Cai Wenji

Cai Wenji ( Chinese  蔡文姬 , Pinyin Cài Wénjī ; * 177 ; † 250 ) was a poet and musician of the late Han dynasty in China .

Depiction from the Qing Dynasty

Life

Her father was the musician Cai Yong . Her birth name was Cai Yan ( Chinese  蔡琰 , Pinyin Cài Yăn ), but she is known today by her court name , the Chinese middle name.

While little is known about her life from primary sources, her character takes on clearer contours in Luo Guanzhong's historical novel The Tale of the Three Kingdoms from the 14th century. She marries a certain Wei Zhongdao and in an attack the Xiongnu on Chang'an of Ce Xian , Crown Prince on the left ( Chinese  左賢王 , deported). She spent the next few years as a concubine near what is now Mongolia .

Chancellor Cao Cao feels sorry for Cai Yong, whose daughter has been abducted into the wilderness, and he sends the Xiongnu gold and jade to buy Cai Wenji out. Since her husband has since passed away, Cai Wenji is married to Dong Si, a friend of Cao Cao's, when she returns home.

Cai Wenji's homecoming is depicted in the well-known Jin painting “Cai Wenji Returns to Her Homeland” ( Chinese  文姬 歸漢 圖 ), which is believed to have been made by a Han official named Zhang Yu. It is now exhibited in the Museum of Art in Jilin Province.

On the Venus a crater to Cai Wenji is named.

music

Cai Wenji is the earliest person known by name to date to have created and left music. Her popularity in her homeland as a poet and composer is amazing. She left 18 songs for flute . The Guqin pieces Da Hujia, Xiao Hujia and Hujia Shiba Bai are also attributed to her. The portrait drawing of Cai Wenji, which was created perhaps more than a thousand years after her life, seems to depict her with this stringed instrument, a classic Chinese fretboard zither, but with an atypical (?) Playing position.

The 5 yuan coin depicts Cai Wenji with a harp.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Caiwenji in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS
2. ↑ This was confirmed independently by two Chinese students from the University of Bayreuth who attended the Collegium musicum there .
3. ↑ English pressure The eighteen laments . New York 1963 opacplus.bib-bvb.de
4. ↑ Score: Songs of heaven and earth worldcat.org

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Cai is the family name here, Wenji is the first name.