Cai Yong (蔡邕) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Cai Yong as a commentator, historian, military officer, and musician. This record brings together 10 passages from 8 chapters across 4 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Cai Yong	蔡邕	Cai Yong
Courtesy name	Bojie	伯喈	Bojie
Surname	Cai	蔡	Cài
Alternate name	Cai Bojie	蔡伯喈
Personal name	Cai Yong	蔡邕	Cai Yong
Personal name	Cai Yong	蔡邕	Cài Yōng
Given	Yong	邕	Yōng

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · houhanshu:089:s0277, houhanshu:116:s0147, houhanshu:118:s0085, xintangshu:022:s0016
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · houhanshu:093:s0085, houhanshu:110:s0142, nanqishu:017:s0006

Roles

Commentator
Historian
Military Officer
Musician
Named Individual
Official
Scholar
Writer

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 与议郎蔡邕友善（无纪年，光和至中平间） · Western Interval: Start: AD 178 · End: AD 185
Derived · houhanshu:093:s0085
Source Date: Text: 光和元年 · Western Year: AD 178
Explicit event contextual date · houhanshu:116:s0147
Source Date: Text: 光和元年六月丁丑 · Western Year: AD 178
Explicit · houhanshu:118:s0084, houhanshu:118:s0085
Source Date: Text: 初平中 · Western Interval: Start: AD 190 · End: AD 193
Explicit event contextual date · houhanshu:110:s0142
Source Date: Text: 后 · Western Interval: Start: AD 150 · End: AD 192
Strongly inferred · houhanshu:089:s0277
Source Date: Text: 蔡伯喈漢末之時學士 · Western Interval: Start: AD 133 · End: AD 192
Explicit · weishu:096:s0212
Source Date: Text: 蔡邕《獨斷》 · Western Interval: Start: AD 170 · End: AD 192
Explicit · nanqishu:017:s0189
Source Date: Text: 蔡邕五弄 · Western Interval: Start: AD 170 · End: AD 192
Explicit · xintangshu:022:s0016
Source Date: Text: 蔡邕創立此志 · Western Interval: Start: AD 170 · End: AD 192
Explicit · nanqishu:017:s0006

Career and standing

Label: Consultant / 议郎 · Action: held
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0085
Label: Left Palace Gentleman-General / 左中郎将 · Action: held
Explicit · houhanshu:110:s0142

Places and affiliations

Polity: Han · Relation: served
Explicit · nanqishu:017:s0006

Works and attributed material

Work: Cai Yong's five suites / 蔡邕五弄 · Relation: author
Explicit · xintangshu:022:s0016
Work: Duduan / 獨斷 · Relation: author
Explicit · nanqishu:017:s0189
Work: Han treatise on carriages and dress / 此志 · Relation: author
Explicit · nanqishu:017:s0006
Kind: reply · Role: speaker · Quoted: true · Addressee Person Id: Emperor Ling (灵帝)
Explicit · houhanshu:118:s0085
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Addressee Person Id: Emperor Ling (灵帝) · Quoted: true
Explicit · houhanshu:116:s0147
Kind: memorial · Role: co-author · Other Person Id: Dong Zhuo (董卓)
Explicit · houhanshu:110:s0142

Events and relationships

Kind: literary · Role: author · Action: abandoned-fu-after-seeing · Other Person Id: Wang Yanshou (王延寿)
Explicit · houhanshu:089:s0277
Kind: political · Role: respondent · Action: answered-edict
Explicit · houhanshu:116:s0146, houhanshu:116:s0147
Relation: friend-of · Person Id: Han Shuo (韩说) · Description: on friendly terms with Han Shuo
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0085

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: marveled at Wang Yanshou’s Hall of Spiritual Light Fu · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · houhanshu:089:s0277

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 89Volume 80a: Biographies of Writers 1 · 1 passage

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後蔡邕亦造此賦，未成，及見延壽所爲，甚奇之，遂輟翰而已。 Cai Yong later tried the same theme, saw Yanshou’s draft, marveled, and quit.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 93Volume 82b: Biographies of Alchemists 2 · 1 passage

