Cao Zhi in Han Dynasty

Boil beans and burn beans, and the beans cry under the kettle.

I know you well, and I happen to be teaching.

Translation:

Burning bean stalks to cook beans, the bean stalks are crying under the pot: I was burned to ashes but cooked you, just in time for a banquet!

Comment on words and phrases:

1. Dioscorea zingiberensis (qí): bean straw.

2. Kettle (f incarnation): pot. The first two sentences are from Cao Zhi's seven-step poem.

3. Ember: What remains after an object burns. Used as a verb here, it means to burn to ashes.

4. Chair: Teachers' banquet.

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". Wang Shizhen evaluated the poets who have lived for two thousand years since the Han and Wei Dynasties as "immortals", including Cao Zhi, Li Bai and Su Shi.