Learn the Chinese character for work, labor, and toil

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When it comes to Chinese works on maternal love, none can compete with Tang dynasty (618 – 907) literatus Meng Jiao's (孟郊，mèng jiāo) poem "Song of the Traveling Son (《游子吟》, yóu zǐ yín)": "Thread in the hands of a loving mother turns to clothes on the traveling son. She adds stitch after stitch before his departure and worries about his return. A grass blade is bathed in spring sun; how can its inch-sized heart return such love?"

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Included in Three Hundred Tang Poems (《唐詩(shī)三百首》, táng shī sān bǎi shǒu), compiled by the Qing dynasty scholar Sun Zhu (孫洙, sūn zhū) in the 1760s, and now a must-read in primary school textbooks, the poem may be China's most cited work on the topic, even though sewing clothes by hand is now mostly a thing of the past.

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Meng wrote the poem while traveling back to his hometown Wukang (in present day Deqing county of Zhejiang province) to fetch his mother, after he took his first official position in Weiyang county (in today's Jiangsu province) at the age of 50, expressing his gratitude to the woman who raised him and his two younger brothers alone—their father died when Meng was 10.

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Meng's scene of a mother, bathed in light, sewing clothes for her son reflects the composition of the earliest form of the Chinese character 勞 (láo, labor, toil), found on oracle bones from over 3,000 years ago—two 火 (huǒ, fire) on top and an 衣 (yī, clothes) below, with three dots that resemble stitches inside the 衣, which was later replaced by the radical 力 (lì, strength) and a form symbolizing a house above. The Analytical Dictionary of Chinese Characters (《說(shuō)文解字》, shuō wén jiě zì), written during the Eastern Han dynasty (25 – 220), interprets the form as "[When] a house is on fire, it takes hard work to extinguish it (熒，火燒冂，用力者勞 yíng, huǒ shāo jiōng, yòng lì zhě láo)."

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While the form of the character has been simplified, its meaning has expanded to indicate toil (辛勞, xīn láo), work or labor (勞動(dòng), láo dòng), and associated feelings like fatigue (疲勞, pí láo).

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Since ancient times, Chinese society has despised those who do not work yet sponge off others, or 不勞而獲 (bù láo ér huò, literally "reap without sowing") as an idiom in Family Analects of Confucius (《孔子家語(yǔ)》, kǒng zǐ jiā yǔ) puts it. In more modern times, the idea that "labor is glorious (勞動(dòng)最光榮, láo dòng zuì guāng róng)" took root, with even the Constitution of the PRC extolling: "Labor is a glorious thing for all the citizens in China who have the ability to work." People who work diligently and make great contributions to an organization or to the country are honored as "model workers (勞動(dòng)模范 láo dòng mó fàn or 勞模 láo mó)."

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Since the 1980s, 勞 has become one of the five key attributes China's education system seeks to cultivate in students, along with 德 (dé, virtue), 智 (zhì, intelligence), 體 (tǐ, physical fitness), and 美 (měi, appreciation for beauty). Under this framework, primary and middle school students have commonly had at least one hour of "labor class (勞動(dòng)課, láo dòng kè)" each week for labor theory (勞動(dòng)觀念, láo dòng guān niàn) and skills (勞動(dòng)技能, láo dòng jì néng).

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However, cognitive labor (腦力勞動(dòng), nǎo lì láo dòng) and manual labor (體力勞動(dòng), tǐ lì láo dòng) are not always considered equal. As the third and fourth-century BCE philosopher Mencius said, "Those who labor with their minds govern, while those who labor with their strength are governed (勞心者治人，勞力者治于人, Láo xīn zhě zhì rén, láo lì zhě zhì yú rén)."

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Throughout history, many Chinese scholars have expressed empathy with the "toiling masses (勞苦大眾, láo kǔ dà zhòng)," many of whom struggled to survive as subsistence farmers despite backbreaking labor. In his poem "Watching the Wheat Harvest (《觀刈麥》, guān yì mài)," Tang dynasty official and poet Bai Juyi (白居易, bái jū yì) aired his shame at taking his yearly salary of three hundred dan (石, dàn, an ancient Chinese measuring unit that equals 125.5 kilograms) of grain without doing "any farm work," after witnessing a poor woman with a child in her arms gleaning wheat in the hot May sun. Bai recounts that the woman had turned in all of her farmland's crop as taxes.

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Be it mental exertion or manual labor, overwork can have severe consequences, such as 積勞成疾 (jī láo chéng jí, illness caused by prolonged overwork) or even 過(guò)勞死 (guò láo sǐ, death from overwork). To avoid such issues, people are encouraged to strike a balance between work and rest (勞逸結(jié)合, láo yì jié hé). Sometimes, though, there's no avoiding hard work, and all one can do is put in a final supreme effort to get things done once and for all (一勞永逸, yī láo yǒng yì).

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Source: The World of Chinese
Editor: wanwan