蔡琰 (文姬)

Cai Yan 蔡琰 (ca. 178-post 206; alt. ca. 170-ca. 215; alt. death date ca. 249), zi Wenji 文姬 (variant Zhaoji 昭姬). Late Eastern Han writer.

Can Yan was the daughter of Cai Yong 蔡邕 (132/133-192). Her natal place was Yu 圉 in Chenliu 陳留 commandery (modern Qi 杞 county, Henan). She was married at sixteen to a man from the illustrious Wei 衛 family of Hedong 河東 commmandery (administrative headquarters Anyi 安邑, modern Yuwangcheng 禹王城, northwest of Xia 夏 county, Shanxi). His personal name is not known. His zi was Zhongdao 仲道. After he died, because Cai Yan had not given birth to a son, she returned to her parent's home in Chenliu 陳留 (modern eastern Henan). Scholars do not agree on whether Cai Yan returned home before or after Cai Yong was executed in 192. Some time in early 190's, during the Dong Zhuo 董卓 (d. 192) insurrection, she was abducted b a band of Hu 胡 cavalry. She eventually ended up in the hands of the Southern Xiongnu 南匈奴. Most scholars place their residence in the Fen River 汾水 valley of southern Shanxi, near Pingyang 平陽 (southwest of modern Linfen 臨汾, Shanxi). However, some scholars claim she was taken to the area around modern Hetao 河套 in modern Inner Mongolia. She lived with the Southern Xiongnu for about twelve years and became the wife of a Xiongnu chieftain and bore him two children. Finally, around 208, Cao Cao 曹操 (155-220) arranged for her to be ransomed. She returned to her home and married Dong Si 董祀 of Chenliu, who was one of Cao Cao's provincial functionaries.

One reason for Cao Cao's intercession in this matter is that he had admired Cai Yong, and concerned that Cai Yong had no heir, he sent an envoy with a gift of previous jade to the Xiongnu to ransom Cai Yan. It is also possible that her first husband's older brother, Wei Yi 衛顗, who was serving under Cao Cao at this time, was instrumental in persuading Cao Cao to ransom Cai Yan.

After marrying Cai Yan, Dong Si committed a capital offense. Cai Yan went to Cao Cao to plea on husband's behalf. According to her biography in the Hou Han shu, "At this time court ministers, famous scholars, and emissaries from distant places were seated in the hall. Cao Cao told his guests, 'Cai Bojie's daughter is outside. Now I will let you see her.' When Cai Yan came forward, she was on foot and had disheveled hair. Kowtowing, she made her plea. Her speech was clear and eloquent, the tone was heart-rending, and everyone present changed expressions. Cao Cao said, 'I truly have great sympathy for you, but the documents ordering the execution have already been issued. What can I do?' Cao Yan said, 'Your exellency, you have ten thousand horses in your stable, and you have groves of fierce warriors. How can you begrudge one swift horse to save the life of someone who is about to die?' Moved by her words, Cao Cao then pardoned Dong Si. At this time, the weather was cold, and he gave her a headscarf, shoes, and stockings. Cao Cao then took the opportunity to ask Cai Yan: "I have heard that your family used to own many books. Do you still remember them?' Cai Yan said, 'My late father gave me some 4,000 juan, but during the turmoil, they became lost. There are none left. All I can now recite are 400-plus works.' Cao Cao said, "I will give you ten scribes to have them written down.' Cai Yan said, "I have heard that there should be a separation between the sexes, and according to the rites, men and women should not hand anything to each other. I beg to be given paper and brush, and I will write them out, either in regular script of cursive script, as you order.' She then copied them down and send them. There were no errors or anything missing in the text." (Hou Han shu 84.2800-1).

Cai Yan may have had a younger sister who married Yang Dao 羊 , the father of the famous Western Jin statesman and general Yang Hu 羊祜 (221-278) and Yang Huiyu 羊徽瑜 who married Sima Shi 司馬師 (208-255). Some scholars have argued that Yang Dao's wife was none other than Cai Yan. If this claim is correct, Cai Yan would have lived into the late 240s.

Cai Yan has a short biography in the Hou Han shu (84.2800-03). The biography may be based on a now lost work, the Cai Yan biezhuan 蔡琰別傳 (Separate tradition of Cai Yan), which is of unknown date and authorship.

The monograph on bibliography of the Sui shu (35.1059) mentions a Dong Si qi Cai Wenji ji 董祀妻蔡文姬集 (Collected works of Cai Wenji, wife of Dong Si) in one juan that had been listed in a Liang dynasty catalogue. However, this was already lost by the early Tang. Only three pieces attributed to her are extant. These are all poems that recount the story of her abduction: (1) a poem in five-syllable-lines titled "Bei fen shi" 悲憤詩 (Poem of grief and anger); (2) a poem in the "Chu song" style by the same title; and (3) "Hu jia shiba pai" 胡笳十八拍 (Song of the Tartar whisle in eighteen stanzas) in a modified "Chu song" style. The authenticity of all of these poems has been questioned beginning with Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101) in the Song dynasty. Few scholars now accept the attribution to Cai Yan of the two sons in the "Chu song" meter.

One important argument against authenticity is that the landscape described in all three poems is Central Asian steppe, which does not fit the landscape of Southern Shanxi where according to the historical sources she lived. Some scholars have even argued that Cai Yan lived during her captivity not in southern Shanxi but in Inner Mongolia, which had a steppe landscape that would match that of the poems. The only poem that has any chance of being genuine is the five-syllable line poem. Most Chinese scholars accept it as genuine. However, there is a chronological problem in the first line of the five-syllable-line poem, which refers to the end of the Han dynasty. According to Cai Yan's biography in the Hou Han shu, Cao Cao ransomed Cai Yan around 208. The Han dynasty ended in 220. Thus, if Cai Yan wrote this poem, she would have waited twelve or more years to do so. In addition, some scholars have argued that she did not live as late as 220, and thus she could not have known about the fall of the Han.

Like her father Cai Yong, Can Yan is known as a calligrapher. According to the Fa shu yaolu 法書要錄 (Essential catalogue of exemplary calligraphy) of Zhang Yanyuan 張彥遠 (ca. 811-ca. 877), Cai Yan transmitted her father's calligraphic techniques to Zhong You 鍾繇 (d.230). However, this may be one of the apocryphal traditions about Zhong You's calligraphy.

David R. Knechtges

Citation

• 蔡琰 Cai Yan, Brill’s Chinese Reference Shelf. Brill Online, 2017. http://chinesereferenceshelf.brillonline.com/ancient-literature/ent...