Chapter 1: Mulan Mulan (1)
This chapter is edited by Kubera.
“This one from Hua family, it’s just that, although Liu family’s son is widowed, but his family background is clean, his two children are still young, and if the children are raised up by her, they will get familiarized with her. Besides, your family’s Mulan…” That matchmaker paused slightly before continuing, “If your daughter is not a heroine, the Liu family will not agree to it oh!”
What the matchmaker had said had shocked Yuan-shi. It made the atmosphere a little awkward, but with Yuan-shi’s benevolence, putting it plainly, it is her cowardice, with a tone of neither refutation nor anger, she echoed:
“What you said is true, this Liu family sounds good, however…”
“What are saying however for? Even if Mulan used to be a female general in the army, towards marriage she should just be like everyone else. She already is thirty and above. If she’s not looking for a lifetime partner now, won’t there be no one who would send her off (2)? ”
“It might be the case, but …”
“However, whether he is really good, I will still have to go and see it before I judge.”
A charming, magnetic voice sounded behind the curtains curtain from the back of the room.
As the low-pitched alluring voice sounded, the linen curtain was pried open. The man was wearing long trousers, long boots and waist strap buckle. The man, wearing a Xianbei leather hat on his head walked out.
“Why did you come out!” Yuan-shi was startled, and she did not know where her eyes should look.
The matchmaker was someone who had a lot of experience in matchmaking, and when she saw how the man dressed, she knew he was someone from Xianbei. The matchmaker knew it with just a glance. In DaWei, only Xianbei-ren clan’s collars are Zuo-wei, and Han-ren’s collars are You-wei. For him to wear the leather crown, his status will naturally not be low. For the Hans they will not wear the hat, even for the sake of being “fashionable”. The matchmaker quickly stood up and respectfully saluted him.
This is Liang county, neither is it the capital Ping City, nor it is the several states of that were hoarded by the Xianbei-ren, lesser Xianbei-ren would be seen. It was sensational for awhile when the Hua family moved to Shuofang county.
Now, for them to see a Xianbei man, naturally one must take a few more peeks .
“How could you casually set up cousin’s marriage! After she fought for 12 years and resigned as a senior official, is it to come back to be casually married off?” Mulan narrowed his eyes at Yuan-shi, and raised his chin to the matchmaker and commanded her, “Lead the way, I will make a trip down to the Liu house to take a look, and if it is good, we can continue the discussion, and if it is not good, this matter will be dropped.”
"But …But it is not customary for the female’s side brother to go down to look… "The matchmaker frowned and did not know what to say.
Before there were rumours that this Hua Mulan has an extremely powerful Xianbei cousin, who scared a lot of matchmakers away, and right now, with the frightening air around him, he looked extremely fierce!
It’s not easy for the matchmaker to make money!
"The daughters of Xianbei womens are not similar to that of a Han lady, Granny Wang, please be at the front to lead the way.” Mulan pointed to the door, with an air of unwillingness to cede to another, forcing the matchmaker to take him to Liu’s house.
Leaving the Yuan-shi whose face displayed her confusion and dismay, leaning on the side of the door, as she looked at her second daughter, Hua Mulan, following the matchmaker away. Looking at the sight, she felt that she does not even have the mood to bash her head into the wall.
She she she ……
She’s wearing men’s clothes to stir trouble for others again!
Does she still want to get married!
On the country road towards Liu Township, with a height of more than seven feet, donning a man’s outfit, He Mulan followed behind the short Granny Wang¬, as she lamented darkly in her heart.
‘ Who wants to get married! ’
It’s only been a short time since she transmigrated over, but she has already been through 3 matchmaking sessions!
Is this how heroines should be treated?
This can be compared with the modern times where she received the same treatment as a holy warrior!
Well, this Hua Mulan in ancient times is indeed considered an old female warrior, and in the shoes of ordinary people with the same age, some may already be a Grandma. But no matter how old she is, they shouldn’t look down on her right?
