Cai Wenji

Cai Yan
An illustration of Cai Wenji from a Qing Dynasty collection of poems by female poets, 1772.
Poet and musician
Born	(Unknown)
Died	(Unknown)
Names
Simplified Chinese	蔡琰
Traditional Chinese	蔡琰
Pinyin	Cài Yǎn
Wade–Giles	Ts'ai Yen
Courtesy name	Wenji (Chinese: 文姬; pinyin: Wénjī; Wade–Giles: Wen-chi) Zhaoji (Chinese: 昭姫; pinyin: Zhāojī; Wade–Giles: Chao-chi) (original style name)

Cai Yan (birth and death dates unknown),^[1] courtesy name Wenji, was a Han Dynasty poet and musician. She was the daughter of Cai Yong. Her style name was originally Zhaoji, but was changed to Wenji during the Jin Dynasty to avoid a naming conflict with Sima Zhao, the father of the Jin Dynasty's founding emperor Sima Yan. Cai spent part of her life as a prisoner of the Xiongnu until the warlord Cao Cao paid a heavy ransom to bring her back to the Han Dynasty's domain in 207.

Biography

Cai was born shortly before 178^{[citation needed]} in Yu County (圉縣) in Chenliu (陳留) commandery (around present-day Qi County, Kaifeng, Henan). She was wed to Wei Zhongdao (衛仲道) in 192 but her husband died shortly after their marriage and they did not have any children.^[2] Between 194 and 195, when China entered a period of chaos, Xiongnu nomads intruded into the Han Dynasty's territory. Cai was captured by the Xiongnu and taken back as a prisoner to the northern lands. During her captivity, she became the wife of the Xiongnu chieftain Liu Bao (the "Wise Prince of the Left"),^[3] and bore him two sons. 12 years later, the warlord Cao Cao, who had become the de facto head of government in China, paid a heavy ransom in the name of Cai's father. Cai was released and she returned to her homeland but left her children behind in Xiongnu territory. The reason Cao Cao wanted her back was that she was the only one remaining of her clan and he needed her to placate the spirits of her ancestors.^[4]

Cai married again, this time to a government official named Dong Si (董祀). However, Dong Si committed a capital crime later, and Cai pleaded with Cao Cao for her husband's acquittal. At that time, Cao Cao was hosting a banquet to entertain guests, who were stirred by Cai's distressed appearance and behaviour. She asked him if he could provide her with yet another husband^[4] and Cao Cao pardoned Dong Si.

Cai's father, Cai Yong, was an established writer, but his works were lost in the ravages of war. At Cao Cao's request, Cai was able to recite from memory up to four hundred out of four thousand of her father's lost works. Later in her life, she wrote two poems describing her turbulent years. Her year of death is not recorded in history.

Poetry

Cai, like her father, was an established calligrapher of her time, and her works were often praised along with her father's. Her poems were noted for their sorrowful tone, parallel to her hard life. The famous guqin piece Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute is traditionally attributed to her, although the authorship is a perennial issue for scholarly debate. The other two poems, both named "Poem of Sorrow and Anger" (悲憤詩), were known to be by her own hand.

Below is an excerpt of the "Poem of Sorrow and Anger" in five-character form (五言):

Legacy

The stories of Cai reverberate primarily with feelings of sorrow, and inspired later artists to keep portraying her past. Her return was the subject of the painting Cai Wenji Returns to Her Homeland (文姬歸漢圖) by Zhang Yu, which is now stored in the Long Corridor in the Summer Palace in Beijing. The modern writer Guo Moruo wrote a play on her life, and there also exists a Beijing opera rendition. A crater on Venus was also named after her.

Modern references

Cai Wenji appears as a playable character in Koei's Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce 2^[5] and Dynasty Warriors 7 (her debut as a playable character in North American and European ports). She also appears in Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms video game series and in Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires as a non-playable character. She is also present as a playable character in Warriors Orochi 3.

See also

• Jian'an poetry
• List of people of the Three Kingdoms
• List of Dynasty Warriors characters

Notes

References

• Fan Ye. Book of the Later Han, Volume 84, Biography of Cai Yan.
• Kang-i Sun Chang, Haun Saussy, Charles Yim-tze Kwong (1999). Women writers of traditional China: an anthology of poetry and criticism. Stanford University Press. 

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