Hi, i do remember about the poetess Cai Wenji who lived during
the Three Kingdoms period. She played the ancient musical
instrument hujia and composed her most famous piece Eighteen
Laments Sung To A Hujia, which was about the suffering of the
people during the Three Kingdoms period. There was also Cao Zhi,
son of Cao Cao who composed the Quatrain of Seven Steps which moved
his brother Cao Pi to tears and spared his life.
This is the translation of Cai Wenji's piece
Eighteen Laments Sung To A Hujia
At the time of my birth, the land was at peace,
But later, the Han Dynasty fell into decline.
Heaven is unkind, allowing wars, suffering, separation;
Earth is unkind, that I should have to live at such a time.
Weapons of war are everywhere, making the roads perilous.
Soldiers and people fleeing to exile, suffering together.
The land, billowing clouds of smoke and dust, is a prisoner of the
Hu.
Integrity and willpower have disappeared.
I cannot accept the vulgar barbarous customs,
Humiliated and abused, to whom can I turn?
I sing to my hujia and qin,
But no one knows my anger and my grief.
