If it weren't for the surprised eyes of her comrades and the layers of calluses on her palms, Mulan would even think that she had never left home or joined the army.
The movie "Mulan" is no surprise. Disney wants to replicate the success of the animated version, which is really too simple for the Chinese audience. After all, children can enjoy watching cartoons, and movies for adults must stand up to scrutiny.
In China, "Mulan Ci" has been circulated for a long time and is known to women and children.
In China, this girl's story, even though it spans a thousand years, still makes people yearn for it.
But in Disney's view, Mulan is just another symbol of leftist female values and another superhero character template. Some netizens commented thoroughly: "This is obviously the wonder woman who traveled to ancient China to play cosplay." No wonder the Chinese audience shook their heads: this is not the Mulan in my heart!
Then let's re-read the "Civilization of Mulan" together to see what kind of girl Mulan is?
Question 1: What era is Mulan from?
The movie did not explain which emperor Jet Li played, which blurred the time. But after reading "Mulan Ci", it is not difficult to infer that Mulan actually lived in the period of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
【Khan becomes the emperor】
Seeing the military post last night, Khan ordered a lot of troops,
There are twelve volumes of military books, and the volumes have the name of the master.
...
Return to see the emperor, the emperor sits in the Mingtang.
Zhixun twelve turn, reward hundred thousand strong.
Before Mulan's expedition, the title of the supreme ruler was "Khan", which is typical of the grassland people. Twelve years later, when Mulan was discharged from the army, the ruler changed his name to "Son of Heaven", which is completely the name of the Han culture in the Central Plains.
So the question is, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which grassland rulers completed the Sinicization reform in more than ten years?
The answer is Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. His sinicization reform started in 471 AD and lasted until 494 when he moved the capital from Pingcheng (now Datong, Shanxi) to Luoyang.
From this, it can be inferred that the story of Mulan joining the army probably occurred around 490 AD, and the ruler at that time was Emperor Xiaowen Tuobahong.
Question 2: Where is Mulan from? Where is the army?
In the movie, the earth building was shocked. Could it be that Mulan is from Fujian?
No, absolutely impossible. Mulan should be from Yulin, Shaanxi.
[Half farmland and half grassland]
Haw chirp again chirp, Mulan is a household weaving.
Don't hear the sound of the machine, only hear the female sigh.
...
The east market buys horses, the west market buys saddles,
The south market buys bridles, and the north market buys whips.
If you look closely at these two scenes, it is not difficult to find the implicit conflict in them. "Girls weaving cloth" is a typical farming life; but at the same time, Mulan can buy horses and a full set of harnesses at the market near her home, which is a picture of border trade in pastoral areas. Therefore, Mulan's hometown should be located on the dividing line between farming and animal husbandry.
【Mulan's itinerary】
Once I leave my mother and father, I will stay by the Yellow River in the evening,
I don't hear the voice of my mother and father calling for a woman, but I hear the sound of the Yellow River splashing.
Once I leave the Yellow River and go to the top of the Black Mountain in the evening,
I don't hear the voice of my mother and grandfather calling for a woman, but I hear the chirps of Hu Qi in Yanshan.
Mulan left home, one day to the Yellow River, two days to Yanshan. The maximum safe travel distance of a horse in a day is about 150 kilometers. If it is exceeded, the horse will die of exhaustion. At the same time, Mulan does not deliberately detour, but travels in the same direction.
According to this calculation, Mulan's most likely itinerary should start from the area north of Yulin, Shaanxi and south of Ordos, all the way to the northeast for 150 kilometers, to the vicinity of Pianguan County, Shanxi by the Yellow River, and then continue to the northeast for 150 kilometers to reach the troops The garrison is the grassland west of Zhangjiakou and north of Datong.
This area belongs to the six towns of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it is the outer barrier of the guarding of Pingcheng (Datong, Shanxi), the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which means the emperor is guarding the border. The Great Wall of Northern Wei Dynasty was also built along this line. At that time, the Northern Wei Dynasty implemented the military household system. Only Xianbei people could serve as soldiers, and Han people could only farm fields. Most of the people who could serve in the six towns were Xianbei aristocrats, because it was the highest honor to fight side by side with the Great Khan.
Therefore, Mulan's family should be the middle and lower class nobles of Xianbei in the Yulin area of Shaanxi Province. The location of joining the army is north of Datong. Mulan is actually a border guard who resists Rouran's southern invasion.
Question 3: Why did Mulan join the army? what kind of person is she?
In addition to the mistakes in the time and space background, the movie that caused the audience to complain the most was the character of Mulan. Disney continued the Marvel superhero routine and made Mulan the ancient Chinese version of Captain Marvel. This made it difficult for Chinese audiences to accept.
In fact, Disney does not understand China, but Mulan.
In the poem, Mulan faced a turning point in her life three times, and she chose the option that was more difficult but more loyal to herself three times. Mulan is a girl who dares to "Say No" to fate. She doesn't follow blindly, she knows what she wants at a young age, and she bravely pursues it; she doesn't compromise, she knows what she doesn't want, and walks away without looking back; she can always hold her destiny in her own hands.
In this way, Mulan is indeed not like Wonder Woman, but more like the little wolf girl Aria Stark in "Game of Thrones". Even though fate had set her against the Night King, Aerea dared to thrust a dagger into his chest.
【Mulan escapes marriage】
A life of obligation? Or an ideal life?
