Cai Yan, a female poet and calligrapher at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was also known as Wen Ji (文姬) and Zhao Ji (昭姬). The year of birth and death is unknown. A native of Chenliu County (圉县, in present-day Kaifengqi County, Henan) in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the daughter of the great Eastern Han Dynasty writer Cai Yong, she was a polymath, quite fluent in music, and calligraphy. The Later Han Dynasty Book Of Books Eighty-Four Biography of Lienu records: "(Cai Wenji) Shihe Dongwei Zhongdao. The husband died childless and returned home. In the second year of Xingping (195), when the Xiongnu invaded Han Territory, Cai Yan "was captured by Hu Qi, not the King of Zuoxian of the Southern Xiongnu", lived in the north for twelve years, and had two sons, after which Cao Cao unified the north, redeemed her with Jin Bi, and married Dong Qi.
Cai Yan can be said to be a representative of outstanding women in history, she is quite accomplished in literature, music, calligraphy and other aspects, but due to the war, her works have not been well preserved. In the original Sui Shu Jing Zhi, there was a volume of "Cai Wenji's Collection", which has now been lost, and only two "Poems of Sorrow and Indignation" and "Eighteen Beats of Hu Di" have been handed down, but his talent can still be seen. There are not many records of Cai Yan in history, but in a few words, it reveals her etiquette education and her etiquette performance, especially the education of her father Cai Yong, which can be said to have transformed Cai Yan from a recipient of etiquette into a questioner of etiquette. Avant-garde family etiquette education naturally affects the etiquette performance in his social life, thus constituting Cai Yan's bumpy but uninhibited life experience.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > etiquette education in family life</h1>
Cai Yan, as a famous talented woman, has a good family history, received a superior family education, father Cai Yong in order to teach his daughter, but also a special "women's training", to the female grooming as a metaphor, emphasizing both "trimming" and "cultivating the heart", to pay attention to the unity of appearance and inner harmony, if the two are compared, then "cultivation" is heavier than "trimming". "The face of the husband is not decorated, the fool is ugly, the heart is not cultivated, and the sage is called evil." The fool is ugly, and the wise are evil, so what will be tolerated? ”
When a woman is looking in the mirror and dressing up, she must consider whether her heart is holy and peaceful, whether it is clean and organized, whether it is upright and neat, so as to achieve "the purity of the heart", "the righteousness of the heart", "the integrity of the heart", only the internal and external cultivation, and the real internalization of the etiquette, is the real "polite person". Under Cai Yong's educational thinking, Cai Yan paid special attention to the shaping of the inner spiritual world, turning etiquette into a kind of cultivation and quality.
In fact, for Cai Yan, the main content of the study is still influenced by the "Biography of the Daughters" and the "Female Commandments", around the "three from four virtues", at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the soldiers were in chaos, many history books have been lost, and the more than 4,000 books left by Cai Yong have also been unfortunately lost, Cao Cao knows that Cai Yan has a strong memory, let her silently write more than four hundred articles that she can remember, and is ready to send ten officials to assist her, but Cai Yan believes that men and women are different, and according to Yi Li, this move is inappropriate, indicating that the defense of men and women is very important in her mind. It can be seen that even excellent people such as Wen Ji cannot escape the influence of etiquette, so chastity and the difference between men and women are still an important part of their family education.
In addition to moral education, Cai Yan's family etiquette education also includes literature, calligraphy, music education, etc., the reason why these are part of etiquette education, because in a general sense, women's etiquette education is reflected in every aspect of life and learning, in order to explore her etiquette education, it is necessary to look at whether the education she received meets the requirements of traditional etiquette, or how different from etiquette. Although Cai Yan learned the "three from four virtues", she is not a woman trapped in the family, but an independent talented woman, and Wen Jimo's writing of poetry books can not only see her wisdom and wisdom, but also reflect Cai Yong's tolerant and comprehensive education. Why Wen Ji can silently tell more than four hundred articles left by her father, of course, cai yong allowed her to read widely, if she only read the "Biography of the Daughters", "Female Commandments", etc., it is inevitable that she will not recite so many articles, that is, Cai Yong did not limit the reading range of her daughter, but let her widely dabble in many kinds of books.
