This term means feeling attached to the native land and reluctant to move to another place. This was a widespread way of thinking and sentiment among the common people in a traditional agricultural society. In essence, it is because they depended on the land to make a living, since the land served as their basic resource for production and livelihood. Also, they were loath to leave the burial place of their ancestors as well as their family and relations. In the Chinese clan system, ancestor worship was a basic belief and living together with one’s clan was the social norm. People felt it upsetting and inconvenient to leave the environment and society in which they grew up. This concept and sentiment may seem passive and conservative, but it reflects the Chinese people’s simple love for their homeland, relatives, and a peaceful life.

Attached to the land and unwilling to move – this is the nature of the common people. Interdependent among relatives and reluctant to leave them – this is a shared feeling. (The History of the Han Dynasty)