7. The Romance of Sui and Tang
Following the collapse of the Ming Dynasty and the onset of the Qing Dynasty, (circa 1644) Han Chinese were oppressed by the Manchu. The oppression included the forced abandonment of Confucianist principles and beliefs. Among them was the act of cutting one’s hair; men were expected to shave their foreheads and wear their remaining hair in a long braid known as a queue. Manchu punishment for non-compliance was frequently death, as it was for other expressions of Confucianism. The folk tales and stories of Mulan grew in popularity among the oppressed Han Chinese, who sought a similar heroine of their own. She began to adopt Han characteristics in the retelling of her stories.
In 1695, Mulan underwent yet another reinvention, in the hands of a writer named Chu Renhuo. His novel, The Romance of Sui and Tang, a work of fiction set in an earlier period of Chinese history, followed a theme denouncing the Qing Dynasty. It posited the earlier Tang Dynasty as ordained by heaven. A new version of the Mulan legend appeared within the novel. In this version, Mulan is half Han, and the army in which she served is defeated in battle. Mulan was captured by a Han Chinese Princess, to whom she revealed her identity. The novel shifts the identity of Mulan from a woman of an earlier nomadic tribe, as in the ballad, to one of Han Chinese ethnicity.