The second last time , it was a 40 years old butcher with a big family who lives around the neighbourhood. As she went to scout, just by asking around, the man actually has concubines, and he beats his wife and children. As the former wife has been beaten to death, he began looking for a wife that he is unable to beat to death.
How is he confident that he’s worthy of Hua Mulan?
Isn’t he afraid that Hua Mulan will beat him to death?
Also, the last time, they said it was a good family. The whole family lineage were officials. He said he agreed to marry into her household because he did not want to stay with his family. In the end, when she went to ask about it, it wasn’t that he did not want to stay with his family. It was obvious that the whole neighbourhood knows that he’s a cut-sleeve, so his family rushed to marry him out to cover up about this issue!
If Hua Mulan is looking for cut-sleeve, wouldn’t there be people in the army who are?
Why would she run back home to find a cut-sleeve?
She should really be thankful for the simplicity of the folks living around here. As long as the folks hear that she is talking about matters of marriage, nobody is willing to let a good daughter’s jump into the fire pit. They will not hold back on such matters and will tell her the full story. In her times, everyone would sweep their own snow away from their doors (3), nobody knows what kind of person stays around them. In the situation where the neighbours know the full story, they will not disclose it. If it’s in that situation, even Hua Mulan will not know if she jumped into a fire pit!
This time this widowed man wants to marry Hua Mulan, will he be reliable?
He Mulan glanced at the sky, speechless, and felt that she still has a long way to go to defend her “idol”.
He Mulan was originally a female forensic doctor in N City, belonging to the N City Public Security Bureau of the criminal Investigation team, 28 years old, unmarried, but also a victim of repeated forced matchmaking due to her being an older aged woman.
In contrast to the situation of Hua Mulan, she “dissected” too many dead bodies, therefore, no men wanted her, while Hua Mulan “killed” too many people, no one dares to marry her.
Her best friend Gu Qing once laughed at her. She said that if she couldn’t find one then she should find one from the same profession. Then they could discuss the structure of the human body together at night. However, the problem lies with that her colleagues would not consider her, they would prefer those cute and petite girls.
When she first transmigrated, she didn’t know who she transmigrated into, she only felt that this family was strange in an unspeakable way.
There was the mother who do not act like a mother but instead acted like a daughter-in-law, the father who’s legs are not good and would heave and sigh, the sister who she heard is married to a faraway place and she will not return home if nothing serious happened, and a little brother who sees her like a role-model, the only lacking thing was that he did not kneel and bow when she leaves.
The good thing is that when she transmigrated over, a lot of the original owner’s memory fragments were still stored in her head. Therefore, that’s the reason she could quickly adapt to this body. She spent several days to organize her memories. It shocked her so much that she felt like half of her soul ran out of her body after organizing her memories!
She has transmigrated as Hua Mulan!
Hua Mulan.
Jiji and jiji ‘s Hua Mulan Ah!(4)
Her idol since she was young, and because of her, her name was teased over 28 years-that original owner!
This Hua Mulan is a person living in the early years of the Northern Wei dynasty, at this time the Xianbei tribesmen had not been ordered by the Xiaowen Emperor to Sinicize , so Hua Mulan is surnamed Hua, yet not surnamed Hua. As her father is Xianbei-ren, for generations her ancestors and her family served in the military of the Northern Wei’s Yingyang army.
The Xianbei-ren spoke the Xianbei language. Although there is the language, there are no written words. Therefore, it is linguistically correct if she is surnamed He, surnamed Hua, or surnamed He Lan.
In the early days of the Northern Wei dynasty, most of the Xianbei-ren conversed in the Xianbei language and write Chinese characters. Most of these times, most words are transliterated from the Xianbei language into Chinese.
Hua Mulan’s ancestors were originally from the tribe ‘ He Rai ‘. Originally, they were of servant status in He Rai tribe. Later, because they wanted to be free from the tribe and wanted to make a distinction between He Rai tribe and their family, the Han surname to be registered was changed into the Chinese character “Hua”.
