Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: The Story of Lady Wenji
胡笳十八拍图 by unknown artist, in early 15th century at the Met. Ex coll.: C.C. Wang Family. Gift of the Dillon Fund, 1973.
Represented here are scenes from the life of Lady Wenji (Cai Yan), who was abducted by a horde of marauding barbarians about A.D. 195 and spent twelve years among the Xiongnu, a Mongol tribe, as wife of their chieftain. She bore him two children before she was finally ransomed and returned to China. The Southern Song emperor Gaozong (r. 1127
