Mulan is the legendary heroine of China's Northern Wei era, immortalized in the Ballad of Mulan. When war broke out with the Rouran and her aging father was summoned to muster, Mulan disguised herself as a man and rode to the frontier in his stead. For twelve long years she garrisoned the borderlands, her true name never discovered, earning honor in battle after battle. When the campaigns ended she refused titles and rewards, and returned quietly to her village and her loom.
Her tale has been sung from the Southern and Northern Dynasties down to the present day, a story where loyalty and filial devotion stand as one. Beyond her homeland she endures as one of the most recognizable women warriors the world has ever known — a figure carried from a single ballad into legend.





