木兰从军
The real story of Mulan
Name: ________________ Date: ________
很多人是从迪士尼动画片里认识花木兰的。动画片里，她的秘密很快就被人发现了。可是一千多年前的民歌《木兰辞》里，木兰瞒了大家整整十二年。
故事是从一声叹气开始的。木兰坐在织布机前，可家里人听不到织布的声音，只听到她一声一声地叹气。
“你在想什么呢？”
“没想什么。”
其实，她昨天晚上看到了征兵的名单。皇帝要打仗了，名单一共十二份，每一份上都有爸爸的名字。可是弟弟还太小，木兰也没有哥哥。
“我去买马，替爸爸去！”
于是，木兰跑遍了四个市场：东边的市场买马，西边的市场买马鞍，南边的市场买缰绳，北边的市场买鞭子。一套装备分四个地方买，比今天网购麻烦多了。
早上，她告别了爸爸妈妈；晚上，已经住在黄河边上了。听不到爸爸妈妈叫她的声音，只听到黄河的水哗哗地流。又走了一天，她到了北方的大山里，耳边是敌人战马的叫声。
从此，她跟着军队走了上万里路。木兰骑着马，翻过一座又一座山。北方的夜特别冷，冷风里传来守夜的锣声，月亮照着她的铁甲。战争打了一年又一年，很多人再也没能回家。
十二年后，仗终于打完了。皇帝很高兴，给了木兰很多奖励，还想让她当大官。可木兰说：“我不想当官，只想要一匹快马，送我回家。”
爸爸妈妈听说女儿要回家了，互相扶着，走到城外去接她。姐姐听说妹妹要回家了，赶紧在门口打扮起来。弟弟听说姐姐要回家了，马上开始磨刀，准备杀猪杀羊。
木兰回到自己的房间，脱下军装，换上以前的衣服，坐在窗前梳头，对着镜子化妆。
然后，她走出门去见战友们。大家都惊呆了：一起打了十二年仗，谁也不知道木兰是个女孩子！
木兰笑了：“公兔子的脚总是乱蹬，母兔子的眼睛总是眯着。可是两只兔子贴着地一起跑的时候，谁还看得出哪个是公的，哪个是母的？”
这两只兔子，后来变成了一个成语：扑朔迷离。今天，一个案子、一段感情，只要复杂得让人看不清，中国人都爱说它“扑朔迷离”。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 秘密 | mìmì | secret; secret; confidential |
| 整整 | zhéngzhěng | whole; full; fully |
| 套 | tào | cover; case; sheath (as in 手套) |
| 告别 | gàobié | to say goodbye; to bid farewell |
| 敌人 | dírén | enemy |
| 奖励 | jiǎnglì | reward; bonus; to reward; to award |
| 匹 | pǐ | classifier for horses, mules and bolts of cloth |
| 打扮 | dǎban | style of dress; outfit; to dress up; to doll up |
| 兔子 | tùzi | rabbit; hare |
| 民歌 | míngē | folk song |
| 皇帝 | huángdì | emperor |
| 打仗 | dǎzhàng | to fight a battle; to go to war |
English (for the teacher)
Many people first met Mulan in the Disney animated film. In the film, her secret is found out very quickly. But in the Ballad of Mulan, a folk song more than a thousand years old, she keeps it from everyone for twelve whole years.
The story begins with a sigh. Mulan was sitting at her loom, but her family couldn’t hear any weaving, only one sigh after another.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
In fact, the night before, she had seen the list of men called up for the army. The emperor was going to war, the list came in twelve parts, and every one of them had her father’s name on it. But her little brother was still too young, and Mulan had no older brother.
“I’ll buy a horse and go in Father’s place!”
So Mulan went round all four markets: a horse from the east market, a saddle from the west, reins from the south and a whip from the north. One set of gear bought in four different places: far more trouble than shopping online today.
In the morning she said goodbye to her parents; by evening she was already spending the night by the Yellow River. She couldn’t hear her parents calling her, only the rushing water of the Yellow River. One more day on the road and she reached the mountains of the north, with the cries of enemy warhorses in her ears.
From then on, she travelled thousands of miles with the army. Mulan rode on, over one mountain after another. Nights in the north were bitterly cold, the night watch’s gong carried on the cold wind, and the moon shone on her iron armour. The war went on year after year, and many never made it home.
Twelve years later, the war was finally over. The emperor was delighted: he gave Mulan many rewards and wanted to make her a high official. But Mulan said, “I don’t want to be an official. All I want is a fast horse to take me home.”
When her mother and father heard their daughter was coming home, they went out beyond the city walls to meet her, holding each other up. When her older sister heard, she hurried to dress up at the door. When her little brother heard, he started sharpening a knife at once, ready to kill the pigs and the sheep.
Mulan went to her own room, took off her uniform, put on her old clothes, sat at the window combing her hair and did her make-up in the mirror.
Then she went out to see her comrades. They were all stunned: twelve years fighting side by side, and none of them had known Mulan was a girl!
Mulan smiled: “The male rabbit’s feet are always kicking, and the female rabbit’s eyes are always half-shut. But when two rabbits run side by side, close to the ground, who can still tell which is the male and which is the female?”
Those two rabbits later became an idiom: pūshuò mílí. Today, when a criminal case or a relationship gets too tangled to see through, Chinese people love to call it “pūshuò mílí”.