This is the era of the reign of Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei (Tuoba Tao). Although at this period the Xianbei were not completely Sinicized, to common folks, there is not a clear barrier between Xianbei and the Han. The Xianbei and the Han had little interracial marriages. However, it was common for the Xianbei soldiers to marry Han women. This was how Hua Mulan’s mother, Yuan-shi, was able to marry to her father.
But none of the above is the main point!!!
The point is that she did not transmigrate to Jiji and jiji’s Hua Mulan, but the “Generals die after a hundred battles; heroes return after ten years’ time”(5) that Hua Mulan!
That Hua Mulan who has declined the kindness of those Heavenly son’s officials, who removed her armour and returned to the field!
Apart from some gold as reward, the Hua Mulan who has absolutely nothing!
Where’s General Li?
Where’s that Brother Liu who speaks in an eccentric way, that Brother Liu?
At the very least, where’s the companions who you will meet outside, those “companions”!
Where…have…they…gone…to!
Sure enough, are novels and TV Dramas lying?
Sure enough, towards the Hua Mulan who removed her armour and returned home, these villagers are not worth seeing!!!
They said she was a homicidal freak!
They said she was ugly monster!
They said she slept with men in the barracks for 12 years, is she not ashamed!
They said she was a Xianbei woman, who was eight feet tall, with a bearded face looking like the butt of tiger!
……
Eight feet tall and a bearded face that looked like a butt of a tiger-is that a Xianbei woman?
Isn’t that a tall and muscular Xianbei man instead?
But thanks to these inexplicable rumours, He Mulan was able to run around the neighbourhood in her former clothes, and no one connected her to the “bearded face tiger butt” Hua Mulan.
After all, although this body is very tall, having passed the 1.7-meter mark, her figure is upright and tall. It does not have even an ounce of relevance to “bearded face tiger butt”.
Hua Mulan’s family was originally based in Shuofang County in the line of military households. But as Hua Mulan’s household was missing a daughter due to her taking over her father’s mantle to serve in the army, rumours started to spread. As Hua father is afraid that the truth will be exposed, when the emperor led the army down south, when the lands in the south was conquered and the army needed to Putian(6), through this, the Hua family went through the relocation of military officials to move to the south of the Liang county. Once they moved, they settled down here for about 7-8 years.
In the Liang countryside, folks only know of the name “Hua Mulan”, and not many people know what Hua Mulan looks like. This gave He Mulan freedom to move around.
She often used her cousin’s name in the Army, “Hua KeHu”, to go out to move around, in order to understand the customs of this place.
Hua mother, Yuan-shi is warm, Hua father felt he owed her daughter and he rarely commented on her attitude, while her brother said everything that she does is good. Hence, she is considered one of the luckier women who transmigrated, as she can go around visiting.
If this was not the case, regardless of how He Mulan is cheerful and optimistic, she will be bored to death here.
Now, transmigrating to the real, old, homicidal, with a bearded face looking like a tiger’s buttock , rich and wealthy Hua Mulan, He Mulan expressed that her pressure is too great.
After facing problems like her having troubles with sleeping due to the lack of bed, there are no chairs to sit, the food is not seasoned here, every day when she heads to the toilet, she felt that she would rather die by biting her tongue to restart her life, He Mulan faced another bothersome and urgent problem…
Hua Mulan, 32, is too old.
Hua Mulan’s mama (mother) began looking for matchmakers for her daughter to matchmake her.
Hua Mulan’s papa (father) also began to look for a suitable man among the Xianbei tribesmen to find the right candidate.
In other words, Hua Mulan was forced to marry.
(0): It’s the second verse of Mulan’s ballad. They didn’t use the title of the first verse for the first book. Perhaps this book is related to the verse where Mulan’s life is boring; or rather meaningless? Check out: http://tsoidug.org/Literary/Mulan_Ballad_Simp.pdf
I used his verses to aid in this translation. Credits to Feng xin-ming.
