This is a family epic deeply rooted in rural China. With extremely delicate writing, it depicts an individual's desperate struggle for survival and dignity amidst the turmoil of famine, war, political movements and changes of the times. It writes about how faith (belief in knowledge, protection of family) becomes the only salvation in desperate situations, and depicts the eternal tear and tension between "roots" and "drift", "persistence" and "escape". The story spans more than half a century, from a shallow grave of twenty centimeters to a majestic palace of knowledge. What rises and falls is fate, but what does not sink is the tenacious vitality that grows upward even in the soil.
