's recently withdrawn movie "Mulan" is based on the anime version "Mulan" released in 1988. Hua Mulan is never absent from the story book about joining the army for her father. This article analyzes the feudal tradition behind Hua Mulan's joining the army for her father from the animation plot, the three principles and five constants, three obedience and four virtues in the ancient feudal society, and the efforts made by women for this.
The three outlines and five constants in Mulan,
, as the basic moral core of Chinese feudal society, have a profound influence in the five thousand years of the Chinese nation's history. The three outlines in the three outlines and five constants refer to "the ruler of the minister, the father of the son, and the husband of the wife". The three outlines of
are fully displayed in the Hua Mulan family. When the Hu nationality in the north came to commit a crime, Hua Mulan's father chose to enlist in the army regardless of his disabled body. In his father's eyes, the idea of "the ruler is the minister" is more important than his own life. This is his father's "loyalty."
He knows that his body is no longer suitable for enlisting in the army again, but he once enlisted in the army knows the truth of the military order, and the enlistment order is the best proof that "the king is a minister."
father and son have also appeared in the life of Mulan many times. When her father received the order to enlist, Hua Mulan wanted to defend her father, but her father stopped her. Hua Mulan has her mission, and her father has her own mission. All Hua Mulan can do is to obey her father's decision. Because of the draft, Mulan was embarrassed for her family; Marching on behalf of her father, Mulan brought the supreme glory to her family, this is Hua Mulan's filial piety of "father for son".
Husband and wife may not mention too much, but from the night before his father’s departure, the mother made the meal for his father, and the conversation between the two under candlelight, the mother could not bear his father joining the army again, but the mother But she can't change her father's decision. All she can do is to obey her father's will and watch her father go to the battlefield. This is the mother's festival of "husband and wife".
The "loyalty", "filial piety" and "jie" shown by the Hua Mulan family are the core of the "Three Guidelines".
The so-called "Five Constants", as the name implies, refer to five eternal moral codes: benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom, and trust. The first to refer to the three principles and five constants in parallel was Ma Rong, a scholar of the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Ma Rong, in his book "The Analects of Confucius", is the sentence "Zi Yue: Yin due to Xia Li, gains and losses can be known. Zhou due to Yin Li, gains and losses can be known" Note: "The cause is the three principles and five constants; the gains and losses are the three disciplines of literary quality." Based on the human nature of implementation. In the story of Hua Mulan, the emperor cares about benevolence, soldiers care about righteousness, monarchs care about etiquette, battles care about wisdom, and Mulan triumphantly cares about faith. Without these five constants, perhaps Hua Mulan had already died hundreds of times on the way to join the army for her father. The
three outlines emphasized the distinction between respect and inferiority under feudalism, while the Wuchang emphasized the distinction of morality. There is only one core of the three outlines and five constants. The establishment of a strict hierarchical system in feudal society emphasizes the insurmountability of differences between hierarchies and stabilizes the entire feudal society to a certain extent.
Three from Four Virtues
"Three from Four Virtues" is a moral code used by feudal society to restrain women's words and deeds.
"Rituals·Mourning Apparel·Zixia Biography" mentions: "Women have three meanings and no special way. Therefore, if you do not marry from your father, you will marry your husband and your husband will die from your son."
"Official Nine Females" mentioned: "The Nine Female Masters of Women's Learning Methods are based on nine teachings: female morality, female language, female appearance, female power."
The above two classics summarize the "three obediences and four virtues" very clearly. But the word "wo" is inseparable from the content. Among 's "Three Followers", the animation plot only mentions both unmarried fathers and married husbands, but both emphasize the dominant position of men in society.
And the beginning of the animation Hua Mulan, a feast for the talent show, vividly portrays the "four virtues" of women.
In this draft, the most important thing is the "four virtues" of women. Ancient women began to teach the "Four Virtues" when they were about ten years old, with the hope that after marrying their husbands and sons in the future, they would bring supreme glory to their mothers, rather than endless humiliation.
The virtues of women can be attributed to the word zhenshun, zhenshun means that a woman needs to adhere to moral integrity and guard her body to her husband, and to obey her husband’s childbirth and be courteous. This is something that must be kept in mind in the draft assessment.
Fu Yan and Fu Rong in the draft are the standards that can highlight a person's character and external defects most . In feudal society, women must learn to be cautious in their words and deeds. Women's words are not too many, but appropriate. Appearance represents a woman's behavior, and the appropriate appearance can meet the standards of the draft.
women's work refers to the labor that women do. In the age of Hua Mulan, women's labor was nothing more than husband and child, and presided over family affairs. Therefore, washing and cooking, serving tea and pouring water have become the main responsibilities of women at home. In the draft, there was a test of serving tea and pouring water to honor her mother-in-law.
After the establishment of a patriarchal marriage and family, "three obediences and four virtues" gradually became a moral means to restrain women. The idea of male superiority and inferiority dominates the society. The "three compliances" actually require women to obey the ethics of men, and the "four virtues" are the main means for women to practice the "three compliances". Under the influence of Confucianism, the "three obediences and four virtues" have gradually become traditional women's virtues. Women are proud of this and men are proud of it.
Hua Mulan joined the army for her father
Women under the feudal ethics, not only must follow the three principles and five rules like men, but also remember the three obediences and four virtues. The role of Hua Mulan has never been a model of "three obediences and four virtues", but for the sake of her father's face and family dignity, she also had to join other women in the draft that would bring glory to the family.
Hua Mulan knows that the draft is not suitable for her, but she created military merits by chance and coincidence, and she has become a heroine who combines "loyalty and filial piety" in Chinese history. Being loyal to the country and filial to his parents is Hua Mulan's role to present the most intuitive feeling to the audience.
But in fact, the role of Mulan has been on the road to subvert the traditional image of women from the very beginning. She doesn't like makeup. Instead, she likes to dance knives and swords, ride horses and play tricks. She is simply a lively tomboy. Although she is a woman, she doesn't care about her female identity, she still speaks boldly in public, ignoring other people's opinions.
What she has done in life has already got rid of the "three obedience and four virtues" in the eyes of the public as a model woman. She did care about the feelings of her parents, but she did not follow the will of her parents like most women in that era. Her parents are human, and she is also human. She has always put herself on the same position as her parents and millions of people in the world. In this ideology, Hua Mulan is already breaking the patriarchal restraint under the feudal ritual system.
Hua Mulan’s behavior in serving her father in the army has indeed demonstrated her loyalty. But besides this, joining the army for her father was also Hua Mulan's challenge to the feudal society with the three principles and five permanence, and the three following four virtues. From the moment of the draft, Hua Mulan seems to have understood what she will look like in the future. Marriage and childbirth are the second half of most women's lives.
father said to Hua Mulan: He has his responsibilities and hopes that Hua Mulan will take on his responsibilities. The responsibility of Hua Mulan was imposed on Mulan by her father under the feudal ritual system. Hua Mulan herself did not want to take on such responsibility and lead a life like other women. Therefore, she ran away from the family in the name of serving her father in the army, and escaped the rest of her life when she saw her head. Joining the army for her father is actually a prelude to Hua Mulan's farewell to the past and a life from scratch.
Hua Mulan is not only a heroine and filial daughter in everyone's mind, but also a fighter who dares to challenge the feudal ritual system.