(1): Mulan Mulan: Historically, in line with the ballad of Mulan, Hua Mulan’s name is 木兰. However, some historicans argued that it might be 穆兰. I think it might also be a wordplay on the author’s side to name our very own main character 穆兰.
(2): send her off: in a funeral sense.
(3): sweep snow of their own’s door: Mind each’s own business
(4): Jiji and jiji’s Hua Mulan: read the first verse in the ballad of Mulan. Jiji and jiji this sense refers to before she stepped into the army. Do note that the timeline now is after Mulan had fought the war and returned home.
(5): Generals die after a hundred battles; heroes return after ten years’ time.: refer to Mulan’s ballad. It is implied in the chapter that currently, she transmigrated to a Mulan who returned after 10 or so years after the war.
(6): Putian: an agricultural collective farming system that has been directly organized by the government in order to obtain military support or tax food after the Han Dynasty. i.e., using conquered lands to farm/manage an administrative farming system to support the military.
See: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B1%AF%E7%94%B0/1498980
*In general: ‘-ren’: e.g. Xianbei-ren means Xianbei man, i.e. Chinese person.
Fleur’s corner:
Hi! I am fleurdelys.
This is my very first attempt at translating a Chinese novel. I’d say this translation is about 80-85% close to the original meaning of the novel. I tried to incorporate all the historical meanings and leave footnotes behind, if you’re interested to find out more.
I’m looking for an editor to help me. If you are keen, please contact me via Tumblr or NovelUpdates. If not, if you find any grammatical error or would like to improve the grammar structure, please comment or email me. Thanks.
As for the schedule, after translating the first chapter, I felt that I definitely need more time to translate this novel due to the huge amount of Chinese historical terms used + poems + Chinese literature… So… I’d try to update once a week or twice a week. Maybe after the next chapter I’ll decide on the exact schedule.
I’m finally done with this chapter! Thanks for reading!
Chapter 1: Mulan Mulan (1)
This chapter is edited by Kubera.
“This one from Hua family, it’s just that, although Liu family’s son is widowed, but his family background is clean, his two children are still young, and if the children are raised up by her, they will get familiarized with her. Besides, your family’s Mulan…” That matchmaker paused slightly before continuing, “If your daughter is not a heroine, the Liu family will not agree to it oh!”
What the matchmaker had said had shocked Yuan-shi. It made the atmosphere a little awkward, but with Yuan-shi’s benevolence, putting it plainly, it is her cowardice, with a tone of neither refutation nor anger, she echoed:
“What you said is true, this Liu family sounds good, however…”
“What are saying however for? Even if Mulan used to be a female general in the army, towards marriage she should just be like everyone else. She already is thirty and above. If she’s not looking for a lifetime partner now, won’t there be no one who would send her off (2)? ”
“It might be the case, but …”
“However, whether he is really good, I will still have to go and see it before I judge.”
A charming, magnetic voice sounded behind the curtains curtain from the back of the room.
As the low-pitched alluring voice sounded, the linen curtain was pried open. The man was wearing long trousers, long boots and waist strap buckle. The man, wearing a Xianbei leather hat on his head walked out.
“Why did you come out!” Yuan-shi was startled, and she did not know where her eyes should look.
The matchmaker was someone who had a lot of experience in matchmaking, and when she saw how the man dressed, she knew he was someone from Xianbei. The matchmaker knew it with just a glance. In DaWei, only Xianbei-ren clan’s collars are Zuo-wei, and Han-ren’s collars are You-wei. For him to wear the leather crown, his status will naturally not be low. For the Hans they will not wear the hat, even for the sake of being “fashionable”. The matchmaker quickly stood up and respectfully saluted him.
This is Liang county, neither is it the capital Ping City, nor it is the several states of that were hoarded by the Xianbei-ren, lesser Xianbei-ren would be seen. It was sensational for awhile when the Hua family moved to Shuofang county.
