Mu Guiying's theme is so popular, so is there A Mu Guiying in history? This is a long-running argument, and both sides of the argument hold their own words and are deadlocked.
The first view is that Mu Guiying did exist in history, which was evolved from real historical figures. Among them, Juxian Wei studied this issue for the first time in 1944. He speculated on Mu Guiying from the perspective of phonetics. He believes that Mu is a homonym of "Murong", and Mu is a descendant of Xianbei nationality, surnamed Murong, and later became "Mu" when it was circulated. This view had a great influence on later.
Hao Shuhou wrote Mu Man on 1978. He thinks that although there are records of Mu in the History of Song Dynasty and other historical books, he notes that the legend of Mu is circulating around Yanmenguan. He agreed that "Mu" was transformed from "Murong".
Textual research on the history of Chang Zheng, published by 1980, pointed out that there was a descendant of Yang in Bozhou (now Zunyi City, Guizhou Province) in the south, and his related deeds provided a blueprint for the related stories of Mu in later generations.
Zhao Jiemin also put forward the story and legend of Mu in the article Textual Research on Yang Jiajiang published by Tianjin Social Sciences 1987. Although it is not mentioned in the History of Song Dynasty, nor seen in other historical books, it is traced back in local chronicles.
Combined with the above research, Mr. Tang Kaijian proposed that the prototype of Mu's image comes from the heroic and combative Tangut women in the article "Mu's Personality Prototype comes from the Tangut Examination" published in Northwest Ethnic Studies 200 1.
In the article "A Preliminary Study of a Young Woman's Story" published in Journal of Sun Yat-sen University (Social Science Edition) in 2008, Cao thinks that the legend of Mu may be born out of the Yang Family Biography by Song Lian, a great scholar in the early Ming Dynasty.
Some scholars think that Mu is the homonym of Murong, which is untenable. In the article "Yang Jiajiang —— From Folk Rap to Opera Performance" published in Dramatic Art 1983, Chen Ruheng thinks that Mu is a legend, and local chronicles and historical sites are not credible.
Gu's view that "mother" is the sound change of "Murong" is not credible. They pointed out that Murong was a compound surname and Mu was a single surname, so the two could not be confused in ancient times. It also points out that the conclusion that "Yang married Mr. Murong is Mu in the story" is unreasonable, and there is no Mu in history, which is just a statement that penetrates association.