The most common thing in the world is soil, but the most sacred and precious thing is soil. "The grass and trees in the white valley are as beautiful as the soil" and "people cannot stand without the soil, and they cannot eat without the grain." Ordinary soil is the foundation on which life depends. Without soil, how could there be a colorful human world? Without soil, how could there be a towering tree of literature?
The ancient myth of Nuwa creating human beings emerged from the soil. "Nuwa plays with the loess, and she forms a group of foolish servants. They are scattered in the heaven and earth, as misty as sand and dust." (Li Bai) The myth of human beings made of clay is bizarre and absurd, but in a sense, it is also a beautiful imagination. There is a song that resounds on both sides of the Taiwan Strait: "A handful of loess shapes millions of you and me, the veins are the Great Wall, the arteries are the Yellow River..." The aspirations of the descendants of Yan and Huang for the reunification of the motherland are all in a handful of loess. Apart from this, I am afraid it is difficult to find a more accurate, concise and vivid poem than this one.
In the minds of ancient emperors, "the whole world is nothing but the royal land." The five-color earth is enshrined on the Sheji altar. She is the god of earth; Ji is the god of grain. Soil is a symbol of territory and power, and a symbol of the country. Qin Mu's essay "The Land" vividly reproduces a scene in the Spring and Autumn Period when a young master of Jin was on his way to escape: a farmer offered him clods of earth to satisfy his hunger, and Chong'er changed from being angry at first and wanting to whip him, to thanking God and solemnly giving the soil to him. Place the block on the car. The counselor's reminder made him understand: although a lump of earth cannot satisfy his hunger, it represents an incredible reward from God, representing wealth and power. What an intriguing piece of earth!
In the minds of workers, land is the lifeblood. Writers who are closely connected with the working people often reveal this kind of thoughts and feelings from the detailed description of "a handful of soil". There is a wonderful portrayal of a character in the novel "Red Flag Pu": As soon as Yan Zhihe stepped onto the fertile land, his feet seemed to be elastic, exuding the fragrance of earth. As I walked, tears started to flow from my eyes again, and I stumbled to my knees on the ground. He crawled down, opened his big mouth, gnawed at the soil, chewed and stretched his neck to swallow...
If the details of Yan Zhihe gnawing on the soil show the farmers' dependence on the land and the pain of having their land taken away, then the poet He Jingzhi said in "Back to Yan'an" "I hold on to the loess and won't let go. The poem "close to the heart" is a sublimation of feelings and thoughts, expressing the revolutionaries' nostalgia and love for the land where they fought and the people who raised them.
The soil written by writers is often saturated with the author's emotions, expressing their love for life, yearning for the future, and pursuit of ideals. The poet Lin Gu wrote in "The Dream of Soil": "The dream of soil is dark and greasy/When spring quietly comes to the northern temperate zone/The soil has the most beautiful dream/The soil has the dream of greenness/The dream of the shrubbery/ The dream of flowers/the dream of spreading fruits/the dream of golden grains..."
The poet firmly believes that sowing seeds means sowing hope. It is the soil that nurtures the ever-changing life and the future of the human world. When the earth is covered with white snow, the soil is pregnant with colorful dreams under the cold ice and snow: spring with colorful colors, summer with lotus reflecting the sun, autumn with golden ears of grain, and winter with plum blossoms blooming alone. The dream of soil is the dream of the poet.
The poet Ai Qing once wrote: If I were a bird, "Then I die/Even my feathers rot in the earth/Why do I often have tears in my eyes/Because I care about the earth Love deeply" ("I Love This Land"). In the heart of a child who loves the motherland, the land where the ancestors have lived forever is the symbol of the motherland.
Coil is not only a symbol of the motherland, but also a reflection of personality. "Falling red is not a heartless thing, it turns into spring mud to protect the flowers" (Gong Zizhen's "Miscellaneous Poems of Ji Hai"), what a noble spiritual realm! "Treat yourself as a pearl/and there will always be buried pain/treat yourself as dirt/let everyone step on a path" (Lu Li's "War and Mud"). What the poet expresses is not a personal helpless sigh, but a sigh of relief. It is a value of dedication and positivity. Just imagine, no matter how brilliant a person is, no matter how many great achievements he has, even if he is a great man or a hero, his life value is in the long river of history, like a handful of soil paving a road for future generations.
How many seeds of literature have sprouted from ordinary soil. Only when the roots of literature are deeply rooted in the soil can fragrant flowers bloom and grow into towering trees. May our literary works exude a richer earthy flavor, and may our writers possess the character and sentiment of earth!