Mulan (Civ6)/Civilopedia

The 6th century Ballad of Mulan begins, "The sound of one sigh after another / As Mulan weaves at the doorway." The girl’s family are subjects of the Khan of the Tuoba, a nomadic Turkic or Mongolian people who founded the Northern Wei dynasty of China, and her elderly father has been conscripted to fight in the Khan’s army. Mulan decides to enlist in her father’s place, fighting bravely in the army without her comrades ever finding out that she was actually a woman.
That’s the story, at least according to the ancient poem. But the legend of filial piety, duty, and bravery inspired later tellers. The Sui Tang Romance sets the story in the Sui Dynasty, around the time of the writing of the Ballad and during a period of war. Here, there are a number of new elements to the tale. Mulan is still a subject of a Turkic Khan, but is captured by the rebel Dou Jiande, where she quickly befriends Dou’s daughter. Later, the two women offer up their own lives when Dou is on trial for insurrection against the Chinese emperor. The Emperor is so impressed by their loyalty that he offers to relocate Mulan’s family to rich farmland, but when Mulan returns home, she discovers her father long dead and her mother remarried. Tragically, Mulan commits suicide, at least in this version.
Mulan was probably not a historical figure, but her fame doesn’t rely upon her historicity. In her devotion to her father and her willingness to risk her life for his, she epitomizes the Chinese virtue of xiào - filial piety – respect and honor to one’s parents and ancestors, as well as bravery on the battlefield.