"The history of a land is the history of the people above her"

On September 7, 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech entitled "Promoting People-to-People Friendship and Creating a Better Future" at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, reviewing the long-standing traditional friendly relations between China and Kazakhstan, comprehensively expounding China's policy of good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation with Central Asian countries, and proposing for the first time to benefit the people of all countries along the route through the joint construction of the "Silk Road Economic Belt", so that the economic ties between Eurasian countries will be closer, mutual cooperation will be deeper, and the development space will be broader. In his speech, General Secretary Xi Jinping quoted the Kazakh proverb "The history of a land is the history of the people above her" to affirm the great achievements of Kazakhstan since independence in terms of politics, economy, people's livelihood, international influence, etc., praised the beautiful poems written by the industrious and wise people of the country in this magical land, and wished them a bright future.

Kazakh proverb is the most condensed artistic language created by the Kazakh people, known as the "language of gold", which is a short and concise literary style created by them in the practice of long-term productive labor and life, and an artistic summary of long-term observation of natural and social phenomena. The Kazakh proverb "The history of a land is the history of the people above her" contains three meanings.

First, it fully reflects the Kazakh people's attachment and love for the land. The Kazakhs' affection for the land is so warm and genuine that it can be said to be almost adoring. On the one hand, they see the land as a food and clothing parent for survival. The Kazakhs are descendants of the Eastern Turks, living on water and grass, making a living from animal husbandry, and spending almost their entire lives on horseback. The land provides essential water, crops, livestock and pastures for the Kazakhs and plays a vital role in their reproduction. On the other hand, they believe that the land has supernatural magical powers. Due to low productivity, Kazakhs lack the ability to control some natural disasters such as plagues, insect pests, and blizzards that threaten the survival of crops and livestock, believing that natural objects such as land have the spiritual ability to control the growth of all things, and blaming these natural disasters on human disrespect for the land gods. Therefore, the Kazakhs have always retained the custom of worshiping the land god, hoping to be able to adjust the wind and rain and livestock under the protection of the land god.

The second is to fully express the Kazakh people's yearning and desire for freedom. This can be deeply felt from the examination of the origin of the Kazakh name. At present, although historians have not yet formed a unified understanding of this issue, there are two more authoritative views: one is that the name Kazakh appeared in the 15th century. At that time, some of the herders in the lower Syr Darya River, led by Krehan and Ganibek Khan, moved to the Chu River valley south of Lake Balkhash. Because they were moving east to rebel and escape the oppression of Abu Khalikha khan's rule, they got the name "Kazakh", which means refuge or secession. There is also a view that Kazakh (KAZAK) has two meanings in turkic languages: one refers to brave and sharp. According to the interpretation of the famous 11th-century linguist Muhammad Kashgari in the Turkic Dictionary, the Turks described the sharpness of weapons such as swords as "Kazakhs". The second refers to the brave and free people who move freely on the vast grasslands. This is mainly an analysis from etymology. The first part of the Kazakh word "kaz" is the root, the derived words have the meaning of "free" and "autonomous", and the latter part "ak" is the archaic form of most additional endings.

The third is to fully embody the Kazakh people's unremitting pursuit of creating history through struggle. The Kazakhs, who were successively ruled by turks, Arabs, Mongols and Russians, have undergone a long, tortuous and difficult process of statehood, and their history is a history of resistance to foreign aggression, construction and protection of their homeland. In the 2nd century BC, the Wusun people, who lived in the Ili River and the "Seven Rivers Valley", merged the Sai and Yue people who lived here to form a tribal alliance, the Wusun Kingdom, which is regarded as the ancestor of the Kazakhs. After the October Revolution, Kazakhstan, inhabited by Kazakhs, became an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation and later a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. On October 25, 1990, Kazakhstan, a multi-ethnic state dominated by Kazakhs, declared its state sovereignty and on December 16, 1991, it declared its independence.