Now, for them to see a Xianbei man, naturally one must take a few more peeks .
“How could you casually set up cousin’s marriage! After she fought for 12 years and resigned as a senior official, is it to come back to be casually married off?” Mulan narrowed his eyes at Yuan-shi, and raised his chin to the matchmaker and commanded her, “Lead the way, I will make a trip down to the Liu house to take a look, and if it is good, we can continue the discussion, and if it is not good, this matter will be dropped.”
"But …But it is not customary for the female’s side brother to go down to look… "The matchmaker frowned and did not know what to say.
Before there were rumours that this Hua Mulan has an extremely powerful Xianbei cousin, who scared a lot of matchmakers away, and right now, with the frightening air around him, he looked extremely fierce!
It’s not easy for the matchmaker to make money!
"The daughters of Xianbei womens are not similar to that of a Han lady, Granny Wang, please be at the front to lead the way.” Mulan pointed to the door, with an air of unwillingness to cede to another, forcing the matchmaker to take him to Liu’s house.
Leaving the Yuan-shi whose face displayed her confusion and dismay, leaning on the side of the door, as she looked at her second daughter, Hua Mulan, following the matchmaker away. Looking at the sight, she felt that she does not even have the mood to bash her head into the wall.
She she she ……
She’s wearing men’s clothes to stir trouble for others again!
Does she still want to get married!
On the country road towards Liu Township, with a height of more than seven feet, donning a man’s outfit, He Mulan followed behind the short Granny Wang¬, as she lamented darkly in her heart.
‘ Who wants to get married! ’
It’s only been a short time since she transmigrated over, but she has already been through 3 matchmaking sessions!
Is this how heroines should be treated?
This can be compared with the modern times where she received the same treatment as a holy warrior!
Well, this Hua Mulan in ancient times is indeed considered an old female warrior, and in the shoes of ordinary people with the same age, some may already be a Grandma. But no matter how old she is, they shouldn’t look down on her right?
The second last time , it was a 40 years old butcher with a big family who lives around the neighbourhood. As she went to scout, just by asking around, the man actually has concubines, and he beats his wife and children. As the former wife has been beaten to death, he began looking for a wife that he is unable to beat to death.
How is he confident that he’s worthy of Hua Mulan?
Isn’t he afraid that Hua Mulan will beat him to death?
Also, the last time, they said it was a good family. The whole family lineage were officials. He said he agreed to marry into her household because he did not want to stay with his family. In the end, when she went to ask about it, it wasn’t that he did not want to stay with his family. It was obvious that the whole neighbourhood knows that he’s a cut-sleeve, so his family rushed to marry him out to cover up about this issue!
If Hua Mulan is looking for cut-sleeve, wouldn’t there be people in the army who are?
Why would she run back home to find a cut-sleeve?
She should really be thankful for the simplicity of the folks living around here. As long as the folks hear that she is talking about matters of marriage, nobody is willing to let a good daughter’s jump into the fire pit. They will not hold back on such matters and will tell her the full story. In her times, everyone would sweep their own snow away from their doors (3), nobody knows what kind of person stays around them. In the situation where the neighbours know the full story, they will not disclose it. If it’s in that situation, even Hua Mulan will not know if she jumped into a fire pit!
This time this widowed man wants to marry Hua Mulan, will he be reliable?
He Mulan glanced at the sky, speechless, and felt that she still has a long way to go to defend her “idol”.
He Mulan was originally a female forensic doctor in N City, belonging to the N City Public Security Bureau of the criminal Investigation team, 28 years old, unmarried, but also a victim of repeated forced matchmaking due to her being an older aged woman.
In contrast to the situation of Hua Mulan, she “dissected” too many dead bodies, therefore, no men wanted her, while Hua Mulan “killed” too many people, no one dares to marry her.
