Northern folk songs, like Yuefu folk songs in the Six Dynasties, are mostly short and systematic, but this Mulan is a long narrative poem. It occupies an important position in the history of China's poetry development. The poem describes the story of the heroine Hua Mulan joining the army as her father, and depicts the vivid image and noble quality of the heroine Hua Mulan. The style of the whole poem is clear and vivid, simple and vigorous, and it can be called an excellent work in northern folk songs.
Mulan Poetry adopts the method of sequential narration. This work can be roughly divided into three parts. The first part is before the war. The second part is military life. The third part is returning from meritorious service. In these three parts, the author does not use power evenly, but has a little detail, focusing on the first and third parts.
At the beginning of the poem, Mulan is weaving, but "I don't smell the loom, only the woman sighs", which makes readers wonder why Mulan sighs. "Ask the lady what she thinks and what she remembers?" The author asked himself and answered, "Women have nothing to think about, and women have nothing to remember." Because the poem adopts the method of sequential narration, the first few sentences should explain the reason why Mulan joined the army, but the author did not directly tell it, but took Mulan's lack of mind to knit as the starting point to show her inner anxiety. Next, I should have explained the reasons for my inner uneasiness, but the author did not write it out immediately, but used two questions with the same meaning, followed by two answers with the same meaning, but still did not answer the questions directly. But these four sentences are not superfluous. Apart from the flavor of folk songs, these four poems have played a prominent role in the reasons mentioned later. After this question and answer, the author got down to business. "Last night, I saw the military post, and Khan sent more troops. The military book was twelve volumes, with the name of the Lord." Military posts are conscription documents, and Khan is the title of the monarch of all ethnic groups in northwest China. There are so many words in twelve volumes that "there is a grandfather's name in the volume" is obviously exaggerated. At this point, the reader understands that Mulan is not in the mood to weave because of Khan's conscription, and Mulan's father is among the conscripts. Father is obviously too old to apply, but "Grandpa has no eldest son and Mulan has no big brother", which can't help worrying Mulan. Mulan was put in front of such contradiction at the beginning of the poem. What is Mulan going to do in the face of difficulties? "I am willing to be the pommel horse of this city, and I will sign for you from now on." Mulan is an extraordinary woman after all. She has made up her mind to join the army for her father.
This paragraph has no straightforward description of the reasons why Hua Mulan joined the army, but starts from Hua Mulan's psychological activities, and at the same time pays attention to the portrayal of characters, so that readers can see a female image who is decisive, brave, bold and full of responsibility.
Then Mulan prepared to go out to war, using four repetitive sentences. The content is nothing more than buying horses and riding equipment. It seems unreasonable to buy horses, saddles (cushions under saddles), reins (to control the chews, halters and reins of horses) and whips from the East City, the West City, the South City and the North City respectively, but it exaggerates the atmosphere of war and the nervousness of preparation before leaving home for war. At the same time, these four poems and the above "What do you think of asking a woman?" As Xie Zhen in the Ming Dynasty said, "This is a casual remark. Simple and natural, complex and not chaotic. When asked and answered, buying pommel horses in one city is simple and tasteless, almost exceeding the number of Yuefu families. "
In the second part of the poem, Mulan embarked on a journey. The following eight sentences are about Mulan leaving her parents to go to war. Here, Mulan's journey is divided into two parts with repeated sentence patterns. Although the sentence patterns are the same, the place names are changing, which shows that the war is urgent and Mulan is eager to participate in the war. However, the author has not forgotten that the hero he focuses on portraying is a woman disguised as a man who is away from her parents for the first time. "I didn't hear her call a female voice" was in line with Mulan's situation and status at that time. Tan's evaluation of this sentence in the Ming Dynasty is: "It's especially wonderful to have a good language without a man." "No one is defensive" is also the genius of the author, and only in this way can Mulan's image be more vivid and full of personality. Hua Mulan can resolutely join the army for her father and stand the test of severe war, which shows that she is different from ordinary women, but she is still a woman. After all, she is attached to her hometown and parents. This highlights her female identity. Instead of weakening her heroic image, it makes her military actions more legendary and fascinating.