Chinese also have a deep affection for the land, and they have condensed their love for the land into a national proverb with distinct cultural characteristics. One is a proverb that reflects the importance of land. The Chinese nation originated in the Yellow River Valley, and she radiated to the entire Land of China from the tribal alliance formed by the two tribes of Yanhuang. For agriculture-based Chinese, the land is vast and boundless, loaded with all things, and the wealth is used by people, which is the material basis for people to maintain their livelihood, and nothing is more important than land, so people often say that "land is the lifeblood of croppers", "land is the treasure of treasure, without it can not live", "to the dragon and the tiger, it is better to want soil" and so on. The second is a proverb that shows agricultural culture. For a long time, the basic way of life of the Chinese was "male cultivator and female weaving", the land was the totem of its culture, and the agricultural proverbs related to the land and the production activities on the land accounted for almost one-third of its proverbs, such as "a hundred industries are based on agriculture, and all kinds of soil are born in the soil", "one side of the water and soil to support one person", "people mistakenly land for a while, the land is wrong for a year" and so on. The third is a proverb that expresses the worship of the land. Chinese have an instinctive respect for the land, which is mainly embodied in the concept of the god of the society (land god). "Sheji" is the general name of the god of society and ceres, because it is in charge of the land and grain of the foundation of the country, and is often used to refer to the state or imperial power. In ancient times, worshipping the gods of the shrine was a very important activity, used to ensure the abundance of grain and the prosperity of the six animals, so there is a proverb that "when you enter the mountain, you must worship the land, and when you go out, you must rely on the nobles".

In addition, in the process of hard work facing the loess and facing the sky, Chinese also developed some other emotions about the land, and extended to corresponding proverbs, for example, linking the land with the character of people, believing that the quality of the harvest is directly related to people's diligence and laziness, such as "all things are born in the soil, all rely on two hands to be diligent", "people are diligent in producing treasures, people are lazy to produce grass", "a point of effort is a grain, very hard work is very rewarding", "plough deeply, rake evenly, gold and silver grow in the soil", "the land is not bad, the drama is not dependent on the play; the land is in the human race, the drama is sung by people" Linking land with the motherland and hometown, and using land to express one's infinite patriotism and homesickness, such as "the poor family is difficult to leave, the homeland is difficult to leave", "the tree is high and does not leave the soil, the leaves still return to the roots", "I would rather love the soil of my country than love the gold of other countries"; link land with wealth, such as "some people have soil, some people have wealth", "officials are out of the people, the people are out of the soil", and so on.

The people are the creators of history and the fundamental force that determines the future and destiny of the country. The history of Kazakhstan was written by the Kazakhs, and the magnificent history of the Chinese nation was also created by Chinese. In the course of more than 5,000 years of civilization development, the Chinese people have worked hard, made unremitting efforts to improve themselves, united as one, and pursued unremittingly, produced ideological giants such as Lao Tzu and Confucius, invented scientific and technological achievements such as papermaking and gunpowder, created literary and artistic works such as the Book of Poetry and Chu Ci, inherited great epics such as King Gesar and Manas, and built great projects such as the Great Wall and Dujiangyan, all of which have made indelible contributions to the progress of human civilization. After modern times, although the Chinese nation has endured hardships, countless people with lofty ideals have risen up to resist, turned the tide of the tide against the fallen, and supported the building to fall, and did not hesitate to throw their heads and spill blood in order to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In particular, after the founding of the Communist Party of China, it united and led the people to go forward and carry forward and stubbornly struggle, turning the poor and backward old China into a new China that was increasingly prosperous and strong, and showing an unprecedented bright prospect for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

There is a Chinese proverb, "Everyone has one heart, and the loess becomes gold", which means that as long as everyone is united and coexists in harmony, miracles can be created. I believe that as long as the great Chinese people and the people of Kazakhstan think and work hard together, they will certainly be able to write new history and create new glory in their respective lands.