Her best friend Gu Qing once laughed at her. She said that if she couldn’t find one then she should find one from the same profession. Then they could discuss the structure of the human body together at night. However, the problem lies with that her colleagues would not consider her, they would prefer those cute and petite girls.
When she first transmigrated, she didn’t know who she transmigrated into, she only felt that this family was strange in an unspeakable way.
There was the mother who do not act like a mother but instead acted like a daughter-in-law, the father who’s legs are not good and would heave and sigh, the sister who she heard is married to a faraway place and she will not return home if nothing serious happened, and a little brother who sees her like a role-model, the only lacking thing was that he did not kneel and bow when she leaves.
The good thing is that when she transmigrated over, a lot of the original owner’s memory fragments were still stored in her head. Therefore, that’s the reason she could quickly adapt to this body. She spent several days to organize her memories. It shocked her so much that she felt like half of her soul ran out of her body after organizing her memories!
She has transmigrated as Hua Mulan!
Hua Mulan.
Jiji and jiji ‘s Hua Mulan Ah!(4)
Her idol since she was young, and because of her, her name was teased over 28 years-that original owner!
This Hua Mulan is a person living in the early years of the Northern Wei dynasty, at this time the Xianbei tribesmen had not been ordered by the Xiaowen Emperor to Sinicize , so Hua Mulan is surnamed Hua, yet not surnamed Hua. As her father is Xianbei-ren, for generations her ancestors and her family served in the military of the Northern Wei’s Yingyang army.
The Xianbei-ren spoke the Xianbei language. Although there is the language, there are no written words. Therefore, it is linguistically correct if she is surnamed He, surnamed Hua, or surnamed He Lan.
In the early days of the Northern Wei dynasty, most of the Xianbei-ren conversed in the Xianbei language and write Chinese characters. Most of these times, most words are transliterated from the Xianbei language into Chinese.
Hua Mulan’s ancestors were originally from the tribe ‘ He Rai ‘. Originally, they were of servant status in He Rai tribe. Later, because they wanted to be free from the tribe and wanted to make a distinction between He Rai tribe and their family, the Han surname to be registered was changed into the Chinese character “Hua”.
This is the era of the reign of Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei (Tuoba Tao). Although at this period the Xianbei were not completely Sinicized, to common folks, there is not a clear barrier between Xianbei and the Han. The Xianbei and the Han had little interracial marriages. However, it was common for the Xianbei soldiers to marry Han women. This was how Hua Mulan’s mother, Yuan-shi, was able to marry to her father.
But none of the above is the main point!!!
The point is that she did not transmigrate to Jiji and jiji’s Hua Mulan, but the “Generals die after a hundred battles; heroes return after ten years’ time”(5) that Hua Mulan!
That Hua Mulan who has declined the kindness of those Heavenly son’s officials, who removed her armour and returned to the field!
Apart from some gold as reward, the Hua Mulan who has absolutely nothing!
Where’s General Li?
Where’s that Brother Liu who speaks in an eccentric way, that Brother Liu?
At the very least, where’s the companions who you will meet outside, those “companions”!
Where…have…they…gone…to!
Sure enough, are novels and TV Dramas lying?
Sure enough, towards the Hua Mulan who removed her armour and returned home, these villagers are not worth seeing!!!
They said she was a homicidal freak!
They said she was ugly monster!
They said she slept with men in the barracks for 12 years, is she not ashamed!
They said she was a Xianbei woman, who was eight feet tall, with a bearded face looking like the butt of tiger!
……
Eight feet tall and a bearded face that looked like a butt of a tiger-is that a Xianbei woman?
Isn’t that a tall and muscular Xianbei man instead?
But thanks to these inexplicable rumours, He Mulan was able to run around the neighbourhood in her former clothes, and no one connected her to the “bearded face tiger butt” Hua Mulan.
After all, although this body is very tall, having passed the 1.7-meter mark, her figure is upright and tall. It does not have even an ounce of relevance to “bearded face tiger butt”.
