World Children's Story Classics: Family Stories

Chapter 78

Cao Cao in the Three Kingdoms period was a famous political scientist, military strategist and writer in history.His two sons, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, also have amazing literary talents, especially the youngest son, Cao Zhi, who is quick in writing and erudite. He wanted to make him the prince several times.But Cao Zhi is upright by nature, doesn't know how to make superficial articles, and loves drinking too much.Cao Pi, on the other hand, was very particular about power, good at concealing his true feelings, and behaved very kindly in front of others. People in the palace and Cao Cao's side often spoke good words for him in Cao Cao's ears, so he was finally established as the prince.After Cao Cao's death, his eldest son Cao Pi succeeded him as emperor.He hated Cao Zhi's talent and worried that Cao Zhi would compete with him for imperial power, so he always wanted to kill him.One day, he came up with a plan, called Cao Zhi, and restricted Cao Zhi to use "brother" as the title within seven steps, but the word "brother" could not appear in the whole poem. Kill him before finishing the poem.Cao Zhi understood that his brother was going to harm him, but he remained calm, and immediately chanted: "Cooking beans burns Osmunda, and the beans are weeping in the cauldron. They grow from the same root, so why bother frying each other!" Less than seven steps later, Cao Zhi wrote the poem All right.The meaning of the poem is: When cooking beans, bean stalks are used as fuel. The beans cried in the pot and said, I and you grow from the same root, why are you tormenting me so eagerly? After hearing this, Cao Pi was very upset Taste, finally gave up the idea of ​​killing my brother.

Later, people used the idiom "how anxious are you to get involved" in the poem to describe the mutual persecution and killing between relatives or within a group.

(End of this chapter)