Cao Zhi, a talented poet in the third century, is the younger brother of the king, Cao Pi. Jealous of his gift and suspicious of his threat to the throne, Cao Pi commands his kid brother to extemporize, after taking but seven paces, a poem on the subject of brethren, both as keeper and, implicitly, killer, without ever mentioning brothers in the poem, lest he be punished by death. This encapsulates the tension across the Taiwan Strait, where the well-wrought prosperity of the island may be peeing and shitting his pants while pleading for peace with the big brother. Read More
