The Chinese word **土壤** (tǔrǎng), meaning "soil," is a compound word formed through the combination of two semantic characters: **土**, which originally depicted a mound of earth and broadly means "earth" or "ground," and **壤**, which specifically refers to "cultivated land" or "loam." Together, they create a more precise and scientific term where **土** provides the general category (earth) and **壤** specifies its fertile, cultivable quality, resulting in the comprehensive concept of soil as the natural, productive upper layer of the earth's crust.