Welcome Trading Co. Pte Ltd

Prelude

Our father, Jack Lim, was born in Malaya in 1935, the son of Chinese immigrants who had crossed the sea from southern China with little in their hands and much in their hearts. Nothing was handed to him. What he achieved across ninety-one years he built himself, through long seasons of trial and tribulation — setbacks endured, lessons learned, and work begun again each morning. He was, in the truest sense, a self-made man. From modest beginnings he worked his way, step by patient step, to success in the world of trade, and for decades he guided the family firm, Welcome Trading , in Singapore with a steady and honest hand.

Those who knew him remember the same things. His integrity: his word was his bond. His discipline: in work, in habits, in the daily care of body and mind, he demanded more of himself than he ever asked of others. And his unselfishness: his knowledge, his experience, his encouragement — and whatever he had — were shared freely with family, friends and colleagues alike.

He was also, all his life, a learner. He read widely in Chinese and in English, loved poetry, calligraphy and painting, and believed deeply in the power of a well-chosen word. In his notebooks he copied out, in a careful fountain-pen hand, the sayings that guided him: Tang poems and Buddhist verses, Confucian teachings and folk proverbs, English maxims — often with his own Chinese translations beside them — together with rules for healthy living, greetings composed for friends at New Year, and poems of his own making. As he himself wrote in those pages: “The wisdom of the clever and the experience of the old are all stored in maxims; many a person’s success owes itself to the encouragement of a single saying.”

This small book gathers a selection from those pages. It is not a complete record — no book could be — but a distillation of what he read, what he believed, and how he lived. May it keep his voice near us, and pass his light on to those who come after.

He liked to copy one line in particular: “As long as you are green, you will continue to grow; as soon as you think you are ripe, you will rot.” He stayed green for ninety-one years.

On Character and Conduct

In friendship, keep a measure of chivalry; in life, keep a heart of plain sincerity.

If you would not have it known, do not do it — three feet above your head, the gods are watching.

Deaf ears fear no cursing; a clear conscience fears no biased talk.Courage fears no demons; diligence fears no dull gifts.Wisdom fears no hard task; firm resolve fears no test of adversity.

Discreet in drink — a true gentleman; scrupulous in money — a true man.

Only one who can endure hardship is a person of purpose; one willing to take a loss is no fool.

Work with ingenuity; employ people with generosity; make friends with loyalty; decide with courage; and give the team a spirit of its own.

True talent does not flaunt itself; real learning does not boast. Modesty is a virtue; quiet restraint, a noble habit.

In life, know contentment; in work, know your shortcomings; in learning, never be content.

Diligence is a priceless treasure and prudence a protective charm; few words spare you slander, few desires preserve you.

Goodness done to be seen is not true goodness; a wrong that fears being known is itself a great wrong.

Seek truth from facts and waste no breath on empty talk: say it well, and say it briefly.

On Forbearance and Magnanimity

A gentleman holds himself to strict account and treats others with generosity. Step back one pace and you stand secure; hold back one sharp word, yield one small point — what ease; bear with another for a moment — what freedom.

Be lenient with others and strict with yourself: judge yourself as sternly as you would judge others, and forgive others as readily as you forgive yourself.

A little more patience, a little less regret; a few fewer harsh words leave a little more room.

A knife wound heals; a wounding word festers. One kind sentence warms three winters; one cruel word chills even a June day.

The greater man is the one who accommodates others, not the one who must be accommodated. Do not honour yourself and belittle others; do not let self-importance scorn the small, nor bravado underrate an opponent.

Prevail by virtue and you grow strong; prevail by money and you invite misfortune; prevail by force and you perish.

When people slander me, cheat me, curse me, mock me — I simply bear with them, make room for them, forgive them.

Yield a step in any affair and there is always room; loosen your grip a little where money is concerned and there is always grace. Give way three parts on the road of life, and heaven and earth open wide.

Those who do not contend often gain the most; those who step back one pace often advance a hundred. Victory belongs to the most patient.

Start no trouble and court none: turn great matters into small ones, and small ones into none at all.

You lose your temper; I take the heat. To take it without returning it — that is cultivation.

Meet people with kindness, and they become as brothers.

On Contentment

Eight or nine matters in ten fall short of our wishes, and barely two or three can be told to anyone. Life can never go all our way — in all things, be content with half.

He arrives on horseback, I on a donkey — it seems I fall short. But look at the man pushing the cart: short of those above, ahead of those below.

Know sufficiency, and you will never be humiliated; know when to stop, and you will never be disgraced.

Happiness comes not from having more, but from minding less.

When a man wants nothing, his character stands tall of itself. All craving is suffering; free of desire, one is unbending.

