陳留董祀妻者，同郡蔡邕之女也，名琰，字文姬。博學有才辯，又妙於音律。適河東衛仲道。夫亡無子，歸寧于家。興平中，天下喪亂，文姬為胡騎所獲，沒於南匈奴左賢王，在胡中十二年，生二子。曹操素與邕善，痛其無嗣，乃遣使者以金璧贖之，而重嫁於祀。

The wife of Dong Si is the daughter of Cai Yong of the same county, Chenliu. Her first name is Yan, courtesy as Wenji. Cai Yan is a real polymath, an eloquent bluestocker, and a master of musical temperament. She first married Wei Zhongdao, but Wei died young and they had no children, so she returned to her parents. During the era of Xinping, a period of wide turmoil, the nomadic Hun captured her and made her the princess of a Hun prince. She had lived in Hun for twelve years and given birth to two sons. Cao Cao used to have a good relationship with her deceased father, Cai Yong, and Cao considered that she was the only descendant of the family; hence, he sent an emissary and brought a lot of ransom to get her back from Hun to Han. When she came back, Cao arranged to make her marry Dong Si.

祀為屯田都尉，犯法當死，文姬詣曹操請之。時公卿名士及遠方使驛坐者滿堂，操謂賓客曰：「蔡伯喈女在外，今為諸君見之。」及文姬進，蓬首徒行，叩頭請罪，音辭清辯，旨甚酸哀，眾皆為改容。操曰：「誠實相矜，然文狀已去，柰何？」文姬曰：「明公廄馬萬匹，虎士成林，何惜疾足一騎，而不濟垂死之命乎！」操感其言，乃追原祀罪。時且寒，賜以頭巾履襪。操因問曰：「聞夫人家先多墳籍，猶能憶識之不？」文姬曰：「昔亡父賜書四千許卷，流離塗炭，罔有存者。今所誦憶，裁四百餘篇耳。」操曰：「今當使十吏就夫人寫之。」文姬曰：「妾聞男女之別，禮不親授。^[乞給紙筆，真草唯命。」於是繕書送之，文無遺誤。

Dong Si was then the captain of a farming garrison troop, and he committed the crime of the death penalty. Cai Wenji then had an audience with Cao to plead a pardon on her husband at the time when Cao hosted a feast with high-ranking officials, learned people, and emissaries from afar. Cao announced to his guests that the daughter of Cai Yong was outside, waiting to see him. So he would like to introduce her to them. Then came Wenji, with unkempt hair and bare feet. On bended knees, she kowtowed to Cao, begging for a favor for her husband. Her articulate but sentimental recounts moved all guests. Cao said, "I truly have pity for you and your husband, but the edict has been on the way; what can I do now?" Wenji replied, "Your Highness has thousands of good horses in the stable, as well as countless brave warriors. How could Your Highness not spare a man and a horse to save a dying life?" Her words also moved Cao, and he ordered his men to retrieve the edict and pardon Dong. It was cold then, so Cao also ordered Wenji to be given a wrap, stockings, and shoes. Later, Cao asked, "I heard that your family preserved many classical corpuses; can you still remember them, maam?" Wenji replied to the question, "My late father left four thousand volumes of books, but all of them had been consigned to oblivion due to war and exile. Now I can still remember and recite about four hundred of them." Cao then demanded, "I will send ten officials to jot them down right away." Wenji said, "I hear that according to social ethics, a man and a woman cannot communicate with each other directly; therefore, please just grant me papers and pens; I will jot them down by myself with whatever formal characters or the cursive ones." She did it without any errors or anything missing and submitted it to Cao.

PS: Recently, I watched a video about the story of "文姬歸漢". I doubted the veracity of some pieces of the storyline, especially the one illustrating Wenji and Cao Cao had been a pair of young lovers, and Cao had never forgotten her, and that was why "文姬歸漢" would have been possible. Therefore, I consulted the documented history of Cai Wenji and translated it accordingly.