Cao Zhi (Chinese: 曹植192 -- 232) was a Chinese poet during the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms period. His poetry style, greatly revered during the Jin Dynasty and Southern and Northern Dynasties, came to be known as the jian'an style.
Cao Zhi was also the son of the powerful warlord Cao Cao. Together with his elder brother Cao Pi, they were the strongest contestants for their father's position. Cao Pi eventually succeeded Cao Cao in 220 and within a year declared himself the first emperor of the Kingdom of Wei. Like many powerful families, tension among brothers was high. In his later life, Cao Zhi was not allowed to meddle in politics, despite his many petitions to seek office.
After the death of Cao Cao, Cao Zhi failed to turn up for the funeral. Men sent by Cao Pi found Cao Zhi drunk in his own house. Cao Zhi was then bound and brought to Cao Pi. When Empress Bian, their common birth mother, heard of this, she went to Cao Pi and pled for the life of her younger son. Cao Pi agreed.
However, Cao Pi's Chief Secretariat (相国) Hua Xin then convinced him to put Cao Zhi's literary talent to a test. If Cao Zhi failed the test, it would be excuse enough to put him to death, Hua Xin suggested.
Cao Pi agreed and held audience with Cao Zhi, who in great trepidation bowed low and confessed his faults. On the wall there was a painting of two oxes fighting, and one of them was falling into a well. Cao Pi then told his brother to make a poem based on the painting within seven paces. However, the poem was not to contain explicit reference to the subjects of the drawing.
Cao Zhi took seven paces as instructed, and the poem was already formulated in his heart. He then recited:
They were boiling beans on a beanstalk fire,
Came a plaintive voice from the pot.
煮豆燃豆萁，豆在釜中泣。
"O why, since we sprang from the selfsame root,
Should you kill me with anger hot?"
本是同根生，相煎何太急！
Translation by C. H. Brewitt-Taylor
Having heard this, Cao Pi was moved to tears. He then let his brother go after merely degrading the peerage of the latter as a punishment.
Tags: China film history Three Kingdoms 三国演义 Su 蜀国 Wu 吴国 Wei 魏国
