Cai Tiao, whose life is unknown, has very limited publicly available information; all that is known is that a single work, Record of the Northern Journey (Beishou Xinglu), survives under his name. Since historical biographies and catalogues record nothing definite about his native place, dates of birth and death, or official career, it is difficult today to reconstruct his specific experiences, and his writing can only be glimpsed through this surviving work. Judging from its title and content, Record of the Northern Journey belongs to the veritable-record type of writing that chronicles an emperor's journey northward. Its style is mainly annalistic, concentrating on itinerary, observations, and the words and deeds of figures recorded item by item; the prose is plain and concise, with little elaboration. Works of this kind were often classified in traditional catalogues under miscellaneous history or biography, while this site, based on its subject matter and intellectual orientation, places it under Eastern philosophy as a text for understanding traditional political ethics and conceptions of ruler and minister. Because information about the author is fragmentary, the book's value as historical material and for reading lies more in preserving observations of a particular historical situation than in the author's personal literary fame.
