Cai Yan 蔡琰

In Chapter 71 of the Romance, news that Liu Bei is coming in person to attack Hanzhong passes through Xiahou Yuan to Cao Hong, and when Cao Hong hurries through the night to Xuchang to report it, Cao Cao, greatly alarmed, deliberates on sending troops to relieve Hanzhong. When the Chief Clerk Liu Ye says that the King must go in person, Cao Cao raises an army of 400,000 and sets out on campaign himself; it is the 7th month, in the autumn of the 23rd year of Jian'an (218). As the army passes out through Tong Pass, Cao Cao sees a dense grove from horseback and asks what place it is, and an attendant answers that this is Lantian, that Cai Yong's manor lies among the trees, and that Cai Yong's daughter Cai Yan now lives there with her husband Dong Si. Romance, Ch. 71 §3–4 · 6

Cao Cao had always been on good terms with Cai Yong. Cai Yan had earlier been the wife of Wei Zhongdao, but she was later carried off to the north, where she bore two sons in the northern lands and composed the 'Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute', which spread as far as the Central Plains. Cao Cao pitied her deeply and sent men with a thousand pieces of gold into the north to ransom her, and when the Worthy Prince of the Left, fearing Cao Cao's power, sent Cai Yan back to Han, Cao Cao gave her in marriage to Dong Si as his wife. Romance, Ch. 71 §6–7

That day, remembering Cai Yong, Cao Cao sends his army on ahead and, with only a hundred or so mounted attendants, dismounts at the manor gate. Dong Si is away serving in office, so Cai Yan is at home alone, and on hearing that Cao Cao has come she hurries out to greet him. When Cao Cao reaches the hall, Cai Yan pays her respects and stands in attendance at his side. Romance, Ch. 71 §7–8

When Cao Cao sees a hanging scroll of a stele inscription on the wall and asks about it, Cai Yan answers that it is the stele of the filial daughter Cao E. In the time of Emperor He, Cao Xu, a shaman of Shangyu, got drunk while dancing on a boat on the 5th day of the 5th month, fell into the river and drowned; his fourteen-year-old daughter wandered along the riverbank weeping for seven days and nights and then leapt into the waves, and five days later she rose to the surface carrying her father's body on her back. Du Shang, Prefect of Shangyu, reported this to the court to have her honoured as a filial daughter and had Handan Chun compose a text to be carved on a stele; Handan Chun, only thirteen, wrote it at a single stroke without altering a single character. Cai Yan says that her father Cai Yong, hearing of this, went to see it, and as dusk had already fallen he read the inscription by feeling it with his hand in the dark, then called for a brush and wrote eight large characters on its back. Romance, Ch. 71 §8–10

When Cao Cao asks whether she understands the meaning of the eight characters 'yellow silk, young wife, daughter's son, spice mortar' (huangjuan youfu, waisun jijiu), Cai Yan answers that although they are her late father's writing, she truly does not know their meaning. When the Registrar Yang Xiu steps forward saying he has understood it, Cao Cao tells him not to speak for the moment, takes leave of Cai Yan, and only grasps it after leaving the manor and riding three li. Yang Xiu explains the eight characters as a riddle for 'juemiao haoci', meaning a supremely fine piece of writing. Cai Yan does not appear in the Romance after this. Romance, Ch. 71 §10–12