Ballad of Mulan, Anonymous

Songs about Mulan were circulating in the 6th century, during the Northern & Southern Dynasties period; the earliest texts were set down in the Tang, but the oldest extant version (based on those Tang copies) is from the 11th century. Like all oral traditions, there are many variant readings, but I’m not up for any textual analysis so picked a likely looking base text and ran with it:

Ballad of Mulan

( There are twelve scrolls of army rolls / And scroll after scroll has father’s name. )

(Are we still looking forward to the live-action Mulan remake? Yes. We. Are.)

Index of Chinese translations

---L.