Wenji Returns to Han

     It was an era of constant warfare, an era of immense suffering, an era of the strong preying on the weak, an era devoid of justice, and an era of dynastic change. She was born into such an era. She may not have had any grand achievements that altered history, but she is forever remembered.

    She was the daughter of Cai Yi, a renowned scholar of the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Under her father's influence, she became a remarkable woman, "learned and eloquent, and also skilled in music." At sixteen, she married Wei Zhongdao, a talented man from Hedong. However, her husband died of illness, leaving no children. Her in-laws mistreated her, citing her as a "husband-killer," and she angrily returned to her parents' home.
    After Dong Zhuo's death, his subordinates continued to wreak havoc in Luoyang. In a world where "the people of the Central Plains are weak, the invaders are all Qiang and Hu, hunting and besieging, their forces are utterly destroyed. Men's heads hang from the sides of their horses, women are carried behind, they drive deep into the northern deserts, the return journey fraught with peril," she too was unfortunately taken to the Xiongnu and became the woman of the Left Wise King of the Southern Xiongnu. There, without family and unable to speak the language, she remained in the northern wilderness for twelve years. A woman's twelve years of youth were left in the north winds, the loneliness of the desert accompanied her for twelve years, and her longing for her homeland continued for twelve years. Perhaps her talent was buried for twelve years. There, her value was that of an ordinary woman: bearing children, raising them, and being a wife and mother. I don't know if, in the eyes of that Left Wise King, besides her beauty, or even beyond her being a woman, he sensed anything extraordinary about Cai Wenji. In those twelve years, she bore him two sons; perhaps this bond with her children brought her some joy in family life.
    The devastation of the Central Plains was perhaps beyond a woman's control. Yet, the longing for her homeland and the yearning for her family became the most genuine emotions of a wanderer. I don't know if the Left Wise King loved this woman, nor do I know if she ever felt any affection for the man who had held her captive for twelve years. Cao Cao appeared, a powerful figure who had already unified the north. As her father's student or close friend, he brought a large sum of gold and a pair of jade discs to ransom Cai Wenji. The Left Wise King, probably acting out of political considerations, did Cao Cao a favor. Her heart was filled with anguish, for her unborn child was about to be separated from her forever. She was moved; perhaps the emotions suppressed deep within her surged forth, and the poem "Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute" was born.
    She was thirty-five years old that year. For a captured woman, being able to return to her homeland was perhaps an immense blessing. The flames of war continued to burn in the Central Plains for twelve years, and the home she had longed for for twelve years was long gone. She would once again become a wanderer, perhaps a curse of the notion that a woman's virtue lay in her lack of talent. Cao Cao, once again a man reviled by posterity for his role in *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, once again offered help to the only descendant of his teacher. He remarried her, to a man named Dong Si. She became a bride again, a thirty-five-year-old woman, finding a home once more in her homeland. But this happiness was short-lived; Dong Si was convicted and sentenced to death. It was her sincerity (she was disheveled and barefoot in the dead of winter) that persuaded Cao Cao to pardon her husband's punishment. Her second work, *A Poem of Sorrow and Indignation*, was likely written during this period. This is the first self-reflective five-character long poem in Chinese literary history. Later generations praised it as "a poignant expression of deep emotion, naturally flowing from the pen."
    In a conversation with Cao Cao, when he spoke of her father's scrolls, she mentioned that the four thousand scrolls in her family had been destroyed in the war. However, she could still memorize four hundred scrolls, so soon she transcribed the texts she knew by heart. For Cao Cao, who loved reading, this was a way of thanking him; for later generations, it was a cultural inheritance. After being rescued, Dong Si was grateful for his wife's righteousness. The two, with a calm understanding of the world, went up the Luo River and hid in a beautiful mountainside. And the book "The Biography of Dong Si" came into being because of her talent. Later, when Cao Cao passed through the area while hunting and visited them, they already had a son and a daughter. Such was the woman, such was her life. Three husbands, one father, one friend (Cao Cao). Thus, her life was unique because of her father's influence, and her fate was fraught with hardship because of her three husbands. But this friend, who stood by and watched, changed her life, embellished her life, and ultimately completed her life.
    Such women are rare; her appearance embellished history and completed culture. Her misfortune was just like her fortune; her misfortune may have been a phase in her life, but from the perspective of history as a whole, she is an eternal brilliance. Such a woman is hard to find today. Her character and spirit shone with inexhaustible talent, and an unblemished purity, or even ethereal innocence, stemming from that talent. Emotion awakened her nobility, the north wind sculpted her contemplation, and her return to Han brought forth her brilliance. Her beauty was not merely a woman's physical appearance; her charm was pieced together with countless words.
    Wenji's return to Han was not just a woman's longing for her homeland, but a cultural rebirth. Wenji's return was not just the return of Dong Si's wife, but also the return of a cultural giant. Later generations have continuously searched for her in history, like passionate men worshipping a goddess, like eager students awaiting their teacher. We may never see the scene of her return to Han again, but we can still feel her emotions and talent at that moment. She has completed her life, leaving us not only a treasure trove in the spiritual realm, but also her tomb in Lantian County.