— Confucius, Analects

Wealth and rank gained without honour are to me but drifting clouds.

Riches and rank are drifting clouds; fate is decreed by Heaven.

Own ten thousand acres — you still eat one measure of rice a day. Own a thousand rooms — you still sleep on eight feet of bed.

Don't dwell on every little matter — the person is at ease, and so is the heart.

To be without suffering is already joy; to be safe and well is already fortune. Ten thousand strings of cash, without health, amount to zero.

— Chan Master Wumen Huikai

Spring has its hundred flowers, autumn its moon; summer its cool breeze, winter its snow. If no idle worry hangs upon the heart, every season is the best season on earth.

Keep a flower blooming in the heart, and life is always spring.

On Friendship and Human Feeling

Wealth is not a lifelong friend, but a friend is lifelong wealth.

Friends are not counted in numbers — one true friend outweighs a hundred; nor in years — one true day speaks across the ages; nor in timing — one true bond blesses a hundred generations.

With a kindred spirit, a thousand cups are too few; with the wrong company, half a sentence is too many.

Acquaintances may fill the world; true confidants are few.

I made many fine friends — over cigarettes, wine and tea; the day I needed them, none was home. When you fall, climb up yourself; don’t wait to be pulled.

Human feeling is paper, sheet by sheet thin; the world is chess, game after game new. Quick to rise and quick to fall is the mountain stream — quick to turn and turn again, the petty heart.

Befriend the virtuous; part with the faithless. Know, then trust; choose, then befriend; think, then act; plan, then accomplish.

Use a person’s strengths and overlook his weaknesses, and no one under heaven is useless; seize on weaknesses and discard strengths, and no one under heaven can be used.

The mountains have beautiful scenery, and we are destined to meet. Whether near or far, our hearts are connected.

Waking up in the morning, greeting you comes first. Sending my regards through the screen.

Caring for each other warms the heart. Peace and health are more precious than money.

Let's take good care of each other, and be happy every day.

Mountains have their scenery, people their affinity; near or far, hearts stay joined. Waking at dawn, a greeting comes first — even across a screen, a greeting comes first. To be held in each other’s thoughts warms the heart; peace and health are worth more than money. Let us take good care of one another, and be happy every single day.

On Diligence and Time

— Wen Jia, “Song of Tomorrow”

Tomorrow, and tomorrow — how many tomorrows there are! Live waiting for tomorrow, and everything slips away.

— Wen Jia, “Song of Today”

Today, and today — how few todays there are! If we do not do it today, when will it be done?

Time waits for no one — treasure every day. Stand in the present and grasp the moment, so the past holds no more regret and the future fills with hope.

Knowing full well the mountain holds a tiger, still I walk the tiger’s mountain — for no road is reached without walking it.

Who urges me on? The lamp at midnight, and the cock at dawn.

The whole world grows old in its busyness — yet who is willing to rest before death?

Labour breeds reflection, and reflection breeds goodness; idleness breeds indulgence, and indulgence forgets the good.

Do unhurried things briskly — promptness bears fruit; do urgent things calmly — haste breeds mistakes.

The years do not press us — we age of ourselves; how fast time runs, each heart knows for itself. Time spares no one; but neither did I ever spare time.

Setbacks are the best teachers — smooth seas never made a skilful sailor.

On Health and Living Well

Three parts merry, seven parts full; keep moving, keep walking; laugh often, worry little — and live free and easy.

Never binge on food or drink. Do not fear waste — stop at seven-tenths full each day, and health will come looking for you.

Nourish the body with movement, the heart with stillness. Eat with moderation, keep regular hours; eat only what is cooked, drink only what is boiled. Contentment brings lasting joy; wanting nothing brings lasting peace.

Sleep well, rise early, eat to seven-tenths, walk often, laugh much, worry little.

Moderate eating nurtures the stomach; a clear heart nurtures the spirit. An unbridled appetite is the root of illness; crooked thoughts, the root of ruin.

Speak less to nourish your breath; look less to nourish your spirit; brood less to nourish your essence; crave less to nourish your nature.

A calm heart can heal three thousand ills; a still heart can fathom ten thousand truths. A restless heart catches three thousand sorrows; a harmonious heart can hold ten thousand grains of dust.

An unpolished blade gathers rust; a chest never held straight becomes a stooped back.

One laugh dissolves a thousand sorrows. Life is too short to mourn the springs and autumns; once you have truly laughed, you understand that even the world’s wind and rain have their splendour.

Medicine cures only false illness; wine dissolves no true sorrow.

