As a typical work of “hometown returning” writing by intellectuals, the creation of South of the Mountain and North of the Water indicates that Han Shaogong has been exploring his own path of literary creation by “using the transcendentally unassertive heart to do the mundanely practical work” in his life journey from leaving hometown to returning hometown, and consciously practiced the social responsibility and moral conscience of a public intellectual. When Han Shaogong retired from the noisy and turbulent times, he not only experienced the “harmony between man and nature” in his conversion to nature, and sought the authenticity of human nature between the south of the mountain and north of the water, but also acted in a simple and peaceful manner, so as to reconstruct the intimate relationship between man and nature, explore and think about the past, present and future of human civilization.