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From Mulan to concubine army, meet 3 formidable warrior women who changed China’s fate

  • 1 woman helped found Tang dynasty (618-907) while another saved life of a king

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Three women warriors transformed China’s fate, ruling the nation despite the constraints of patriarchal lineage traditions. Photo: SCMP composite/Baidu/IMDb

Few female Chinese historical figures are as famous as Hua Mulan, the legendary folk heroine who disguised herself as a man to join the military and helped defeat invaders along China’s northern frontier.

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Most historians believe Mulan never existed, and even if she did, her story has been altered so many times that it would be impossible to extricate the truth from legend.

Still, some do think her story is based on a real person and, if she did exist, would join two other important women whose victories at war helped change the course of ancient Chinese history.

Let’s meet these three Chinese warrior women.

Hua Mulan

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Disney has established Hua Mulan as a modern legend, but she first emerged in popular culture over 1,500 years ago in the Ballad of Mulan, a folk song composed during the Northern Wei dynasty (386-535).

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