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与议郎蔡邕友善。 He was close to the consultant Cai Yong.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 110Volume 99: Rituals and Worship Part Three · 1 passage

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初平中，相国董卓、左中郎将蔡邕等以和帝以下，功德无殊，而有过差，不应为宗，及余非宗者追尊三后，皆奏毁之。 In Chuping, Dong Zhuo, Cai Yong, and others argued that from Hedi onward the emperors lacked distinct merit yet had been over-honored as zong, and that three improperly raised empresses should be stripped; all were ordered dismantled.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 116Volume 105: Five Elements Part Three · 1 passage

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蔡邕对曰：「臣闻《易传》曰：'大作不时，天降灾，厥咎蝗虫来。'《河图秘征篇》曰：'帝贪则政暴而吏酷，酷则诛深必杀，主蝗虫。'蝗虫，贪苛之所致也。」 Cai Yong answered: "The Tradition of the Changes teaches that untimely public works bring Heaven's scourge in the form of locusts. The River Chart adds that imperial greed breeds cruel officials whose endless killing draws the locust plague. Swarms, in short, follow rapacious rule."

Book of Later Han, Chapter 118Volume 107: Five Elements Part Five · 1 passage

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上问蔡邕，对曰：「所谓天投蜺者也。不见足尾，不得称龙。《易传》曰：『蜺之比无德，以色亲也。』潜潭巴曰：『虹出，后妃阴胁王者。』又曰：『五色迭至，照于宫殿，有兵革之事。』演孔图曰：『天子外苦兵，威内夺，臣无忠，则天投蜺。』变不空生，占不空言。」 The emperor asked Cai Yong, who answered: "This is the omen called Heaven hurling the paired rainbow. Without feet or tail it cannot properly be called a dragon. The Yi commentary reads, 'The secondary rainbow's likeness is want of virtue; it draws near through mere color.' Qian Tan Ba says, 'When a rainbow appears, a consort in the yin sphere presses upon the king.' He also says, 'When the five colors come in turn and shine upon the palace, arms and war follow.' The Extended Confucius Diagram says, 'When the Son of Heaven is worn down by war without, his authority is seized within, and his ministers are faithless, Heaven casts off the secondary rainbow.' Such transformations are never empty; such readings are never idle talk."

Book of Southern Qi, Chapter 17Volume 17 Treatises 9: Caraiges and Dress · 2 passages

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蔡邕創立此志，馬彪勒成漢典，晉摯虞治禮，亦議五輅制度。 Cai Yong began this treatise; Ma Biao finished the Han record; under Jin, Zhi Yu curated the rites and debated the five ceremonial chariots as well.

公侯以下，咸有名則，佩玉組綬，竝具禮文，後代沿革，見《漢志晉服制令》，其冠十三品，見蔡邕《獨斷》，竝不復具詳。 Below duke and marquis every rank had named rules for jade pendants and cord sashes, all spelled out in ritual texts; later changes appear in the Han Treatise and Jin dress regulations, and the thirteen crown grades in Cai Yong's Duduan—not repeated here.

Book of Wei, Chapter 96Volume 90: Retired Officals: Sui Kua, Feng Liang, Li Mi, Zheng Xiu · 2 passages

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言九室者，則案大戴盛德之篇以為源，是伯喈之倫所持。 the nine-chamber school takes Elder Dai's "Accomplished Virtue" chapter as its source—the party of Cai Yong.

蔡伯喈漢末之時學士，而見重於當時，即識其修廣之不當，而必未思其九室之為謬，更修而廣之，假其法像。 Cai Yong, a late Han scholar honored in his day, saw the dimensions were wrong yet never questioned nine chambers; he enlarged the design and borrowed its form.

New Book of Tang, Chapter 22Volume 22 Treatises 12: Rites and Music 12 · 1 passage

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唯琴工猶傳楚、漢舊聲及《清調》，蔡邕五弄、楚調四弄，謂之九弄。 Only qin masters still carried Chu and Han legacy tunes and the Clear Mode—Cai Yong's five suites plus the Chu mode's four, known together as the Nine Suites.