263 Forgotten Women of Literature 2 - Cai Yan (Wenji)

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

Arts, Books, History

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cai Yan (Wenji) (c. 178 - c. 250?) was the daughter of Cai Yong, one of the most famous scholars of the Han Dynasty. After being widowed at a young age, Cai Wenji was abducted by a nomadic tribe, where she was forced to marry a chieftain and bear his children. The tragedy of her life story, and the songs of lament that have been attributed to her, combine the art of noble suffering with the powerful precision of Chinese poetry at its finest. In this episode, Jacke continues the "Forgotten Women of Literature" theme with a look at the Chinese poet whose suffering blazes through the mists of time. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello.
0:11.0	She was born in China in what is now Eastern Henan province and which was then the center of Chinese civilization.
0:17.0	This was in the year 178 unless it was the year 170.
0:22.0	We are traveling back into the myths of time today as we try to discern
0:27.8	genuine history and undisputed authorship and separate that out from historiography, legend-making, and first-person impersonations
0:37.0	by later poets.
0:38.9	But we do have some tantalizing historical details about her life suggesting that an extraordinary woman lived an extraordinary life.
0:46.0	With cultural and poetic richness combined with great hardship and a family story worthy of a Greek tragedy. We're talking about the forgotten Chinese poet
0:57.0	Sayan, also known as Wenji today on the history of literature. Okay, here we go. Welcome to the podcast everyone. I'm Jack Wilson. I'm so glad you could join us today.
1:25.0	Wow, what a month we started things with a Mesopotamian bang with our look at the poet in Edwanna. That was last Thursday. We're doing
1:34.7	Thursday themes here on the history of literature. This month's theme,
1:38.6	forgotten women of literature. Believe me when I tell you there are more than four candidates for this.
1:45.5	I'm already planning a part two to come in a subsequent month. But today is a good one for our first month.
1:53.0	It's a hymn. But today is a good one for our first month. Zayenne, aka Wenji, who lived back in the second and third centuries.
1:59.0	She had an amazing life and there are some amazing poems written in her name. The
2:05.2	authorship of those poems is somewhat disputed which we will dive into after we
2:10.6	hear some listener emails. What else do we have for you this September?
2:14.7	We had Avid on Monday, my goodness, maybe we should just stop there.
2:18.9	An Aduana plus Avid throw in Sayan.
2:22.2	How much more do you want people?
2:24.0	How greedy can you possibly be?
	...

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