Some historians speculate that the earliest story of Mulan, told in oral traditions before the ballad, was not even a Chinese tale. Another version ended with her committing suicide to escape becoming the emperor's concubine. Later versions from, say, the Tang Dynasty had her fall in love with a fellow soldier. She was enough of a blank slate for subsequent eras to impose different stories to the spaces in her story. She went to war disguised as a man in place of her elderly father, became a general who led the army to victory against the invaders, then returned home 12 years later and put on a dress again. The original ballad, believed to be from the 6 th Century, was fairly basic. She was probably an amalgamation of several real female soldiers of the era.
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