The Chinese character for soil is composed of a long base stroke, perhaps representing subsoil; a shorter upper stroke, perhaps indicating topsoil; and a vertical stroke, perhaps representing a growing plant.

The Chinese character for earth consists of two parts— on the left is the character for soil and on the right that which means “also.” The literal meaning, therefore, is “soil also.”

简而言之，就是土是土，地也是土。

正文：

For most of history, people were deeply integrated into their natural surroundings.  They depended on it for building materials, fuel, food, and fibers, and it was obvious that if these essential resources were overexploited, eventually there would be an insufficient number of them for everyone’s needs.  There would be shortages, leading perhaps to the need to leave the area and find somewhere else to live.  This close relationship is reflected in some of the characters in which Chinese languages are written.  The two illustrations (on pages  and ) are good examples.  The character for soil consists of two horizontal strokes and one vertical stroke. The scholar Xushen (58–137 C.E.) noted that the lower horizontal stroke might refer to the subsoil, the upper horizontal stroke to the topsoil, and the vertical stroke to a plant growing in the soil.  The character for earth has two parts. On the left is the character for soil.  The part on the right is the character for also. So together their literal meaning is soil also, or soil extended over a vast area.