Cai Yong (132-192 AD) was a Han official and scholar and the father of Cai Wenji. He resented the power of the Ten Eunuchs, who responded by exiling him from the Imperial Court in 178 AD, and he later returned in 189 AD to serve under Dong Zhuo. He died in prison in 192 AD after he was accused of feeling sorrow over Dong Zhuo's death.
Biography[]
Cai Yong was born in Kaifeng, Henan in 132 AD, and, in the early 170s, he entered the service of Emperor Huan of Han as a consultant.
He was an advocate of restoring ceremonial practices and became a rival of the Ten Eunuchs; in 178 AD, when Emperor Ling of Han asked Cai Yong for his interpretation of several calamities and bad omens, Cai Yong warned him that they were signs that the Ten Eunuchs had too much power in the Imperial Court.
The Eunuchs responded by having Cai Yong fired and sent back to his country house, and he stayed there for 12 years. In 189, Dong Zhuo forced Cai Yong to serve under him as a court counselor, as he valued his musical and ceremonial talents.
While Cai Yong initially disliked Dong Zhuo, he expressed a grief upon hearing of Dong Zhuo's death in 192, leading to the Han loyalist, Wang Yun having Cai Yong imprisoned and sentenced to death.
Wang Yun came to regret his decision, but it was too late, for Cai Yong had died in prison before his sentence could be commuted.