These are poems made at the time of the 3 kingdoms or poems made describing this period of chaos
1.) Tsao Chik's poem, composed after seven paces as a test(his brother, the new King of Wei, was to kill him if he did not show his skill), it describes a painting of 2 bulls that had been fighting at a foot of a wall, and one of them had just fallen dead into a well. The words 2 bulls, 1 bull, fighting, wall's foot, falling, well and dead were forbidden.
Two butcher's victims lowing walked along,
Each head bore curving bones, a sturdy pair,
They met just by a hillock, both were strong,
Each would avoid a pit new digged there.
One lay below a gory mass, inert.
Twas not that they were of unequal strength...
Though wrathful both, one did not strength exert.
2.) Tsao Chik, was again put to the test, this time improvising on the theme of their (Tsao Pei the King and Chik's) fraternal relationship. The words brotherhood or brother being banned. And without seeming to reflect he made this famous poem.
They were boiling beans on a beanstalk fire;
Came a plaintive voice from the pot,
"O why, since we sprang from the selfsame root,
Should you kill me with anger hot?"
(*after the poem 'The allusion in these verses to the cruel treatment of one member of a family by another was not lost upon Tsao Pei, and he dropped a few silent tears.')