Caiwenji was named Yan, Wenji, and Mingji. Her father was Caiyong, a famous Confucian scholar. Cai Yong was a great writer and calligrapher. He was also good at astronomy, mathematics and music. Caiwenji grew up in such a family, and the environment is undoubtedly superior. So she has been influenced since childhood. She is not only erudite and skilled in writing, but also good at poetry and Fu. She is also very good at melody.
Such a talented woman should have a good home. However, she was born in an era of turmoil. Her life is full of twists and turns, which are startling step by step. She married three times just to get married.
The first husband was Wei Zhongdao of Hedong. The Wei family is a Hedong aristocratic family, and her husband Wei Zhongdao is an excellent scholar. The couple are harmonious. It’s a pity that the good times didn’t last long. In less than a year, Wei Zhongdao died of hemoptysis. Caiwenji never gave birth to a son and a half for him, and the people of the Wei family thought she had killed her husband. Wenji feels wronged and proud. Despite her father’s opposition, she resolutely left the Wei family and returned to her mother’s house.
It’s a pity that I didn’t live long in my mother’s house. The corruption of the Eastern Han regime finally led to the Yellow army uprising, which expanded the local power represented by the powerful landlords. After general He Jin was killed by ten eunuchs, DongZhuo marched into Luoyang to kill all ten eunuchs and control the government. In order to consolidate his rule, DongZhuo deliberately seduced Caiyong, who was famous in Beijing. Cai Yong was promoted to three levels in a day. On three days, he went to three stages in a week. He worshiped Zhonglang general. Later, he was even named Gaoyang marquis.
DongZhuo’s retrograde movement aroused the joint opposition of various local forces. DongZhuo burned Luoyang, moved the capital to Chang’an, and was finally killed by Lv Bu. Caiyong was also charged to Tingwei for punishment.
After DongZhuo’s death, his ministry captured Chang’an again, and the Warlord’s scuffle finally took shape. The Qiang and Hu troops seized the opportunity to plunder the Central Plains. Under the condition that “the Chinese people are weak, all the soldiers are Hu and Qiang, hunting and besieging the cities, and the direction is broken and dead. Men hang their heads near the horse, and women are carried behind the horse. The long drive into the new desert is dangerous and obstructed.” caiwenji and many other women were taken captive to the southern Huns.
Caiwenji married the Xiongnu Zuoxian king with a heavy back, and experienced the pain of living in a foreign country. She lived carefully. She was only 23 years old when she went to the Huns. It was 12 years since she went. In the past 12 years, she gave birth to two sons for king Zuoxian. She also learned to play “Hu Jia”. Naturally, she also knew some foreign languages.
In the past 12 years, Cao Cao has basically wiped out the northern heroes, welcomed Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty from Chang’an to Xuchang, and later moved to Luoyang. Cao Cao became prime minister, holding the emperor to order the princes. Cao Cao thought of what his teacher Cai Yong had taught him in his youth. He thought that the teacher had no son but only one daughter. When he learned that the girl had been kidnapped to the southern Huns, he immediately sent messengers to redeem her with a thousand liang of gold and a pair of white Bi.
Although caiwenji has been kidnapped for many years, it is painful, but now if she returns home with the messenger, she will be reluctant to part with it. He was reluctant to give up his love for Zuoxian Wang and his two sons. Unfortunately, in front of us are the two options of “return to hometown” and “mother and child reunion”. What she did was a single choice question. Finally, urged by the messenger, she tearfully bid farewell to her hu man husband and son, and slowly boarded the car to pick her up. The sound of the car was sparkling, and the life of the past 12 years began to emerge bit by bit, so she created the soul stirring eighteen pictures of Hu Jia.
Caiwenji returned to her hometown, Chenliu County, but her hometown was ruined and she had no place to go. At last, under the arrangement of Cao Cao, he married Dong Si, a tianxiaowei. She was thirty-five years old.
