Cài Jié 蔡節 (fl. 1245)
A late-Southern-Sòng official-scholar; native of Yǒngjiā 永嘉 (modern Wēnzhōu, Zhèjiāng). Lifedates not securely recorded.
The principal documentary trace is his jìnbiǎo 進表 — the memorial accompanying the presentation of his Lúnyǔ jíshuō (KR1h0026) to the throne, dated Chúnyòu 5 (1245). The memorial-line gives his offices as Cháosànláng dàfǔqīng jiān Shūmì yòu chéngzhǐ 朝散郎大府卿兼樞密右承旨 (Court Gentleman Adviser, Director of the Imperial Treasury, concurrently Right Cabinet Receiver). A postface by Jiāng Wénlóng 姜文龍 dated Chúnyòu bǐngwǔ (1246) — one year after the memorial — gives further closure. Cài Jié must therefore have been active at the late-Lǐzōng court ca. 1240–1250.
His method, set out by the Sìkù editors at KR1h0026, is highly methodical: where a single school is followed throughout, only the surname is given; where one or two schools are blended, each is named in note-form below the citation; where many schools are mixed, the surnames are listed at the close in sequence; where his own gloss colours the citation, “běn mǒu shì 本某氏” (“based on Mr X”) is given — all such are collectively jí 集; where his own remark is appended, the marker is Jié wèi 節謂 (“Jié says”); his independent gloss, shì 釋. The system is a model of clear citation discipline. The “Jié wèi”-tagged readings are his original contributions and are the principal points of independent interest.
He is not the same person as the like-named 蔡節 in CBDB (id 10590) for whom no biographical detail survives — though the present figure is most plausibly identified with that record.
(CBDB id 10590; lifedates undetermined; the fl. 1245 designation follows the Lúnyǔ jíshuō memorial date.)