A Chinese name question

Natural languages and linguistics
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keenir
Posts: 948
Joined: Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:14 pm

A Chinese name question

Post by keenir »

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I am presently playing a computer game which allows you to play as the emperor of a small kingdom, and you can have Ministers from all over, including but not limited to, Christopher Columbus...and one feature is to convince one of four women to (i assume and hope) lead the army...as spelled in the game Call Me Emperor, they are:

* Mu Lan
* Mu Guiying
* Liang Hongyu
* Qin Liangyu

(the game doesn't use tone marking)

So I went to the public library and searched through their copy of Mulan's Legend and Legacy in China and the United States by Lan Dong...which has information on Mulan, Fa Mulan, Qin Liangyu, and a little bit of info on Liang Hongyu ("Hongyu" was bestowed upon her by later generations of performers and storytellers)

But no Mu Lan per se, nor anything about Mu Guiying.
In short, I was wondering if Mu Guiying might be an incorrect rendering - neither Pinyin nor Giles-Wade, or at least an error of spacing - of an otherwise perfectly findable (and thus researchable) name.

Thoughts?

thank you.
Kuchigakatai
Posts: 1307
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2018 4:19 pm

Re: A Chinese name question

Post by Kuchigakatai »

Mu Lan is the same as (Hua) Mulan is the same as Fa Mu(k)lan. "Hua Mulan" is the Mandarin pronunciation of the name, while "Fa Muklan" is the Cantonese pronunciation.

I don't understand what you mean about not being able to find information about Mu Guiying. There's a Wikipedia article of that character exactly as you spelled it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Guiying What am I misunderstanding?
keenir
Posts: 948
Joined: Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:14 pm

Re: A Chinese name question

Post by keenir »

Ser wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 5:40 pmI don't understand what you mean about not being able to find information about Mu Guiying. There's a Wikipedia article of that character exactly as you spelled it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Guiying What am I misunderstanding?
I was not sufficiently clear, for which I apologize...I was unable to find Mu Lan and Mu Guiying in the book I mentioned above, which has a wide array of women leaders, generals, knight-errants, and others who have, at one point or another, been compared to Mulan. (of all the times for me to've forgotten wikipedia even exists...sheesh; bad me)

thank you for the prompt reply!
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