According to the local Huishengsheng.com, we learned that the main content of "North" is:
It not only laments the poverty and backwardness of the north and the suffering caused by the war to the northern people, but also praises the people of the northern country since ancient times. He has an unyielding will to survive and determination to defend his country, and has strong feelings of patriotism.
This poem was written in February 1938. At that time, the Anti-Japanese War broke out, and the war approached the Yellow River with lightning speed. Ai Qingzheng, Xiao Hong, Xiao Jun, Nie Gannu, Duanmu Hongliang, Zhang Ding and other friends from the cultural circles applied for a job to teach at Shanxi National Revolution University and traveled through Shaanxi Tongguan. The poet witnessed the desolate, gloomy and chaotic scenery of the northern land shrouded in the clouds of war, and his soul was greatly shaken. A friend lamented that "the north is sad", which further triggered his thoughts, so the poet wrote this when passing Tongguan. The first "North" was published in the front volume of "July" magazine in April of the same year.