What did you say?

Cao Zhi's Seven-step Poems in the Wei and Jin Dynasties of the Three Kingdoms.

Creation background

In the first year of Huang Chu (220), Cao Pi became emperor Wei Wendi. Cao Pi couldn't let go of the experience of fighting for the Crown Prince. After he proclaimed himself emperor, he still held a grudge against Cao Zhi and tried to get rid of him. Cao Zhi knew that his brother had deliberately framed himself, but he could not excuse himself. He had to write a poem within seven steps in extreme grief and indignation.

Original text:

Seven step poem

Author Cao Zhi? Sanguowei

Boiled beans are used as soup and fermented into juice.

Honey burns under the pot, and beans cry in the pot.

We are born from the same root, so why rush to speculate with each other?

Translation:

Cook beans to make bean soup. I want to filter out the residue of beans and leave the bean juice for soup. The beanstalk burns under the pot, and the beans cry in the pot. Beans and beanstalks originally grew on the same root. How can beanstalk torture beans in such a hurry?

Extended data:

This poem uses the seeds and beans from the same root to compare the half-brothers, and uses the seeds and beans to compare the flesh and blood brother Cao Pi who killed his younger brother, expressing strong dissatisfaction with Cao Pi, vividly and simply reflecting the cruel struggle within the feudal ruling group and the poet's own difficult situation and depressed thoughts and feelings.

Cao Zhi (192-232) was born in Zijian of Peiguoqiao (now Bozhou City, Anhui Province). Cao Wei was a famous writer in the Three Kingdoms period and a representative of Jian 'an literature. The son of Cao Cao, Emperor Wudi of Wei, and the younger brother of Cao Pi, Emperor Wendi of Wei, used to be the king of Chen before his death. After his death, posthumous title "thought", so he was also called King Chen Si.

Because of their literary attainments, later generations are called "Three Caos" with Cao Cao and Cao Pi, and Xie Lingyun, a writer in the Southern Song Dynasty, even commented that "there is one stone in the world, and Cao Zijian monopolizes eight fights".

Baidu Encyclopedia-Seven Steps Poetry