Cai Yong 蔡邕

In Chapter 1 of the Romance, as ill-omened portents followed one after another, the emperor issued an edict asking the reason, and Cai Yong, a Court Gentleman for Consultation, submitted a memorial stating very frankly that 'the falling rainbow and the hen turning into a cock were caused by women and eunuchs meddling in government.' While the emperor had risen to change his clothes, Cao Jie secretly read the memorial and told those around him, and Cai Yong was charged with another offence and banished to his home district. Romance, Ch. 1 §5–6

In Chapter 3, when Dong Zhuo drew his sword to kill Lu Zhi, the Palace Attendant Cai Yong, together with the Court Gentleman for Consultation Peng Bo, stopped him, saying that Master of Writing Lu was a man the whole realm looked up to, and that harming him first would make the realm tremble with fear. In Chapter 4, Li Ru recommended Cai Yong, urging Dong Zhuo to employ famous men in order to win popular support. When Cai Yong did not answer the summons, Dong Zhuo threatened to wipe out his clan if he did not come, and when Cai Yong came out of fear, Dong Zhuo welcomed him warmly, promoted him three times in one month to make him Palace Attendant, and treated him with great intimacy. Romance, Ch. 3 §33Romance, Ch. 4 §11

In Chapter 9, as Wang Yun was holding a banquet after Dong Zhuo's death, he was told that someone was weeping over Dong Zhuo's corpse, which had been left exposed in the marketplace; he had the man seized and brought in, and it was the Palace Attendant Cai Yong. Cai Yong admitted his guilt, saying he had wept only out of feeling for the recognition and favour he had once received, and begged to be allowed to complete the history of the Han even if his face were tattooed and his feet cut off. Romance, Ch. 9 §31–32

The officials, regretting the loss of his talent, did their best to save him, and the Grand Tutor Ma Midi also privately urged Wang Yun to spare him so that he could complete the history of the Han. Wang Yun refused, saying that in the past Emperor Xiaowu had not killed Sima Qian and so a slanderous book had been handed down to later ages, and had Cai Yong put in prison and strangled. All the scholar-officials who heard the news shed tears, and the Romance records that later people judged that, although Cai Yong was wrong to weep for Dong Zhuo, Wang Yun went too far in killing him. Romance, Ch. 9 §32–34

After that his name appears in the backgrounds of other characters. Chapter 29 calls Gu Yong, whom Zhang Hong recommended to Sun Quan, a disciple of Cai Yong the Zhonglang, and Chapter 40 records that when Wang Can as a child visited Cai Yong the Zhonglang, Cai Yong, in a room full of distinguished guests, went out to welcome him with his shoes on backwards and said, 'This child has extraordinary talent, and I am not his equal.' Romance, Ch. 29 §50Romance, Ch. 40 §22–23

In Chapter 71, as Cao Cao led his army out through Tong Pass, he passed Cai Yong's estate at Lantian. Cao Cao, who had always been on good terms with Cai Yong, had earlier ransomed his daughter Cai Yan, who had been carried off to the north, for a thousand pieces of gold and married her to Dong Si, and, remembering Cai Yong, he stopped at the estate. Cai Yan showed him a scroll of the inscription for the filial daughter Cao E (曹娥), and said that her father Cai Yong had read the inscription by feeling it with his hands in the dark after nightfall and written eight large characters on its back. Cao Cao could not solve them at once and understood only after leaving the estate and travelling three li, and the Registrar Yang Xiu interpreted them as meaning 'the most exquisite of writings.' Romance, Ch. 71 §6–12