"Plant one grain of millet in spring and harvest ten thousand grains in autumn" comes from the first two sentences of the ancient poem "Compassion for the Farmers" written by Tang Dynasty poet Li Shen. The full poem is as follows:
Plant one grain of millet in spring and harvest ten thousand grains in autumn.
There is no idle land in the world, and farmers are still starving to death.
Notes
1 Compassion: pity, sympathy.
2 millet: (sù) Millet, after shelling, it is called millet in the north.
3 You: Still.
4 Sihai: refers to all parts of the country
5 Idle fields: useless, uncultivated fields.
Translation
In spring, farmers plant grains of millet and receive a lot of food in autumn. Although the land across the country was cultivated by farmers, the farmers still starved to death because all their food was taken away by the sycophants.