On Kindness and Good Deeds

A house that stores up goodness will have blessings to spare; a house that stores up wrongdoing will have calamity left over. Do no wrong, however small; leave no good undone, however small.

— Sima Guang

Pile up gold for your descendants — they may not keep it; pile up books — they may not read them. Better to store up quiet, unseen virtue, as the long plan for one’s children and grandchildren.

Keep but a square inch of good ground — of conscience — and leave it for your descendants to till.

Goodness is the green pine, wrongdoing the flower. The day the heavy frost comes down, the pine still stands — the flower is gone.

The wicked are feared by men but not by Heaven; the good are bullied by men but never by Heaven.

Deep roots fear no shaking wind; a tree that grows straight never worries that the moon casts its shadow aslant.

Plant melons and you reap melons; plant beans and you reap beans. Good and evil are each repaid in the end — the only question is sooner or later.

Help people when they have nothing and the need is urgent: to the thirsty, one drop is sweet dew; a cup added when one is already drunk is as good as none. Rescue those in true emergency; and when you must ask for help, ask it of a person of honour.

A word given in kindness is weightier than pearls and jade; a word that wounds cuts deeper than sword or spear.

Not to disturb another’s peace is compassion; not to wound another’s dignity is kindness. In living, it is enough to shine one’s own light — never blow out another’s lamp.

To measure another’s heart by your own — that is the heart of the Buddha.

On Acceptance and Peace of Mind

Follow the moment, follow your nature, follow circumstance, follow affinity, follow joy. Be at peace wherever you find yourself, and let things take their natural course.

Because some things are beyond our power, we let nature take its course; because the heart leans on nothing, it is at ease wherever it lands.

Past a certain age, one must learn stillness without striving, and let all things follow their affinities. What can stay needs no forcing; what cannot stay is not worth the strain. Cherish what comes; release what goes. Better than gaining or losing is a conscience at ease; better than wishing or refusing is a willing heart.

Before sleep, forgive everything; on waking, ask nothing of the past.

In muddled hours, set down your grasping and hold gain and loss lightly — then life is lived at ease. In clear hours, see the world plainly, trust cause and effect, keep the original heart — and find great freedom. Life is a play: half muddled, half awake. Knowing when to play the fool is itself wisdom.

Seek not the Buddha on some far Vulture Peak; the sacred mountain is in your own heart. Each of us carries that mountain’s pagoda — practise, then, at its foot.

— Budai, “Planting Song”

Planting green seedlings, filling the paddy field, I bow my head — and see heaven in the water. A body and mind kept pure: that is the Way; and stepping backward, I find, is moving forward.

The heart shifts with circumstance, yet circumstance turns with the heart, and the face is born of the heart. When the heart is settled, anywhere is the Peach Blossom Land — where my heart is at rest, there is my home.

Gossip there is all day long; do not listen, and it ceases to exist. The green mountains mind no human quarrels; when did the clear waters ever stir up strife?

— Feng Dao, “The Way of Heaven”

Poverty and success are both decreed — why waste a sigh on them? Simply do good deeds and do not ask about the road ahead. When winter goes, the ice must melt; when spring comes, the grass grows of itself. Observe this truth: the way of Heaven is perfectly clear.

Meetings and partings are both ordained. While together, treasure it well; when the bond disperses, do not cling. Every affection is a gift of grace; every meeting and parting, the work of affinity.

Poems He Loved

Copied again and again throughout his notebooks were the classical poems he loved. A selection, with the lines as he kept them:

— Cui Hu, “Written in a Village South of the Capital”

A year ago today, within this gate, her face and the peach blossoms lit each other red. The face has gone I know not where; the blossoms smile still in the spring wind.

— Li Bai, “Farewell at Xie Tiao Tower”

What abandons me — yesterday — cannot be kept; what disorders my heart — today — is full of cares. Yet the long wind sends the autumn geese ten thousand miles: facing this, one may drink deep in the high tower.

— Li Bai, from the same poem

Draw the sword to cut the river — the river runs on; raise the cup to drown sorrow — sorrow deepens. Since life in this world so rarely suits our wishes, tomorrow, hair unbound, I shall drift in a small boat.

— Li Bai, “To Wang Lun”

Peach Blossom Pool is a thousand feet deep — yet not so deep as Wang Lun’s love at my parting.

— Huang Tingjian, “To Huang Jifu”

Peach and plum in the spring wind — one cup of wine together; then rivers and lakes, night rain, ten years beneath a lonely lamp.

— Huang Tingjian, “Climbing Kuai Pavilion”

Leaves fall from a thousand hills, and the sky grows vast; along the clear river, a single track of moonlight.

