The hero Mulan is an ancient and a celebrity. Her story of dressing as a man, serving in the army for her father, serving the country with absolute sincerity, and heroically killing the enemy has made her not only a hero in China, but also a model for the world to learn. Her story not only has the ancient record of "Mulan Ci", but also the Peking Opera "Mulan Conscription", the Yu opera "Mulan", and the American animation film "Mulan" make Mulan famous in ancient and modern China and abroad. But few people know Mulan's hometown, Yucheng County, Henan.
Yucheng County, Henan, historically the ancient capital of Xia Shang, has a history of more than 2200 years. As early as 4,000 years ago, Xia Yu sealed shunzi merchants here, with the name "Youyu", later known as Yu Guo. Luncheng in the western part of Yucheng was an important capital in the middle of the Xia Dynasty, and after the Shang Tang dynasty destroyed the Xia Dynasty , du Bo ( southwest of present-day Gushu Town , Yucheng County ) , the Shang Dynasty was established. Therefore, like Zhengzhou and Anyang, Yucheng County can also be said to be the ancient capital of Xia Shang. In 221 BC, under the county system, Qin Shi Huang established Yu County in this area. In 596 AD, the Sui Dynasty established Yucheng County in the area, from which Yucheng got its name.
Yucheng has been born since ancient times, and Mulan's hometown is located in Zhouzhuang Village, Yingkuo Town, 35 kilometers south of Yucheng County, which is the "hometown of China's Mulan". Today's Yingkuo Town, Yucheng County, not only has ancestral halls built by the Tang, Song, Yuan, Qing and other dynasties, but also has a monument of the Yuan and Qing dynasties, which details Mulan's family lineage, deeds and the overview of the ancestral halls built in previous dynasties. According to the Yuan Dynasty inscription in the Mulan Ancestral Hall in Yingkuo Town, Yucheng County, whenever the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar is Mulan's birthday, local officials lead the local people to pay tribute to commemorate the heroic spirits, which has been inherited into a temple fair for three days before and after the eighth day of april every year, which has not faded to this day.
Yucheng is not only mulan's hometown, but also the place where Cangjie made characters, according to historical materials such as "Yucheng County Chronicle", the Yellow Emperor's historian and the originator of the text, Cangjie, had four long eyes, detected the traces of birds and animal hooves, pioneered the writing, removed the ugliness of knotted rope records, invented the original Chinese script, opened the history of Chinese civilization, and was revered as "the sage of character creation" and "Wenzu Cangjie".
In Yucheng, if Cangjie Zaozi opened up human civilization, then Du Kang's wine and Yiyin soup medicine cooking are the first ancient food processing. The famous historian Guo Moruo said in the "Manuscript of Chinese History" that "Du Kang, the son of Xia Wangxiang, was hunted down by Han Hun and fled to Yucheng County to rely on the Yu clan, and during the "Ku Zheng" period, he created the technology of brewing rice wine from sorghum." To continue the innovation and expand the scope of the food industry in Yucheng today, there is also Yi Yin, the originator of cooking, the originator of soup medicine, and the ancestor of teachers, who was buried in Weikudui Village in Yucheng County after his death. To this day, there are still Cangjie Tombs, Shangjun Tombs, Yi Yin Tombs, Mulan Ancestral Hall and other places of interest in Yucheng.
Yucheng County is not only a historical ancient county, but today's Yucheng is measuring the whole world with a ruler. A palm-sized steel tape measure is a common measuring tool in life. The annual production and sales of steel tape measures in Yucheng County account for more than 85% of the country, the export volume accounts for more than 60% of the national total, exported to more than 70 countries and regions, with more than 100,000 employees, and was awarded the title of "China Steel Tape Measure City" by the China Metrology Association.
Yucheng's "Chinese Steel Tape Measure City" is located on the edge of the Yellow River's Ancient Road, at the junction of the three provinces of Yulu and Anhui, where the legend of hardware products is written. Yucheng County is also famous for its mineral resources, with as many as 2 billion tons of coal proven in its southern and southwestern regions. Rich resources, convenient transportation, and a good economic development environment have made Yucheng County's GDP output value reach 34.5 billion yuan in 2020.