Cai Yan (Ts'ai Yen) 蔡琰

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by Sally K. Church

Cai Yan 蔡琰 (Ts'ai Yen), styled Wenji 文姬, fl. ca. 190 CE, was the daughter of the Han scholar Cai Yong 蔡邕 (133-192 CE). A talented and well-educated woman she suffered misfortune many times over.

Her first husband died and after returning home childless, she was abducted by invading northern tribes, the Southern Xiongnu, who were besieging China during the waning years of the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE). She was taken off to live with them, presumably to be part of their harem. This had happened to large numbers of Chinese women during that time through abduction.

She is said to have married a Xiongnu chief, and then when he died, to have been passed on to his son, which was the custom among the Xiongnu. She had two children under these circumstances and gradually became accustomed to her new life.

After twelve years, however, the notorious Chinese general Cao Cao 曹操 (Ts'ao Ts'ao, 155-220 CE), who had been a friend of her father, arranged to have her ransomed , brought back to China, and married to Dong Si (Tung Ssu), one of his subordinate generals. Part of the agreement with her captors was that she would leave her children behind.

Thus wrenched away from home and family for a second time, she composed two "Poems of Sorrow", narrating her story and giving expression to her sadness at parting from her children. These poems are included among the biographical material that concerns her in the Hou Han shu.

In addition to these laments, which are probably authentic, another set of "Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute" have been attributed to her, though some scholars think that they were written by a later poet, perhaps of the Tang period (618-906 CE).

Her story became famous and was also the subject of a set of paintings, collected together in an album, depicting her return back to China. These paintings are attributed to the Song dynasty painter Li Tang 李唐 (Li T'ang, ca. 1049-after 1130) and are part of the collection at the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.

The paintings can be viewed on the website of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan under the title "Lady Wen-chi's Return to China": http://www.npm.gov.tw/english/exhbition/epla0104/b/main04.htm

Cai Yan's Journey