清康熙　五彩人物故事圖大罐

The scene depicted on the current jar may represent an interpretation of the popular theme of Wenji gui Han (Lady Wenji’s Return to Han). Cai Wenji (c. AD 170-220), a poet and musician from the Eastern Han period, was married in AD 192 at age 16 and widowed shortly thereafter. In AD 194-5, she was captured by the Xiongnu during an invasion and taken back to their homelands in the north. During her captivity she was forced to marry Liu Bao, the Xiongnu chieftain, and bore him two sons. Some twelve years later, the warlord Cao Cao paid a high ransom in her deceased father’s name for her return to China where a further marriage was arranged for her. If indeed this is the theme represented here, then Cai Wenji is shown during her captivity, seated next to her Xiongnu husband Liu Bao in a horse-drawn cart accompanied attendants. The Xiongnu are depicted akin to Europeans, which may suggest the jar could be a special order made for the Western market.