Many people interpret Mulan's motivation to join the army for her father as filial piety. This probably projected a lot of Confucian values of the Han nationality in the Central Plains. But Mulan, as a Xianbei girl, Shangwu is the soul flowing in her blood.
Moreover, Mulan has an elder sister, even if the family has responsibilities that must be fulfilled, as the youngest daughter in the family, Mulan is not obliged. Therefore, joining the army for her father was not out of obligation, but Mulan's active choice.
Haw chirp again chirp, Mulan is a household weaving.
Don't hear the sound of the machine, only hear the female sigh.
Ask the woman what she thinks, ask her what she remembers.
Women do not think, women do not remember.
This line drawing is full of shots and seems to be idle, but between the question and the answer, the dramatic conflict is full of tension.
Seeing her daughter's absent-mindedness, the mother sighed and asked her to say nothing, so she secretly figured out that it was probably the girl Huaichun, "Maybe it's time to find Mulan's husband's house."
Mulan also saw her mother's thoughts, but she had other plans in her mind: "Who said that a woman's destination must be to marry? I want to be like a man, jumping horses and whips, across the grasslands, and become the ideal man with a knife and immediately. Xianbei warriors."
Marriage is a presupposition given by fate. And Mulan said, "No! The battlefield is my stage."
【Mulan refuses the reward】
Kneeling on the hobo? Or on horseback?
Mulan served for 12 years, she was born and died, and she made outstanding achievements. However, after Emperor Xiaowen's sinicization reform, the capital she desperately defended was no longer the cold and windy Pingcheng, but Luoyang, where the peonies were in full bloom; Khan was no longer a warrior who killed the enemy side by side with the soldiers, but sat in a high hall with a face. Fuzzy emperor. The Han bureaucrats gathered in the hall, and the Xianbei soldiers outside the hall looked like outsiders.
Return to see the emperor, the emperor sits in the Mingtang.
Zhixun twelve turn, reward hundred thousand strong.
Khan asked what he wanted,
Mulan doesn't need a minister,
May you travel thousands of miles and send your children back to their hometown.
At the retirement ceremony, the emperor awarded the old Xianbei generals: according to the credit, Mulan can be transferred to be a Shangshulang (probably equivalent to a bureau-level cadre).
Mulan glanced at the other side of the hall, and the Han officials knelt down neatly, bowed their heads and turned their butts to the sky. Mulan replied: "Khan, when I come, I will have one person and one horse, and when I go back, I will invite one person and one horse."
A high-ranking official is a presupposition given by fate. And Mulan said, "No! I'm not fighting for this."
【Returning as a teenager】
Living in a false name? Or is something wrong?
Shuoqi spreads the golden watchtower, and the cold light shines on the iron clothes.
Generals die in a hundred battles, and strong men return in ten years.
Mulan returned to her hometown and reunited with her family after a long absence. She neither boasted of her bravery in battles, nor complained of the coldness in the desert.
Open my east pavilion door, sit on my west pavilion bed,
Take off my war robes and put on my old clothes.
When the window manages the clouds on the temples, the mirror is painted yellow.
Mulan sat alone in her former bedroom, with all the furnishings as before, her red makeup was still a familiar scent, and the clothes she wore when she was a girl still fit well after 12 years.
Thinking of the expectant look in her parents' eyes just now, and smelling the good dishes prepared by her sister and brother outside the house, time seemed to have never passed, and Mulan changed back to the girl she used to be. , swords and horses, gold and silver black yarn are like passing clouds.
Going out to see the companions, the companions are all excited:
Twelve years together, I didn't know Mulan was a girl.
If it weren't for the surprised eyes of her comrades and the layers of calluses on her palms, Mulan would even think that she had never left home or joined the army.
If the mask is worn for a long time, it is easy to grow on the face and cannot be taken off;
The role has been played for a long time, and it is easy to enter the play and become too deep into the design.
And Mulan never wanted to use the experience of women in the army to promote any value, nor did she want to represent anyone, not to set up an archway, and not to enter the county annals.
She is only herself.
Fame is the presupposition given by fate. But Mulan said indifferently: "No, I'm just Mulan."
those girls like mulan
In ancient China, where the spirit of Confucianism was pursued, both men and women lived for the collective, and there was not much space for themselves. Lu Xun said this is "the etiquette of eating people". If Freud had been to ancient China, he would probably have said, "This nation is too pitiful, and self-suppression is written into the basic national policy."
Throughout Chinese literature, even at the moment when he is drunk and he can let his guard down the most, the most unrestrained literati in China still shoulders the important affairs of the country: "Looking at the sword while drunk, dreaming back and blowing the corner", "born My material will be useful, and I will come back after all the money is gone.”…
But the stories of women in Chinese literature are a different story: Zhuo Wenjun, Hongfunu, Nie Yinniang, Bai Suzhen, Lin Daiyu, Hua Mulan... They do not blindly follow the presuppositions of fate, but bravely pursue their inner aspirations, and they are free from the gaps of collectivism. Medium and hard open a space for self. These female images have become the safe haven for the ancient literati to dock at the "self", a private place where the "self" can grow savagely. In these stories, they temporarily relieve their obligations and live alone with their ideals.
To this day, Mulan's story still reminds us modern people: "You are not someone's tool person, you are just your own person."
I think this is where Mulan touched us.
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