable to return to the peace of peasant life, her tortured memories and nightmares of blood and violence. Unable to withstand this testing, the heroine kills herself. In different summaries of the history of the cause of suicide is different. In one case, the guilty visions of death, in the other — the forced marriage, and the third an expression of loyalty to the Emperor.

As we have said, the very existence of the virgin-warrior Mulan is very doubtful, because in many Chronicles about it it is told nothing. It is a literary character invented in the IV—V century, probably with the purpose of propaganda.

In this difficult time for China's period of history the country has experienced several enemy invasions, and it was necessary to motivate men to take up arms. What could be a better example than the handsome young patriot who went to war? This method has always worked and today it is used equally successfully.