“Tu” (“土”) is a pictographic character that is written like this   in the oracle bone inscriptions, with the upper part in the shape of a soil block and the lower part resembling the ground. So the original meaning of this character is the mixture of mud and sand on the ground, as in the phrases like “turang” (meaning “soil”) and “huangtu” (meaning “loess”). The character is in the form of “土” in the small seal script. The two horizontal strokes are widely believed to represent soil and the vertical stroke in the middle a sprout coming out. The structure of the character in the small seal script vividly shows the crop-growing and germinating nature of earth.

From the original meaning, “tu” gradually had some derivative meanings like “territory” and “local area” etc. For thousands of years, China has been an agriculture-oriented country. So, farmers have a strong attachment to earth and land. “Tu” also means “homeland” or “native land”. The phrase “tuzhu” means a group of people living in a certain place for generations, similar to the meaning of aboriginal residents. And the phrase “tusheng tuzhang” means “born and bred in a particular place”. In addition, “tu” is used to mean “indigenous”, as against to “yang” or “from foreign cultures”.