Then I wrote about Mulan's life in the army, but this part is very general. From fighting in the south to returning from meritorious service, I only used the following six sentences, which is simple and clear. Here "Rong Qi" refers to the war, "Shuo Qi" refers to the cold in the north, and "Jin Qi" refers to the bronzes used for cooking and playing in the army. These poems are neatly written in the law. Therefore, later generations often suspect that this poem was written by the Tang Dynasty, and some researchers speculate that this poem may have been processed and modified during the circulation of the Tang Dynasty. But there is not enough evidence for these claims. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, many works were close to the modern poetry of the Tang Dynasty in systematic rhythm. At that time, some poems already had very strict sentences. It can be seen that several harmonious antitheses in this poem cannot be proved to be from the hands of the Tang Dynasty. Chen said: "The number of words in Shuo Qi Chuan Jin was fixed in the Tang Dynasty, but everyone in Qi Liang was from the Tang Dynasty, but the Tang people were definitely not from the Tang Dynasty. In order to know its true ancient characters. "
A lot could have been written about Mulan's military life, but the author summed up this experience in a few words, which shows that the author's interest is not in the performance of war, but in the dramatic event that Mulan disguised as a man and joined the army as her father.
The third part is about Mulan's successful return. The author also spent a lot of time trying to spread it. Write Mulan's exploits first and see the son of heaven again. The son of heaven met her in class. Strategic training is to remember merits and deeds, to turn to honours and titles, and to turn to twelve is also wordy, not to refer to it. It is also a coincidence that the twelve turns here are consistent with the official system of the Tang Dynasty. It does not prove that this poem was written or revised by the Tang Dynasty. "Before 1000" means more than 1000, which means more rewards. But Mulan doesn't care about the official position and reward, she just wants to return to her hometown and reunite with her relatives as soon as possible. Camels are camels that can walk thousands of miles. Mulan doesn't want to be an official or a huge reward. She just needs to borrow a camel that can travel thousands of miles to go home, which shows that she is anxious to return. At the same time, it also shows that the heroine from a civilian background doesn't like fame and fortune.
After a long and arduous war, Mulan finally returned to her hometown. This poem describes in detail the joy of Mulan's family after hearing the news. Here again, I used repeated parallelism, and wrote the movements of my parents, my sister and my brother in detail. This repeated parallelism sets off a cheerful and festive atmosphere. Later, I wrote about Mulan's behavior after she came home, and also described the specific details in detail. She opened the door of the East Pavilion and sat on the bed of the West Pavilion, fully showing the joy after returning home. After changing clothes and dressing up, she recovered her true colors, and then went out to see her partner, who was surprised. "After twelve years of wandering together, I didn't know Mulan was a girl!" The plot is full of comedy. Mulan's incomparable pride and pride are reflected by her partner's surprise, and the plot of the whole story ends in a climax full of comedy. However, the author seems to be wanting more. At the end, he wrote four more sentences: "The male rabbit's feet are confused, and the female rabbit's eyes are blurred. When two rabbits walk next to the ground, I can tell if I am a male or a female!" Strange metaphor, as the end of the whole poem, is unique, heroic and powerful, and its tone is full of praise and praise for the heroine Mulan. Xie Zhen said, "This knot is the most interesting and surprising. Without these four sentences, it may be irreparable. " That's true.
The artistic form of this poem is noteworthy in several aspects. First, the narrative plot is detailed and appropriate. For example, it is very simple to write about life in the army, but it is very complicated to write about before going to war and returning from meritorious service. This is determined by the author's intention to write this poem. The author is only interested in the rare thing that Mulan disguised herself as a man and joined the army as her father. The first part describes her anxiety and thoughts just to show that she is a woman, because it is natural for men to go out to war, but it is unusual for women to go out to war. The second part mentioned "I didn't hear my parents calling for women" to highlight her female identity. The third part describes her reluctance to be an official, her desire to go home, and her actions after returning home, emphasizing that she is a woman. The details of the whole poem revolve around this intention. Secondly, the author attaches importance to the characterization of characters, and is good at expressing characters in the process of contradiction generation and resolution, thus making characters have distinct personality colors. Thirdly, the whole poem uses a lot of repetitive sentences, which not only exaggerates the atmosphere and emphasizes the narrative plot, but also makes the language fluent and full of charm, reflecting the common techniques in folk songs. Finally, the style of the whole poem is clear, rich, simple and vivid, just as Amin Hu Yinglin said: "In this song, the ancient style has forced the Han and Wei Dynasties."
In a word, Mulan poetry is a masterpiece of northern folk songs and a wonderful work in the history of China poetry. It had a great influence on later generations.