Hua Mulan’s family was originally based in Shuofang County in the line of military households. But as Hua Mulan’s household was missing a daughter due to her taking over her father’s mantle to serve in the army, rumours started to spread. As Hua father is afraid that the truth will be exposed, when the emperor led the army down south, when the lands in the south was conquered and the army needed to Putian(6), through this, the Hua family went through the relocation of military officials to move to the south of the Liang county. Once they moved, they settled down here for about 7-8 years.
In the Liang countryside, folks only know of the name “Hua Mulan”, and not many people know what Hua Mulan looks like. This gave He Mulan freedom to move around.
She often used her cousin’s name in the Army, “Hua KeHu”, to go out to move around, in order to understand the customs of this place.
Hua mother, Yuan-shi is warm, Hua father felt he owed her daughter and he rarely commented on her attitude, while her brother said everything that she does is good. Hence, she is considered one of the luckier women who transmigrated, as she can go around visiting.
If this was not the case, regardless of how He Mulan is cheerful and optimistic, she will be bored to death here.
Now, transmigrating to the real, old, homicidal, with a bearded face looking like a tiger’s buttock , rich and wealthy Hua Mulan, He Mulan expressed that her pressure is too great.
After facing problems like her having troubles with sleeping due to the lack of bed, there are no chairs to sit, the food is not seasoned here, every day when she heads to the toilet, she felt that she would rather die by biting her tongue to restart her life, He Mulan faced another bothersome and urgent problem…
Hua Mulan, 32, is too old.
Hua Mulan’s mama (mother) began looking for matchmakers for her daughter to matchmake her.
Hua Mulan’s papa (father) also began to look for a suitable man among the Xianbei tribesmen to find the right candidate.
In other words, Hua Mulan was forced to marry.
(0): It’s the second verse of Mulan’s ballad. They didn’t use the title of the first verse for the first book. Perhaps this book is related to the verse where Mulan’s life is boring; or rather meaningless? Check out: http://tsoidug.org/Literary/Mulan_Ballad_Simp.pdf
I used his verses to aid in this translation. Credits to Feng xin-ming.
(1): Mulan Mulan: Historically, in line with the ballad of Mulan, Hua Mulan’s name is 木兰. However, some historicans argued that it might be 穆兰. I think it might also be a wordplay on the author’s side to name our very own main character 穆兰.
(2): send her off: in a funeral sense.
(3): sweep snow of their own’s door: Mind each’s own business
(4): Jiji and jiji’s Hua Mulan: read the first verse in the ballad of Mulan. Jiji and jiji this sense refers to before she stepped into the army. Do note that the timeline now is after Mulan had fought the war and returned home.
(5): Generals die after a hundred battles; heroes return after ten years’ time.: refer to Mulan’s ballad. It is implied in the chapter that currently, she transmigrated to a Mulan who returned after 10 or so years after the war.
(6): Putian: an agricultural collective farming system that has been directly organized by the government in order to obtain military support or tax food after the Han Dynasty. i.e., using conquered lands to farm/manage an administrative farming system to support the military.
See: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B1%AF%E7%94%B0/1498980
*In general: ‘-ren’: e.g. Xianbei-ren means Xianbei man, i.e. Chinese person.
Fleur’s corner:
Hi! I am fleurdelys.
This is my very first attempt at translating a Chinese novel. I’d say this translation is about 80-85% close to the original meaning of the novel. I tried to incorporate all the historical meanings and leave footnotes behind, if you’re interested to find out more.
I’m looking for an editor to help me. If you are keen, please contact me via Tumblr or NovelUpdates. If not, if you find any grammatical error or would like to improve the grammar structure, please comment or email me. Thanks.
As for the schedule, after translating the first chapter, I felt that I definitely need more time to translate this novel due to the huge amount of Chinese historical terms used + poems + Chinese literature… So… I’d try to update once a week or twice a week. Maybe after the next chapter I’ll decide on the exact schedule.
I’m finally done with this chapter! Thanks for reading!
