Heroine of the folk poem 木兰辞, who dresses as a man to take her aged father's place in the army and comes home years later. Chinese schoolchildren learn the poem, and Disney retold her story.
Díshìní gēnjù Huā Mùlán de chuánshuō pāi le dònghuà diànyǐng.
Disney made an animated film based on the Hua Mulan legend.
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culture
The ballad never gives her family name: 花 'flower' comes from a Ming play by 徐渭. The ballad's closing lines, about two running hares whose sex no one can tell apart, gave Chinese the idiom 扑朔迷离, 'too tangled to make out'.
