Background
Cai Yan became a poet. Like her father, who once rescued a burning piece of wood and turned it into a superb harp, Cai Yan was also musical. She could tell which harp string her father had broken whrn he played in the next room.
In 189, the warlord Dong Zhuo was appointed Minister of Works at the Han court. Before long, Dong Zhuo replaced the current boy emperor with the latter’s half-brother, the last Han emperor. Long an admirer of Cat Yong’s talent and fame, Dong Zhuo appointed Cai Yong to his administration. However, when Dong Zhuo was murdered in a coup d’étât in 192, Cai Yong was arrested, and he died in prison.
Cai Yan was married around this time and widowed shortly afterwards. In 194-195 Dong Zhuo’s generals staged an insurgency to avenge their leader’s murder. Because Dong Zhuo's original power base was China’s Western Regions (Central Asia), the revolt included a large number of Xiongnu and proto-Tibetan Qiang soldiers, who pillaged the Han metropolitan regions. In the chaos, Cai Yan was captured and carried off by Xiongnu troops. She became the consort of a Prince of the Xiongnu and bore him two sons.
When Cao Cao, an old friend of her father’s, had gained control of northern China, he despatched Cai Yan’s relatives to ransom her back from the ‘barbarian’ land, probably in 208.