An anonymous bureaucrat
came to an old master asking for help in passing his days more eventfully.
All day long, he explained, he sat receiving reports; reports
that had been checked by others before him, and would be checked again after he
was done with them and he found it all a frightful bore. In fact, he said that
his whole life had become dull and uninspiring. The master looked at him and then took
brush and paper, and wrote eight Chinese characters. Translated, they said:
No day comes back again:
One inch of time is
worth
A foot of jade.
