Quick Answer: What Does the Seven-Step Poem Mean?
The Seven-Step Poem (七步詩, Qībù Shī), traditionally attributed to Cao Zhi (曹植, Cáo Zhí), uses beans and their own burning stalks to represent violence between people of the same family.
- Shared origin: Beans and stalks come from the same root, as siblings share a family.
- Unequal suffering: The stalks feed the fire while the beans “weep” inside the pot.
- Appeal: The final question asks why someone should be so eager to harm their own kin.
The title refers to a composition challenge in the traditional story, not seven lines of verse. Both six-line and four-line forms circulate, and the attribution should be distinguished from a verified account of composition.[1][2][3]
A pot of beans supplies an image of kinship under pressure. The fuel and the food come from one plant, yet one is being used to destroy the other. The final question turns that ordinary cooking scene into a protest against harming one’s own family.
The Complete Six-Line and Four-Line Versions
The longer form is quoted in Shishuo Xinyu (世說新語, Shìshuō Xīnyǔ). The following Chinese follows the anecdote’s wording, including 本自, “originally,” and 然, “burn.” Other editions print 是 or 燃. Each row contains one complete five-character line with an original English sense translation.[1][2]
| Six-line Chinese text | Makna dalam bahasa Indonesia |
|---|---|
| 煮豆持作羹， | Beans are boiled to make a soup. |
| 漉菽以爲汁。 | The beans are strained to obtain their liquid. |
| 萁在釜下然， | Stalks burn beneath the cooking pot. |
| 豆在釜中泣。 | Inside the pot, the beans weep. |
| 本自同根生， | Originally, we grew from the same root. |
| 相煎何太急？ | Why are you so urgently cooking your own kin? |
The familiar shorter form compresses the preparation into its opening line. It has four five-character lines; it is not a translation of the six-line text with two lines silently omitted.[1]
| Four-line Chinese text | Makna dalam bahasa Indonesia |
|---|---|
| 煮豆燃豆萁， | Beans are boiled with their own stalks as fuel. |
| 豆在釜中泣。 | The beans weep inside the pot. |
| 本是同根生， | We came from the same root. |
| 相煎何太急？ | Why this haste to cook your own kin? |
“Your own kin” makes the metaphor explicit in English. Literally, the last line asks why the cooking or tormenting is so urgent; it does not contain the word “brother.”
The Seven-Step Story and Its Historical Limits
In the anecdote, Cao Pi (曹丕, Cáo Pī), identified as the emperor, orders his younger brother to compose a poem within seven steps or face severe punishment. The brother responds with the bean poem, and the emperor shows deep shame. These are the actions narrated by the text; they are not an independently witnessed record of the scene.[2]
The Shishuo Xinyu guide explains the collection’s anecdotal character. The story presents both rapid literary ability and a moral response to power: a threatened speaker makes the ruler confront their common origin.
Stephen Owen questions the poem’s authorship and distinguishes the person speaking within an anecdote from the person who actually composed the words. “Traditionally attributed” therefore preserves the cultural association without treating it as settled proof.[3]
For the people behind the tradition, see the guides to Cao Zhi and Cao Pi. Their names help explain the received reading; the poem’s force does not depend on reconstructing the exact number or length of footsteps.
Beans, Burning Stalks and the Same Root
The bean stalks (萁, qí) are the plant’s stems used as fuel. They are not unrelated firewood. That shared plant origin is essential: the source of heat belongs to the same living growth as the beans being heated.[1][2]
The verbs make the cooking scene morally charged. Burning describes the fuel’s action; weeping gives the beans a human response. Personification turns the boiling into an image of suffering.
The repeated root then exposes a contradiction. Those who ought to recognize their closeness are placed in a relationship of aggressor and victim. Although some English translations use “each other,” the immediate image is unequal: burning stalks heat the beans, while the beans suffer in the pot.
The last question asks not only why harm occurs, but why it is pursued with such urgency. It is a rebuke framed through shared origin, rather than a declaration of the speaker’s superior strength. The vulnerable voice appeals to something the stronger party should already acknowledge.[1]
How to Read the Poem without Losing Its Metaphor
- Choose a version: Read either the full six-line or full four-line text consistently.
- Identify the materials: Keep the beans and the stalks connected to one plant.
- Hear the personification: Notice how “weep” transforms cooking into suffering.
- Separate story and evidence: Use the traditional brothers’ story to understand the appeal while retaining the limits on authorship and historicity.
FAQs About the Seven-Step Poem
Why is it called seven-step when it has four or six lines?
The seven steps belong to the time allowed for composition in the anecdote. They do not specify the number of lines. The story also gave rise to an expression for composing poetry with exceptional speed.[2][4]
Did Cao Zhi certainly compose it under threat?
That is the traditional story. Its presence in an anecdotal collection does not establish the event or authorship as certain, and scholarly doubts remain.[2][3]
Does the last line mean stir-frying beans?
The poem’s cooking scene involves beans in a pot, made into soup or liquid in the longer form. Translating the final verb simply as modern “stir-fry” can obscure both that scene and the metaphor of tormenting one’s kin.[1][2]
Sumber
[1] Chinese Wikisource. Seven-Step Poem: Six-Line and Four-Line Versions
[2] Liu Yiqing, with Liu Xiaobiao’s annotations; Chinese Wikisource. Shishuo Xinyu, Literature, anecdote 66
[3] Stephen Owen. The Making of Early Chinese Classical Poetry: Discussion of the Seven-Step Poem’s Attribution
[4] Taiwan Ministry of Education. Dictionary of Chinese Idioms: Composing a Poem within Seven Steps