I thought I could live in peace. Unfortunately, this third marriage was not as smooth and beautiful as expected. Wenji, who has suffered a lot from separation and sorrow, is already a ruined woman. In addition, she misses her two sons and is often in a trance; However, Dong Si was in his heyday. He was handsome, well-known in history and music. He was a very high self-esteem figure. Naturally, he had some helpless feelings about caiwenji. But it was the prime minister’s marriage, so he had to reluctantly accept her.
The second year after her marriage, she committed a capital crime only relying on her husband. She went to Cao Cao’s prime minister’s office to beg for mercy without worrying about combing her hair and putting on her shoes.
Cao Cao was having a banquet with his guests. When he heard that caiwenji had asked for an audience, he said to those present: “Caiyong’s daughter is outside. Everyone has heard of her talent. Today I would like to introduce her to you!”
Caiwenji went to the hall, knelt down and explained why. All the guests were amazed. Cao Cao said: “things are indeed worthy of sympathy, but the document has gone. What can be done?” Caiwenji pleaded: “there are tens of thousands of horses in the Ming Dynasty stables and a forest of tigers. Why do you want to ride a horse and die?” Then he kowtowed again. Cao Cao thought of his old friendship with Cai Yong and thought of CAI Wenji’s tragic life experience. If Dong Si were executed,
Wenji can’t keep her momentum. So he immediately sent people to hurry up to recover the document and forgive Dong Si.
Caiwenji tried her best to excuse her husband. Finally, her father’s relationship aroused Cao Cao’s compassion and saved Dong Si’s life. Dongsi is not a man without a heart. From then on, he also remembered his wife’s kindness, made a 180 degree turn in his feelings, began to reassess caiwenji, and gradually fell in love with her talent. The couple saw through the world, went up the Luoshui River, and finally settled down at the foot of a mountain with beautiful scenery and lush trees. Several years later, Cao Cao hunted here and went to visit.
It is said that when caiwenji interceded for Dong Si, Cao Cao saw that caiwenji was bareheaded and barefoot in the severe winter, so he asked someone to take her head scarf, shoes and socks and change them for her, so that she could stay at home before Dong Si returned. Cao Cao has also made outstanding achievements in literature. He likes reading books very much. In a small talk, Cao Cao expressed his admiration for caiwenji’s book collection. When caiwenji told him that all the 4000 volumes of books that had been stored in his home had been lost after several wars, Cao Cao was very disappointed. When she heard that caiwenji could recite 400 articles, she was overjoyed. Caiwenji wrote 400 articles from memory without any mistakes, which satisfied Cao Cao’s curiosity. It can also be seen that caiwenji’s talent is not covered.
Links to knowledge and interesting links: Hu Zhen’s 18 photos, caiwenji’s empathy and homesickness
The top ten classical songs in China include “high mountains and flowing water”, “three lanes of plum blossom”, “Xiao and drum in the sunset”, “Autumn Moon in the Han Palace”, “snow in the spring”, “questions and answers between fishermen and woodcutters”, “Eighteen pictures of Eggplant”, “Guangling San”, “falling wild geese in the sand” and “ambush on all sides”.
“Hu Jia’s 18 claps” was originally a piano song. It was a vocal divertimento composed of 18 songs and accompanied by a piano. It showed Wenji’s homesickness, ion’s sadness and indignation. Now Qin music is the most widely spread. Huang Tinglan, a zither player in the Tang Dynasty, is famous for playing this music. In Li Qi’s poem “listening to Dong Da’s playing Hu Jia”, it is said that “Cai Nu used to make Hu Jia sound, and each time she played it, there were eight beats. Hu people shed tears on the grass, and Han envoys were heartbroken to return to their guests.” In the zither music, Wenji empathizes with the sound, borrows Hu Jia’s good performance of homesickness and sadness, and blends it into the tone of the ancient zither, showing a kind of mighty resentment. There are two kinds of biographies. One is the Qin song in the Qin Shi (published in 1611) of the Ming Dynasty, which is matched with the lyrics, and its words are the narrative poems of the same name written by caiwenji; The first one is the solo music contained in chengjiantang Qin Pu and its later scores in the early Qing Dynasty. The latter is widely spread in the Qin world, especially the score in wangzhizhai Qin PU.