Cai Wenji



Cai Yan (蔡琰), style name: Wenji (文姬) and Zhaoji (昭姬), is a poet and musician who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. She is a minor protagonist in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Bio
Cai Wenji was born in the Prefecture of Yu. When she was only fifteen years old, she married Wei Zhongdao, who died shortly afterwards, leaving no offspring. After Dong Zhuo's murder caused Xiongnu nomads to arrive in the capital and Cai Wenji was a prisoner of the Xiongnu in northern China, until Cao Cao paid a huge sum for her release in 207.

During her captivity she was the wife of Xiongnu chief Liu Bao with whom she had two children. He married again with the government official Dong Si. However, he was sentenced to death and Cai Wenji went to Cao Cao begging him to absolve her husband. Excited by his pleas, Cao Cao pardoned him. Later in her life, she wrote two poems describing her turbulent years.