In addition, Cai Yan is also a famous female calligrapher, passed down from her father. Cai Yong was a great calligrapher who created the eight-point font, and Han Yu said, "Zhonglang (Cai Yong) has a female ability to pass on the profession." Legend has it that when writing ancient books silently, Wen Ji said that it was possible to use real or cursive writing. In the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Li Xian's annotation quotes Liu Zhao's "Biography of a Young Child" as saying, "The drum and piano of the night of Yong are absolutely stringed. Yan Yue: The second string. Yong Yue: The ear of the occasional. Therefore, the broken string asked, Yan Yue: the fourth string. Not bad. ”
The "Three Character Classic" says that "Cai Wenji, can distinguish the piano" is this allusion. Cai Yong discovered Cai Yan's musical talent and vigorously cultivated it, and later Wen Ji created the "Eighteen Beats of Hu Di", which was handed down to later generations, which perfectly integrated Hu Han music. Whether it is poetry education, calligraphy education or music education, it can be seen that the education content of Cai Yan is rich and diverse, and it can be speculated that in the era of advocating that women should be locked in a deep boudoir, the etiquette education that Cai Yan received should be relatively broad, not only in the family, but also to improve themselves and develop themselves.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the ceremonial performance of social life</h1>
Under Cai Yong's education, Cai Yan can actually be said to be the benchmark for women to oppose etiquette in later generations, and traditional etiquette requires women to be chaste, but Cai Yan married three times in her life and had a bumpy fate, but she was not discriminated against because of this, but was respected by people. Cai Yan married Wei Zhongdao at the age of sixteen, but unfortunately her husband died early, so she had to return home and widow, and was later plundered by the Xiongnu, married to King Zuoxian, and did not remarry and lose her temper, but gave birth to two sons and carefully cultivated, during which she also learned some foreign languages and played "Hu Di", when Cao Cao learned that Cai Yan was captured by the Xiongnu, he redeemed it with gold bi, but the two young sons had to stay in the Xiongnu, which is the famous "Wen Ji Gui Han", she was redeemed and married to Dong Qi under Cao Cao's arrangement. During this period, Cai Yan wrote the famous "Eighteen Beats of Hu Di", in which she wrote: "I am not greedy and evil to die, and I cannot donate my body and heart."
Although Cai Yan had a thousand reluctance for his two sons, he could not stop the pace of returning to China, and in the eighteenth beat, "Heaven and earth are separated from the west and the east; if I am angry in the long sky, Liuhe should not tolerate it!" "The love of mother and child is touching. At this time, she was already the wife of Dong Qi, and from these verses, it can be seen that the etiquette at that time could not overcome the love of her mother.
Cai Yan's life was bumpy, although his experience showed opposition to etiquette, but from his own point of view, he was not a victim of etiquette, marrying again and again, enduring the pain of the separation of mother and son, and could not help himself, fortunately, Cai Yan had a strong personality, saying that he would "entrust his life to the newcomer and try his best to kill himself", so when he married Dong Qi, he regarded him as a relative, and could bravely intercede for him when his husband was in difficulty.
In the second year after Cai Yan's marriage, Dong Qi committed a capital crime, and Cai Yan went to Cao Cao to intercede with Dong Qi in spite of suspicion and etiquette. From this record, it can be learned that Cai Yan chose to prostrate herself barefoot when her husband was in trouble, and touched Cao Cao with wisdom and bravery, which did not seem to conform to the etiquette of women, and could even be said to be very rude, but this is the female etiquette education embodied in Cai Yan, she is not her husband's marionette, but a strange woman who saves her husband from danger.
Cai Yan's life can be summarized by ups and downs and challenges, her father's careful cultivation and gentle and relaxed etiquette education, making her talented, while with the etiquette constraint of everyone's boudoir side, but her tortuous experience also reflects the anti-traditional etiquette side, it can be said that the contradiction of women's etiquette education in the Eastern Han Dynasty is very obvious in Cai Yan. Due to political, social or personal factors, women were required to observe etiquette norms on the one hand, but on the other hand, they did things that were inconsistent with ritual ideas, which may be the characteristic of a period.
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