文姬

蔡文姬 (Cai Wenji) was the daughter of Han scholar Cai Yong (蔡邕). Captured by Xiongnu raiders during the late Han chaos, she lived twelve years among them and bore two sons before warlord 曹操 (Cao Cao) ransomed her back. The opera 《文姬归汉》 (Wenji Returns to the Han) and her own 《胡笳十八拍》 (Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute) memorialize the agony of leaving her children behind.

文 (literary refinement) + 姬 (a beautiful or noble woman) combine into a name signaling cultivated nobility — fitting for one of the great female literary figures of Chinese antiquity.