POEM
七步诗Qī Bù ShīThe Quatrain of Seven Steps
- Dynasty
- Wei
- Author
- 曹植 Cáo Zhí (Cao Zhi)
- Genre
- 古体诗
- Lines
- 4
- Era
- c. 3rd century
THE POEM — LINE BY LINE
Tap a line for word-by-word gloss.
#1煮豆燃豆萁Zhǔ dòu rán dòu qíThey boil beans, burning the bean stalks for fuel.word by word
煮zhǔboil; cook豆dòubean燃ránburn豆dòubean萁qíbean stalk#2豆在釜中泣Dòu zài fǔ zhōng qìIn the pot the beans weep:word by word
#3本是同根生Běn shì tóng gēn shēng'We grew from the same root,'word by word
#4相煎何太急Xiāng jiān hé tài jí'why must you burn us with such terrible haste?'word by word
相xiāngeach other; mutually煎jiānboil; torment (相煎: torment each other)何héwhy; how太tàitoo; so急jíhasty; urgent
POEM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A plain-English guide, not a literary translationThey boil beans, burning the bean stalks for fuel. In the pot, the beans weep: 'We grew from the same root — why must you burn us with such terrible haste?' The beans and the stalks are brothers: the poem's whole art is that it never says so, but lets a pot of beans say everything about two princes destroying each other. This is a plain-English guide, not a literary translation.
BACKGROUND & IMAGERY
According to the story in 世说新语, Cao Pi, first emperor of the Wei dynasty, suspected his brilliant younger brother Cao Zhi (192-232) of plotting against him, and ordered him to compose a poem within seven paces — or die. Cao Zhi answered with this piece, and the emperor, shamed, let him live. 煮豆燃萁 and 相煎何太急 are still used today for quarrels among brothers. The storybook version has six lines; the text here follows the four-line received version (通行本).
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- 《世说新语·文学》（中华书局校笺本）通行文本；部编版语文教材同文
- 本站飞花令语料 feihualing.db（poem 730059） — 文本以通行本为准，库本仅行级参考（库本为四句通行本）；《世说新语》所载六句本（'煮豆持作羹'起），为故事早期形态，不予采用
- Original English paraphrase & gloss — 本站原创学习释义，非文学译本（plain-English guide, not a literary translation）
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