When Cao Cao dies, his eldest son Cao Pi takes the throne of the King of Wei. Then word comes that Cao Zhang is coming from Chang’an with a hundred thousand troops. When Cao Pi takes alarm, the Grand Counsellor Jia Kui steps forward and goes out of the city to meet Cao Zhang. Cao Zhang asks first. Where are the late king’s seal and ribbon?
Jia Kui straightens his face and answers. A family has its eldest son and a state has its heir. The late king’s seal and ribbon are not for Your Lordship to ask about. At the palace gate Jia Kui asks again. Has Your Lordship come to mourn, or to contend for the throne? When Cao Zhang says he has only come to mourn, Jia Kui answers. If you have no other intent, why bring troops into the city?
Cao Zhang sends his commanders away and goes in alone to see his brother, and the two embrace and weep aloud. Cao Zhang hands all his troops over to Cao Pi and goes back to Yanling.
The picture in the tomb hall
Cao Pi changes the reign name to Yankang, names his father King Wu and buries him at Gaoling in Ye. He has Yu Jin tend to the tomb.
At the tomb Yu Jin sees a picture painted on the white wall. Guan Yu sits high, Pang De stands angry and unbowed, and Yu Jin lies prostrate on the ground begging for his life. Cao Pi despised Yu Jin for losing a battle, surrendering to the enemy rather than dying, and then coming back, so he had the picture painted on purpose and sent him there.
Yu Jin falls ill with shame and anger, and soon dies.
The brothers who did not come to mourn
Hua Xin speaks to Cao Pi. The Marquis of Yanling has handed over his troops and gone home, but Cao Zhi, Marquis of Linzi, and Cao Xiong, Marquis of Xiaohuai, never came to mourn, so they should be charged. Cao Pi sends envoys to both.
Cao Xiong, fearing punishment, hangs himself, and Cao Pi gives him a fine burial. The envoy back from Linzi reports. Cao Zhi spent every day drunk with the two Ding brothers, and received me without rising from his seat. The elder Ding, Ding Yi, rebuked me, saying the late king had meant to make our master heir. Cao Zhi had his guards drive the envoy out with clubs.
Cao Pi is furious and gives Xu Chu three thousand troops to arrest Cao Zhi. When Xu Chu arrives, Cao Zhi and the Ding brothers are all lying dead drunk. The Ding brothers are beheaded and Cao Zhi is taken to Ye.
A mother’s request
Hearing that Cao Xiong is dead and Cao Zhi has been arrested too, their mother Lady Bian is greatly alarmed and summons Cao Pi. Your brother Zhi has loved drink and been unruly all his life, but that is because he trusts in his own talent and lets himself go. Think of the bond of sons born of one mother and spare his life. Then I can close my eyes in the next world.
Cao Pi answers. I too love his talent deeply, so how could I harm him? I only mean to curb his temper now, so do not worry, mother.
When Lady Bian has gone in, Hua Xin asks whether the empress dowager told him not to kill Cao Zhi. When Cao Pi says yes, Hua Xin speaks. Cao Zhi holds talent and wisdom and will not stay a creature of the pond forever. If he is not removed early, he will become a threat later.
When Cao Pi says he cannot disobey his mother’s command, Hua Xin offers a plan. People say Cao Zhi turns everything he says into literature, but I do not wholly believe it. Summon him and test his talent. If he fails, kill him, and if he succeeds, lower his rank and silence the writers of the realm.
Seven steps
Cao Zhi comes in, prostrates himself in fear and asks for punishment. Cao Pi speaks. By feeling we are brothers, but by duty we are ruler and subject. How dare you trust your talent and scorn propriety? When our father lived, you always showed off your writing to others, and I strongly suspected someone else wrote it for you. Now compose a poem in the time it takes to walk seven steps. If you can, I will spare you from death, and if you cannot, I will punish you severely.
When Cao Zhi asks for a subject, Cao Pi points to an ink painting hanging in the hall. Two oxen fight below an earthen wall, and one falls into a well and dies. Take this painting as your subject, but do not use the words two oxen fight below a wall and one falls into a well and dies.
In seven steps Cao Zhi finishes a poem. It begins with two lumps of flesh walking side by side down the road, each crowned with curved bones. Cao Pi and his officials are all astonished.
Cao Pi speaks again. Even writing in seven steps I call slow. Can you compose a poem the moment you are asked? When Cao Zhi asks for a subject, Cao Pi answers. You and I are brothers. Take that as your subject, but do not use the word brothers.
Without a moment’s thought, Cao Zhi recites. They boil the beans by burning the bean stalks, and the beans weep in the pot.
本是同根生 相煎何太急
ben shi tong gen sheng, xiang jian he tai ji
We were born from the same root, so why such haste to roast each other? (Chapter 79)
Cao Pi weeps on hearing the poem. Just then their mother Lady Bian comes out from behind the hall. How can an elder brother persecute a younger so cruelly? Cao Pi rises hastily from his seat. The law of the state simply cannot be set aside. Cao Pi demotes Cao Zhi to Marquis of Anxiang, and Cao Zhi bows, mounts his horse and leaves.
The adopted son in Chengdu
At that time in Chengdu, Liao Hua throws himself on the ground in tears. The death of Lord Guan and his son was the crime of Liu Feng and Meng Da, so behead these two villains. Kongming says that haste will cause trouble, and that the two should be promoted to governorships and separated before they are seized. In the meantime Meng Da learns what is afoot, flees to Wei, and as a Wei general sends Liu Feng a letter urging him to surrender.
Liu Feng tears up the letter and beheads the messenger. This villain ruins the bond between my uncle and me, and sets my father and me apart as well. He means to make me a disloyal and unfilial man. But Liu Feng is badly beaten by Meng Da and the generals of Wei. When Shangyong and Fangling, which he held, go over to Wei too, he returns to Chengdu with only a hundred or so riders.
When Liu Feng throws himself on the ground weeping, Liu Bei is furious. Disgraceful son, with what face do you come to see me again? When Liu Feng says he did not rescue his uncle because Meng Da held him back, Liu Bei grows angrier still. You eat human food and wear human clothes, you are no clay figure, so how could you be held back by a villain’s words? Liu Bei has his attendants drag Liu Feng out and behead him.
Only after Liu Feng has been beheaded does Liu Bei hear that he tore up Meng Da’s letter and beheaded the messenger. He deeply regrets it, and with the grief of missing Guan Yu on top of it, he falls ill.
Cao Pi set his own blood brother the seven-step test, and though he wept at the poem, he lowered his brother’s rank. Liu Bei beheaded the adopted son who had failed to rescue his sworn brother, and only afterwards learned another side of him. Cao Zhi’s poem asked why things born from the same root should be in such haste to roast each other.
Have you ever felt you were being tested by a sibling or someone close to you?