3. The Mulan Temple
The ruins of a temple dedicated to Mulan near Hubei, China, are accompanied with a memorial stone. The date for the construction of the temple is unknown, but the inscription on the stone was likely added during the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th century. The inscription describes Mulan’s legend more or less along the lines of the ballad, though it adds a level of deification to the story. According to the stone “many began to revere and worship her as a god” as written by the Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu. The inscription also reports that Mulan lived during the Han Dynasty, which places her life in the 3rd century CE.
References to the temple appear in literature from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), indicating it was several centuries older than the memorial inscription. The poem by Du Mu was written circa 830 CE. It presents Mulan as one of the most beautiful women in China. It also describes her drinking with the presumably victorious officers of the army while “deep in the heart of inner Mongolia”. The poem itself may have been the beginning of Mulan’s semi-deification in some followers of the Tao. Who built the temple, and when remains a mystery.