Elon Musk tweets on Twitter and Weibo an ancient Chinese poem: Quatrain of Seven Steps (called 七步诗). What is meaning of the poem ? Today I will teach you this poem.
煮豆燃豆萁，
豆在釜中泣。
本是同根生，
相煎何太急。
Quatrain of Seven Steps (七步诗 )
Literally Translated:
Beanstalks are ignited to boil beans,
The beans in the pot crying out.
We are born of the same root,
Why should we incinerate each other with such impatience?
Like I said, before we learning each Chinese poem or idiom. We need to know the story of them firstly, so that can truly understand and get the point of them.
The story of Quatrain of Seven Steps (七步诗 ) is:
During the Three Kingdoms period of China, the emperor Cao Cao (曹操) died and his eldest son Cao Pi (曹丕 the second son, the first son has been died) became the new emperor. Cao Pi (曹丕) has a younger brother named Cao Zhi (曹植), who is Cao Cao’s third son. According to the ancient China‘s the hereditary system, the eldest son will be the next emperor, however Cao Cao seems like more like his younger son Cao Zhi, which makes these two brothers fighting, open and secret, for years.
Cao Pi and Cao Zhi are both intelligent, good at poems. But Cao Zhi is smarter than his brother a little bit. Which makes Cao Pi is jealous of him. And they all have many supporters. After Cao Cao passed away, Cao Pi became emperor. So Cao Pi want to kill his younger broth (Cao Zhi).
One day, Cao Pi summoned his brother Cao Zhi because of a rumor said he is going to usurp his throne. Cao Pi forces Cao Zhi to produce a poem within seven steps, otherwise he will be in jail and killed.
As expected, Cao Zhi is intelligent, considering his own want to kill him just because of rumor. He produced this Quatrain of Seven Steps (七步诗) to exactly described the situation of there two brothers. Beanstalks and beans like he and his brother, should not killing each others.
Cao Pi though Cao Zhi won’t produce a poem in seven steps short time, could kill him once for all. but it turns out he is smart. So Cao Zhi saved his life because this poem. And this story is knowing until today.
We don’t know why Elon Musk Tweets this ancient Chinese poem, his Tweets thoughts is unclear. But this is exactly the charm of Chinese poems, unclear but meaningful.
If you want to quote this poem, you can quote the whole, or quote the last one or two sentences. The first and second sentences can be dismissed in the most cases nowadays.
