Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-10-12 08:17
長江後浪推前浪,---Changjiang hou4 lang4 tui qian2 lang4,
一代更比一代強.---Yi dai4 geng bi3 yi dai4 qiang2.
As in the Yangtze River, the waves behind drive on those before,
So each new generation excels the last one.
----------------------------------------------------------
The 34th most common Chinese surname CAI 蔡 (034)
Cai means: "banish".
The surname Cai is about 2,400 years old.
The surname Cai originated in an area referred to during the Jin Dynasty
(晉朝 265AD to 429AD) as the Jiyang prefecture (濟陽郡). The present day
location of Jiyang prefecture is in the northwest of Dingtao county (定陶
縣 115.5 degree East and 35.1 degree North on the world map) in Shandong
province (山東省).
Zhou King Wu (周武王), destroyed the Shang Dynasty (商朝 1783BC to 1122BC)
and founded the Zhou Dynasty (周朝 1134BC to 256BC). He gave his fifth brother,
Ji Shudu (姬叔度) authority to rule a district called Cai (蔡 located in
present day city of Runing 汝寧市 in Shangcai county 上蔡縣 in Henan province
河南省), which was renamed as the State of Cai (蔡國).
Zhou King Wu died in 1116BC and was succeeded by his 12 year old son Ji
Song (姬誦). The boy was crowned as Zhou King Cheng (周成王) and Ji Dan
(姬旦), another younger brother of Zhou King Wu was appointed as Regent,
as Ji Song was too young to rule.
Three of Zhou King Cheng's uncles, who were the rulers of the three States
of Guan (管國), Cai (蔡國) and Huo (霍國) respectively, joined by the remnants
of the preceding Shang Dynasty, rebelled against the Regent. They accused
the Regent of attempting to seize the throne for himself, upsetting the
rule of succession from father to son. With the help from some of his other
uncles, Zhou King Cheng crushed the rebellion. Ji Shudu, the ruler of Cai,
was banished to the south where he lived until he died of old age.
Ji Shudu had a son named Ji Jian (姬踐), who was an official in the State
of Lu (魯國 located in the present day county of Qufu 曲阜縣 in Shangdong
province 山東省). Ji Jian was considered by many to be a man of honour and
virtue. Zhou King Cheng recalled Jian back to the capital, Hao (鎬 the present
day city of Xian 西安市 in Shaanxi province 陜西省) and appointed him as
the ruler of the domain that his father had previously ruled, that was the
State of Cai. Zhou King Cheng also gave him the heritable title of Hou (侯
) or Marquis. Ji Jian was then known as Cai Hou or the Marquis of Cai.
In 543 BC, during the Spring and Autumn Period (春秋時代 722BC to 481BC),
Ji Ban (姬般) was entrusted to be the next ruler of Cai. He was the eldest
son of Ji Tong (姬同), the ruler of Cai who ruled from 591BC to 543BC. However,
Ji Ban could not wait for his father to die, so he murdered his father
and claimed the throne for himself (the most gruesome event in the history
of Cai).
Xiong Qian (熊虔) was the 26th ruler of the State of Chu (楚國 located in
the present day county of Jiangling 江陵縣 in Hubei province 湖北省) and
he ruled Chu from 540BC to 529BC. The State of Chu was a very powerful State
in the Han Shui (漢水) River region. Xiong Qian punished Ji Ban by annexing
the State of Cai and imprisoned ji Ban.
Fortunately for Ji Ban, Xiong Qian himself had also murdered his own father
and claimed the throne for himself. Feeling ashamed in imprisoning Ji Ban,
Xiong Qian released Ji Ban who went back to his homeland and revived the
State of Cai. In 506BC Cai was able to expand its territory by conquering
and annexing the State of Shen (沈國 located in present day town of Shenqiuji
沈丘集 in Fu Yang county 阜陽縣 of Anhui province 安徽省).
During the period of Warring States (戰國時間 453BC to 221BC), Zhou Court
central authority was too weak to stop constant outbreaks of war between
the different States. The large, strong and powerful States were able to
conquer and annex the small, weak and feeble ones with impunity.
In 447BC, State of Cai was conquered and annexed by the State of Chu the
second time. The State of Cai, which had been in existence for more than
600 years, ceased to exist, disappearing into the mists of history. The
children of the last ruler of Cai, Ji Sheng (姬聲), who had ruled from 471BC
to 447BC, adopted CAI (蔡) as their surname in remembrance of their now-extinct
State.
