Based on historical materialism, Guo Moruo created the script of stage play Cai Wenji in 1959, in which important historical events and figures in Chinese history were reconsidered, reorganized and re-evaluated. Therefore the story Wenji Returning to Han was newly annotated.

The author declared in the preface of the script, My main purpose to write Cai Wenji is to completely change the traditional evaluation of Cao Cao…focusing on praising his great passion for talent. The author expressed his deep love for motherland while portraying the character Cai Wenji. His own experiences also can be seen in the script, e.g. Cai Wenji left her son and daughter because all her personal affairs made way to the country, while, Guo Moruo returned to motherland in 1937 after saying goodbye to his wife and children -- as the author said their feelings were quite the same. The premiere of Cai Wenji was held in Beijing People's Art Theatre on May 21st, 1959, with Zhu Lin acted as Cai Wenji, Diao Guangtan as Cao Cao, Lan Tianye as Dong Si and Zhu Xu as the King Zuoxian.

From the poetic luster and unique personalities of characters represented by the coherent, harmonious and integral play, the magnificent stage as well as the exquisite costumes, we can see the innovation of the director Jiao Juyin, that is, he add artistic elements from traditional opera to create a drama with national characteristics.

In the drama-learning upsurge during the 50s and 60s, the main problem people facing was how to create Chinese drama of distinctive national characteristics. Dramatists realized that to learn drama one should learn some opera, but it was not to produce opera-like stage play, but to enrich and develop the theories and techniques of drama and add more national characteristics to it; learning was not to follow the form of opera blindly but to comprehend its aesthetic spirit and creation principles; learning should focus on depicting real life; the characteristics of drama should be retained while elements from opera should be added to strengthen the power of expression. Cai Wenji and Teahouse directed by Jiao Juyin were successful examples. While exploring the way of drama nationalization, he raised the theory of one play, one style, stressing that each play should had its unique style. In Cai Wenji, by applying opera's techniques to mold dramatic character, it achieved great success for being quite inspiring and brimming with poetic sentiment.

However, under the influence of left-deviationist thinking and the circumstance of closing the country to the rest of the world, dramatists lacked the chance to learn from world's excellent drama. Thus, to some degree their creativity was restrained.