— Yan Shu, “Spring in the Jade Tower”

The unfeeling never suffer as the loving do: one inch of heart becomes ten thousand threads. Sky’s edge and earth’s corner have their end; longing alone is without limit.

— Liu Yong, “Butterflies Love Flowers”

Though my sash hangs ever looser, I do not regret it; for her, it is worth wasting away.

— Su Shi, “Written on the Wall of Xilin Temple”

Seen face-on, a ridge; from the side, a peak — near, far, high, low, never the same. I cannot know the true face of Mount Lu, only because I stand within the mountain.

— Su Shi, “Prelude to Water Melody”

We have our sorrows and joys, partings and reunions; the moon its shadows and brightness, waxing and waning — never, since old times, has either been complete. I only wish us long life, sharing this fair moon though a thousand miles apart.

— Yang Shen, “Immortal by the River” (excerpt)

The Yangtze rolls eastward, its waves washing away the heroes; right and wrong, triumph and ruin — turn your head and all is empty. The green hills remain as ever, through how many crimson sunsets. Over a jug of rough wine, old friends meet in gladness — and all the affairs of past and present are given over to laughter and talk.

— Gong Zizhen, “Miscellaneous Poems of 1839”

The fallen petals are not without feeling: turned to spring mud, they guard the flowers still.

— Meng Haoran, “Visiting an Old Friend’s Farm”

An old friend prepares chicken and millet, and invites me to his farmstead. Green trees close round the village; blue hills slant beyond the wall. We open the window onto threshing-floor and garden, and over wine we talk of mulberry and hemp. When the Double Ninth arrives, I shall come again — for the chrysanthemums.

East Meets West

He collected English maxims as eagerly as Chinese ones — and often set his own Chinese translation beside them. These pairs are as he wrote them, in both his languages:

A major cause of unhappiness is overestimating the happiness of others.

Truth usually is the same old story.

Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.

A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your success.

Age does not protect you from love, but love, to some extent, protects you from age.

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins — not through strength, but by perseverance.

A half truth is a whole lie.

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

He who dares to think will dare everything.

Nothing can bring out our weakness more than power.

If you can’t make a mistake, you can’t make anything.

One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solicitude is the enemy of well-being.

The best proof of love is trust.

I have never met a man from whom I could learn nothing.

If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

The difference between a smart man and a wise man is that a smart man knows what to say, and a wise man knows whether or not to say it.

God made time, but man made haste.

Never miss a chance to keep your mouth shut.

Never assume the obvious is true.

When you can’t have what you want, it’s time to start wanting what you have.

As long as you are green, you will continue to grow; as soon as you think you are ripe, you will rot.

In His Own Voice

Scattered through the notebook are verses and messages of his own composition — his greetings to friends, his reflections on his life, and the credo he copied out, word for word, three times over.

— His New Year message to friends

I sent no New Year card — not for want of feeling. Good friends, I treasure you, and from my heart I wish you this: may all four seasons go your way; may fortune gather like a mountain; may good luck follow you year upon year, and peace and blessing attend you always. Time cannot dilute true affection.

— On his own life, written as he neared seventy

Looking back, the years were full of upheaval — success and failure, both ordinary things. The rise and fall of the sea of commerce taught its lessons; the road of life had its share of tigers and wolves. Now, devoted heart and soul to the arts, working hard still — approaching seventy, to shine once more.

— In his own voice, on painting and on growing old

Taking up the brush again, I paint the feeling of my old home town; the past stands vivid in my mind. Forty-one years of wind and rain — the rights and wrongs can never be fully untangled. Near dusk, the scenery is at its best: keep the body healthy and the mind upright; chase neither vanity nor profit — and let the name be left among the painters and calligraphers.

— The credo he wrote out three times over

Having read my fill of the world’s affairs and felt my share of human feeling, I now understand right and wrong for myself — no more blind following, no more superstition. The past drifts off like smoke on the wind; the world’s great changes no longer startle me. Composed and unhurried, I watch the ten thousand things; the heart, still as water, raises not a wave.

— The last dated entry in his notebook, 2026

The year 2026 arrives, and the heavenly steed gallops free across the sky. The dragon of the divine land soars ninety thousand li; the renewal of the Chinese nation begins. Let wind and cloud shift as they will — the Belt and Road rises with the tide. A world in great harmony will come at last; rivers and mountains made one — the resolve unmoved.

Epilogue

Ninety-one years is a long life. It was not long enough for us. But he taught us, in his own hand, how to carry it: before sleep, forgive everything; on waking, ask nothing of the past. And he told us where we will always find him: where the heart is settled, there is home.

Thank you, Pa.

In His Own Hand