Editing Hua Mulan (section)

==''Romance of Sui and Tang''==
Chu Renhuo's {{ill|Romance of the Sui and Tang|zh|隋唐演義}} (c. 1675) provides additional backdrops and plot-twists.<ref name="Mulan5-SuiTang"/> Here, Mulan lives under the rule of [[Heshana Khan]] of the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]]. When the Khan agrees to wage war in alliance with the emergent Tang dynasty, which was poised to conquer all of China, Mulan's father Hua Hu ({{zh|c=花弧|link=no}}) fears he will be conscripted into military service since he only has two daughters and an infant son. Mulan crossdresses as a man and enlists in her father's stead. She is intercepted by the forces of the Xia king [[Dou Jiande]] and is brought under questioning by the king's warrior daughter Xianniang ({{zh|c=線娘|link=no}}), who tries to recruit Mulan as a man. Discovering Mulan to be a fellow female warrior, she is so delighted that they become [[blood brother|sworn sister]]s.{{sfn |Huang |2006 |pp=120, 124–25}}<ref>{{Gutenberg|no=23835 |name= Suei Tang Yan Yi|author=Ren-Huo Chu|bullet=none}}, Ch. 56 (第五十六回)</ref>

In the ''Sui Tang Romance'', Mulan comes to a tragic end, a "detail that cannot be found in any previous legends or stories associated Hua Mulan", and believed to have been [[Interpolation (manuscripts)|interpolated]] by the author Chu Renho.{{sfn |Huang |2006 |pp=120, 124–25}} Xianniang's father is vanquished after siding with the enemy of the Tang dynasty, and the two sworn sisters, with knives in their mouths, surrender themselves to be executed in the place of the condemned man. This act of filial piety wins a reprieve from [[Emperor Taizong of Tang]], and the imperial consort, who was birth-mother to the Emperor, bestows money to Mulan to provide for her parents, as well as wedding funds for the princess, who had confessed to having promised herself to general {{ill2|Luó Chéng|zh|罗成 (虚构人物)}} ({{zh|t=羅成|link=no}}).<ref>{{Gutenberg|no=23835 |name= Suei Tang Yan Yi|author=Ren-Huo Chu|bullet=none}}, Ch. 59 (第五十九回)</ref> In reality, Dou Jiande was executed, but in the novel he lives on as a monk.{{fact|date=November 2023}}

Mulan is given leave to journey back to her homeland, and once arrangements were made for Mulan's parents to relocate, it is expected that they will all be living in the princess's old capital of Leshou ({{zh|t=樂壽|link=no}}, modern [[Xian County]], Hebei). Mulan is devastated to discover her father has long died and her mother has remarried. According to the novel, Mulan's mother was surnamed Yuan (袁) and remarried a man named [[Wei (surname)|Wei]] (魏). Even worse, the Khan has summoned her to the palace to become his concubine.{{sfn |Huang |2006 |p=120}}

Rather than to suffer this fate, she dies by suicide. But before she dies, she entrusts an errand to her younger sister, Youlan ({{zh|c=又蘭|link=no}}), which was to deliver Xianniang's letter to her fiancé, Luó Chéng. This younger sister dresses as a man to make her delivery, but her disguise is discovered, and it arouses her recipient's amorous attention.<ref>{{Gutenberg|no=23835 |name= Suei Tang Yan Yi|author=Ren-Huo Chu|bullet=none}}, Ch. 60 (第六十回)</ref>

The Mulan character's suicide has been described as "baffling", since she is not in love or engaged to anyone.  Some commentators have explained this as an anti-[[Qing dynasty|Qing]] message: the author supposedly wanted to suggest that "even a half-Chinese woman would prefer death by her own hand to serving a foreign ruler".{{sfn |Huang |2006 |p=120}} In the novel, Mulan's mother was from the [[Central Plain (China)|Central Plain]] of China, but her father was from [[Hebei]] during the [[Northern Wei]] dynasty<ref>Ch. 56, "其父名弧，字乘之，拓拔魏河北人，为千夫长。续娶一妻袁氏，中原人。"</ref> and presumably of
Xianbei origin.{{sfn |Huang |2006 |p=120}}