The Hou Han Shu says Cai Yong begged to be mutilated so he could finish his history, died in prison, and his ransomed daughter rewrote 400 of his 4,000 books from memory

Cai Yong was a scholar and official of the late Han. The Hou Han Shu records that when the warlord Dong Zhuo was killed in 192, Cai Yong sighed in front of the minister Wang Yun. Wang Yun had him arrested. Cai Yong asked to have his face tattooed and his feet cut off, punishments that would spare his life, so that he could "continue and complete the Han history". Wang Yun refused, saying a flatterer must not hold the brush beside the young emperor. Cai Yong died in prison at 61. Wang Yun regretted it but too late. His daughter Cai Yan, called Wenji, was captured by nomad cavalry in the Xingping era and spent 12 years with the Wise King of the Left of the Southern Xiongnu, bearing two sons. Cao Cao, who had been Cai Yong's friend, "grieved that he had no heir" and paid gold and jade to ransom her. He married her to Dong Si. Cao Cao asked about her father's books. She said he had left her about 4,000 scrolls and none survived, but she could recite just over 400. She wrote them out. Cai Yong's history of the Han was never finished. The Hou Han Shu lists 104 of his pieces as surviving.