Mulan

See also: mulan, mùlán, and Mùlán

English

Alternative forms

• Mu-lan, Mu-Lan, Mu Lan

Etymology

From Mandarin 木蘭／木兰 (Mùlán, literally “magnolia”).

Proper noun

Mulan (countable and uncountable, plural Mulans)

1. A female warrior from Chinese folklore.
2. Any of several places in China:
   1. A county of Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
      • 1983, Chong-Sik Lee, Revolutionary Struggle in Manchuria: Chinese Communism and Soviet Interest, 1922-1945‎^[1], University of California Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 222:

        Not only were the Korean Communists numerous, but their influence extended over a wide territory ranging from Chientao in the southeast to Ilan and Mulan in the southern part of Heilungkiang Province, where the Koreans had formed communities of their own.

      • 1992, Zhimei Zhang, Foxspirit: A Woman in Mao's China‎^[2], Quebec: Vehicule Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 168:

        We had no idea how long this period of “re-education” might last. We were to present ourselves within ten days to local officials in Mulan county, about four hours by road from Harbin.

      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Mulan.
   2. A township in Huangpi district, Hubei, China.
   3. A river in Fujian, China.
      • 2005, “Fang Lüe, "Inscription for the Temple of Auspicious Response"”, in Victor H. Mair, Nancy S. Steinhardt, Paul R. Goldin, editors, Hawaiʻi Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture‎^[3], Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 392:

        THE FOLLOWING TEXT commemorates the reconstruction and expansion of the main temple of a local cult in Putian District, Fujian Province, located on China’s southeast coast. The god, known by the time the inscription was composed in 1138 as the Duke of Manifest Kindness (Xianhui hou), was the proprietary deity of a prominent local kin group, the Fang of Baidu, a small village which lay about three miles east of Putian city in the hills edging the fertile flood plain of the Mulan River. Like many prominent kin groups of the area, the Fang had abandoned their original homes, which had been in the hinterland behind Hangzhou, and settled in Putian in the late 800s, a time of widespread unrest that accompanied the fall of the Tang dynasty (618-907).

Translations

warrior; locations

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 木蘭 / 木兰 (zh) (Mùlán)

• Japanese: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Mulan”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[4], volume 2, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 2080, column 2

Anagrams

• Lanum, Luman, Ulman, alnum, alumn, manul, namul