The couplet for surname Cai is:
子孫以國為氏,---Zi3 sun yi3 guo2 wei2 shi4,
望族居濟陽郡.---Wang4 zu2 ju Jiyang Jun.
The offspring adopted the name of their extinct State as their surname,
Their clan was originated from Jiyang Prefecture.
The prominent persons produced by the Cai Clan
............................................................
(1) Cai Hesen (蔡和森 1895 to 1928)
http://yn.chung.id.au/Mao&Cai&Friends.jpg
鐵血救國,---Tie3 xue4 jiu4 guo2,
耕讀傳家.---Geng du2 chuan2 jia.
Use our blood like iron to save the country,
Cultivate the land and study are the norm of the clan.
Cai Hesen properly had a greater influence than anyone else on Mao Zedong's
(毛澤東) thinking as a revolutionary 'internationalist'. The son of an intellectual
family of hunan (湖南), Cai was among the first Chinese to join the Work-Study
student emigrants to France in 1920, and perhaps the first Chinese to espouse
the Communist cause there. Cai Chang (蔡暢), his sister, accompanied him
to Europe. While in France he kept up a lively correspondence with Mao.
After he returned to China, Cai's played a leading role in the Chinese Communist
duing the 1925-1927 period. At the time of his arrest and execution in 1927,
by order of Chiang Kai-shek, he was member of the Party Political Bureau.
His wife, Xiang Jingyu (向警予), a fellow Hunanese whom he married in France,
was an outstanding women's leader; she was executed in 1928.
Source: Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow.
...........................................................
(2) Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培 1868AD to 1940AD),
http://baike.baidu.com/view/2008.htm
One of his poems
惜竹不除當路筍,---Xi zhu2 bu4 chu2 dang lu4 sun3,
伐薪教護帶巢枝.---Fa2 xin jiao4 hu4 dai4 chao2 zhi.
If you don't get rid of the bamboos due to cherishing them,
they will become bamboo shoots blocking the road.
You are cutting down the trees for firewood,
yet you are teaching people to protect the birds' nests on the branches.
Cai Yuanpei was born in the county of Shaoxing (紹興縣) in Zhejiang province
(浙江省). He was a brilliant scholar. He obtained his PhD from Germany.
He was the chancellor of the National University of Beijing (北京大學) during
the May Fourth Movement on May 4, 1919 when the university students held
demonstrations against Yuan Shi-kai's acceptance of Japan's Twenty-one Demands.
Many students were arrested by the Government. Cai Yuanpei helped to have
the students released. Soon after he resigned as the chancellor of the University.
His resignation began:
"我倦矣!
殺君馬者路旁兒
I am tired!
Those who killed your horse are the children by the road."
Cai Yuanpei was referring to a fable. The story in the fable is about an
official showing off his a handsome horse. The children by the side of the
road applaud in excitement at the sight of the horse. The official rides
the horse faster and farther until it drops dead of exhaustion. Did Cai
Yuanpei compare himself as the horse and his students the children?
Cai Yuanpei played a great role in substituting the Chinese classical language,
Wen Yan Wen (文言文), with the vernacular form, Bai Hua (白話).
His famous book is 蔡元培選集.
.............................................................
(3) Cai Lun (蔡倫 ? to 121AD)
Cai Lun was born in Gui Yang (桂陽 present day Chen Yang county 郴陽縣)
in Hunan province (湖南省). It is recorded in ancient documents that Cai
Lun, an eunuch of the Eastern Han Dynsty (東漢朝 25AD to 220AD), invented
paper, which he made from bark, hemp, rags and worn-out fishing nets. In
105AD (the last year of the reign of Emperor 和帝 [Liu Zhao 劉肇]), Cai
Lun presented his invention to the emperor, and subsequently this method
of making paper from plant fibre gradually spread in China.
People named him "Cai Hou Zhi 蔡侯紙". A temple was erected in his honour
in
the south of the pond, which was named after him, Cai Zi Chi Pan (蔡子池
畔), in
Lei Yang county (耒陽縣) in Hunan province. The couplet on the door of the
temple is "芳池月映﹔故宅風存".
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Posted to Overseas Chinese Forum at asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
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