Before Mulan, there was Fu Hao (ca. 1200 BCE). This Shang
Dynasty queen was a remarkable figure: not only was she King Wu
Ding’s wife and the mother of his children, but she was also his
chief military commander. It seems to us like a strange
combination, but Fu Hao was a very successful general,
personally leading thousands of troops into battle. Some
scholars have even speculated that Fu Hao’s military prowess was
the whole reason Wu Ding married her; she may have been a
northern princess or warlord who brought horses and chariots
into the Shang kingdom as part of the marriage alliance. Fu
Hao’s name also pops up repeatedly in the oracle bone
inscriptions from that time, showing that she served as a key
religious official at court. There’s a lot we don’t understand
about the status of women in Bronze Age China, but Fu Hao makes
it clear that at least some women could play hugely significant
roles in public life. The basic garment in Shang Dynasty times
was a lapped robe with contrasting borders, belted with