By Lao She

Being truly busy means occupying yourself in things that really delight you, like writing love letters, tilling the land, discovering a nine-tail comet, composing poems and drawing with spontaneous inspiration. These sorts of activities won’t tire you when you engage in them, even if you have been working ceaselessly day and night, forgetting to eat and sleep. It is this truest kind of work that makes great things happen, which in turn may help form a good culture. When you are truly busy doing something, what you keep in your heart, in your gaze, and even in your dreams is that which busies you. You don’t have time to worry over trivialities, material benefits, or the like. You are fully occupied and absorbed in the work itself. So, the busier you are, the more comfortable you feel, and you will be more likely to become a saintly man. This is the reason why love letters can easily become great literature.

Being blindly busy, on the other hand, looks harried and raucous, ostensibly, but as time goes by, it makes you numb, and the culture around you suffers. If it proves to be meaningless, nobody would be willing to undertake the work. And even if you are forced to do it, it would be only because that’s your means to earn the bread. You labor mechanically, eat until you are full and sleep soundly, or only half-full and half-asleep. You become a working slave instead of a free man. It is hard for slaves to form a good culture. This kind of hustle ruins your hope and health. It incurs resentment, for which you’ll try every possible way to escape from it.

(From A Collection of Laoshe’s Prose and Humor, Wenhui Press. Translation: Joseph Ma)

真忙与瞎忙

文/老舍

所谓真忙，如写情书，如种自己的地，如发现九尾彗星，如在灵感下写诗作画，虽废寝忘食，亦无所苦。这是真正的工作，只有这种工作才能产生伟大的东西与文化。人在这样忙的时候，已把自己忘掉，眼看的是工作，心想的是工作，做梦都是工作，便无暇计及利害金钱等等了；心被工作充满，同时也被工作洗净，于是手脚越忙，心中越安怡，不久即成圣人矣。情书往往成为真正的文学，正在情理之中。

所谓瞎忙，表面上看来是热闹非常，其实呢，它使人麻木，使文化颓废，因为忙得没意义，大家并不愿做那些事，而不敢不做；不做就没饭吃。在这种忙乱情形中，人们像机器般地工作，忙完了一饱一睡，抑或未必一饱一睡，而是半饱半睡。这里，只有奴隶，没有自由人；奴隶不会产生好的文化。这种忙乱把人的心杀死，而身体也不见得能健美。它使人恨工作，使人想方设法去偷油儿。