what year is mulan set in

The story of Mulan is a legendary tale in Chinese literature that has been adapted over more than a thousand years. The earliest written record of Mulan is the Ballad of Mulan, a folk song believed to have been composed during the Northern Wei dynasty (386–535 CE) and compiled in an anthology of books and songs during the Southern Chen dynasty (557–589 CE) . The historical setting of the Ballad of Mulan is usually the Northern Weis military campaigns against the nomadic Rouran. A later adaptation has Mulan active around the founding of the Tang dynasty (c. 620 CE) . Scholarly consensus is that Mulan is a fictional character, probably developed in Northern China in response to the greater independence women enjoyed there, whose legend was then revised in succeeding eras to reflect the values and challenges of the times. Therefore, the story of Mulan is set in ancient China, but the exact year is not specified.