Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted an ancient Chinese poem. It left his followers theorizing about its meaning.

Mega-billionaire Elon Musk and his Twitter account have had some adventures.

In 2018, Musk's tweet that he was "considering taking Tesla private" invited charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a $20 million fine.

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As the country was locked down in April 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, Musk tweeted: "FREE AMERICA NOW."

The next month, Musk proclaimed: "I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house."

And on Monday, Musk fired off another tweet that confounded his 62 million followers. Underneath the word "Humankind" was an ancient poem - written in Chinese.

One translation:

Beans asimmer on a beanstalk flame

From inside the pot expressed their ire:

"Alive we sprouted on a single root -

What's your rush to cook us on the fire?"

The poem, titled the "Quatrain of Seven Steps," was written by Cao Zhi, a poet who lived during the Three Kingdoms period of China, which spanned from 220 to 280 A.D. Cao Zhi reportedly said the words aloud to settle a dispute with his brother, Cao Pi. In modern-day China, it serves as an allegory for getting along.

Yet without additional context from Musk, the speculation began, with the tweet becoming a Rorschach test to his Twitter followers and others.

Several theories emerged.

One of them, as reported by Reuters, is that Musk was referring to a tense exchange he had with the head of the United Nations' World Food Program, David Beasley, who said last month that a small percentage of Musk's net worth - roughly $6 billion - could feed millions of hungry people. In a tweet on Sunday, Musk said he would "sell Tesla stock right now" if the food program could prove how the money would "solve world hunger."

Bolstering that theory was Musk's nearly simultaneous posting of the poem to Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like social media app (Twitter is banned in China). Hours later, Musk followed with another post saying that he would donate $6 billion to the World Food Program if it showed how it spent the money.

In January, Musk became the world's richest person, overtaking Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post. Musk's net worth has only ballooned since then. As of Wednesday morning, it stands at $326 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Another leading theory, reported by Fortune, is that Musk was referring to a rivalry between two cryptocurrencies: Dogecoin and the newer Shiba Inu. Dogecoin, named for the meme of a Shiba Inu dog called Doge, has been championed by Musk. A token created this year called Shiba Inu, the breed of the dog in the meme, has recently surpassed Dogecoin's market value, which has led to tension among proponents of the respective coins, Fortune reported.

Meanwhile, CNN leaned heavily into the angle that Musk is engaged in a "charm offensive in China." The news network reported that Musk, who has a Tesla factory in Shanghai, has heaped praise on the country, saying in a June tweet: "The economic prosperity that China has achieved is truly amazing, especially in infrastructure! I encourage people to visit and see for themselves."

After tweeting the ancient Chinese poem, Musk didn't post anything on Twitter at all on Tuesday. But early Wednesday morning, the billionaire was back at it, tweeting a cartoon of a destroyed Viking ship on the moon, with the caption: "Vikings? Seriously? Oh, come on . . ."

"Yup, even the moon," Musk tweeted with the image.

Was he talking about SpaceX? The recent rally of bitcoin?

Then again, Musk has acknowledged: "My Twitter is pretty much complete nonsense at this point."

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