She was the daughter of Xun Shuang, a writer turned politician at the court of Han empire. She was first the wife of Yin Yu. Later she married Guo Yi. She was the cousin of Xun Yu, an adviser to the warlord Cao Cao. The Xun family was a scholarly and skilled clan. Among Xun Cai's other relatives was Xun You, adviser to Cao Cao. Through marriage, Xun Cai was linked with the Yin family.[1]
She was described as skilled in poetry and intelligent woman, but best known for her devotion to Yin Yu and maintaining ties with the Yin clan even after Yin Yu's death.[2] Due to convictions, her biography was recorded in Book of the Later Han in volume 84, Biographies of Exemplary Women (卷八十四 列女傳 第七十四).
Adulthood
She married Yin Yu from Nanyang at seventeen, and at nineteen gave birth to a daughter. Shortly after their daughter's birth, Yin Yu died.
According to tradition, if a husband dies, the wife can remarry. She knew that her family wanted her to remarry, but her sense she remained in the Yin clan for a while and refused any request to join another clan through marriage. Xun Shuang asked Xun Cai to marry Guo Yi of the Guo clan in Taiyuan (clan of general Guo Huai). Guo Yi was an official who became known at an early age. He was a widower and wanted to remarry.
After Xun Cai declined the marriage proposal, Xun Shuang feigned illness and asked her to visit him. She prepared a knife to protect herself and traveled to her father's house. Xun Shuang's plan was to bring her home and force her to marry Guo Yi. When she learned that her father had tricked, Xun Cai refused to remarry and took up a knife threatening to take her own life. Xun Shuang ordered the servants to take the knife and send Xun Cai to Guo's house. During the trip, Xun Shuang was worried that Xun Cai was too angry and might cause trouble.[3]
After arriving at Guo's house, Xun Cai pretended to be happy Some time later she said to the others, "At first, I expected to die in the same tomb as Yin Yu, but I was forced by my family to come here and I couldn't fulfill my wish. I was helpless!". During the wedding night she ordered people to light oil lamps everywhere and got dressed. Upon meeting Guo Yi, she spoke seriously about ideas and life with him all night. Guo Yi was shocked by Xun Cai's feelings, so he did not force her to marry him.[4] Guo Yi was a gentleman who greatly admired Xun Cai, so he said that he would leave at dawn. When Guo Yi left, Xun Cai ordered the people around her to get ready for a stone cold bath. After entering the bathroom, she asked the servants to leave and locked the door, then wrote on the bathroom door with incense powder: "The corpse is for yin." to express loyalty to the Yin family and her ex-husband. She hanged herself with her belt. The servants waiting outside weren't watching her, and when they found out, Xun Cai had already died.[5][6]