Fa Mulan vs Hua Mulan (and Shan Yu)

Mulan: 2004

  So last week we were able to place Arrendelle in the time frame of the Holy Roman Empire. Now this week I have chosen to tackle the movie Mulan. This is another movie that I'm willing to bet everyone has seen at least once, and who can blame you it is a great movie. Anyways, enough talk, let's get down to business and try to place a date on the movie Mulan.

  The movie Mulan is based off an ancient Chinese ballad written in the 6th century AD, just before the founding of the Tang dynasty, called the Ballad of Hua Mulan. Many adaptations have placed her anywhere from the beginning of the Tang dynasty to the Mongolian Khaganate. However because this is a blog based off Disney movies, we will be only looking at the Disney adaptation of this ancient story.

 
  So anyways when the movie starts we see the Great Wall of China in all of it's animated glory. The wall from what we can see looks completed and a highly developed signaling system has been made so that the Chinese soldiers can warn each other if they are under attack and word will spread quickly. And now for the historical part: the Great Wall of China was started in 206 BC by Shi Huangdi of the Qin dynasty and was slowly constructed over time. The majority of the wall that we see today was created by the Ming dynasty, which came after the Mongols. It is also worth noting the architecture of some of the buildings in China. Clearly this is a time in Chinese History in which elaborate palaces were built and the buildings looked like they were built around the time of the Middle ages in Europe.

The Song Dynasty at it's height

  How can I be so confident about this taking place during the Middle Ages. Well one, if one hasn't noticed already, Disney has kind of a fascination with the Middle ages. Two If you pay attention to the armor and weapons, the Chinese soldiers still rely on swords, spears, bows, and arrows for weapons. They also rely on...cannons? But Jacob, I can hear some of you thinking, I thought you said in your last blog gunpowder wasn't accepted as a weapon until the 1500s. How can China have cannons in the middle ages? Well my friends, from what we learned in history classes as well as from our Eurocentric history books, we can learn that China was the first for a lot of stuff, gunpowder was one of them. China invented gunpowder around 850 AD, during the Tang dynasty but was not used as a weapon until 904 AD in the Song Dynasty. This definitely points to the Song dynasty as a possible contender. It also narrows our timeframe to anywhere from 904 AD- 1279.

  Now we get the fun part of analyzing the villains. First off we notice that Shan Yu and his men are able to scale the Great Wall of China, almost as if they had done it before. Then there is their conduct in fighting that comes into playas well. They ride around on horseback almost all the time, and are quite good at it I might add, and are pretty skilled archers. They also have a habit of completely burning villages and killing all the inhabitants mercilessly. They have huge strength in numbers and are clearly feared throughout all of China. There is just one problem though... Shan Yu and the Huns, are not The Huns. Yes, from what we learn in History, the Huns sacked Han China and lived in Central Asia. But keep in mind, That was around the same time as the fall of Rome, and the Huns were clearly in Europe by the Song Dynasty. Heck, they weren't even called the Huns, they were called the Kingdom of Hungary. No the attributes I have described are the clear attributes of another more feared group to the Chinese. That's right Shan Yu and his men are possibly a small raiding party part of none other than, wait for it..... THE MONGOLS.  (Insert Mongoltage Here).

 
  The Mongols created their empire around 1279 AD and upon further analysis I have found that China didn't start using cannons until 1100AD, 179 years before the Mongol invasion. Also people who survived AP world history, or world history in general will remember that the Song Dynasty was split into two empires around 1127 AD, around the same time cannons were used in combat! I believe that Mulan takes place just a year moths before the Song Dynasty is forced to take up shelter behind the Yangtze River. Therefore I can comfortably place Mulan to take place anywhere form 1100 AD- 1127 AD, 300 years before either Tangled or Frozen take place.

  Thank you for enduring through my ramble on Shan Yu and go forth and Bring Honor to us All.