The Tang Dynasty poet, Ho Chih-chang, wrote: "One leaves home when one is young and comes home when one is old. One still speaks with the country accent, but the hair around the temples is withered." The past is still vivid to him, but nothing can be brought back... Nevertheless, Grandpa Li still loves his family and friends, and he is strongly attached to the soil and things from the past. It seems that passing time cannot shake his love even one bit.

Tzu Chi members call him "Grandpa Li," but his name is Li Tsung-chi. Although he comes from Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, he has spent the majority of his life here in Taiwan. Xiamen is where he was born, and Taiwan is where he settled down, married and founded his company.

Speaking of his company, Grandpa Li is a very successful businessman. His cargo ships travel across all the seas and contribute greatly to Taiwan's economy.

As for his personal spiritual cultivation, Grandpa Li is a great philanthropist. He has provided scholarships to teachers and students in Xiamen, and he has given much of his wealth and concern to people around the world. He never hesitates to donate to Tzu Chi, and he asks for nothing in return. He has won the respect and love of all Tzu Chi members.

Grandpa Li likes to go to sleep early and wake up early. However, whenever he joins us on a relief mission to China, his regular sleep pattern is completely ruined: we have to travel long distances, and we have irregular schedules and long meetings late in the night. This is very inconvenient for him. Nevertheless, without exception, he always goes with us and personally oversees all details.

Grandpa Li is tall and big and moves rather slowly, but I have never heard him say that he was tired. When a relief mission involves climbing mountains or wading through rivers, all the young people complain, but Grandpa Li never utters a word. We all know he is over seventy years old and weighs more than a hundred kilograms [220 pounds]. He has high blood pressure and diabetes. A long journey must be a torment for him, but he prefers to endure all the discomfort instead of letting other people worry about him.

We travel around disaster areas during the day and have meetings at night. With so many things to do and so many people around, the meetings tend to go well beyond his bedtime. We often invite him to go ahead and get to bed, but he pretends that it is nothing and he tries to stay awake with us. It is not until he absolutely can no longer stay awake that he apologizes and leaves us.

When we watch his enormous body rise up from the seat, it is like watching a mountain rise up. When he slowly walks out of the meeting room, a loud noise seems to resonate from the giant's every step. Each loud noise shakes the deepest part of our hearts.

Grandpa Li's voice is clear and forceful, like a church bell, and his personality is straightforward. He always keeps his promise, and this makes a good impression on those who have had contact with him. People feel they can trust him. If two parties have an argument and can't reach an agreement, a word from Grandpa Li settles the dispute.

Grandpa Li loves Taiwan because he got married in Taiwan, worked in Taiwan and became successful in Taiwan. However, he also loves his hometown, Xiamen, because he was born and grew up there.

He loves his hometown and is attached to his past. If you ask him about his hometown and his childhood, he suddenly becomes very energetic and talks non-stop.

In Xiamen, he still has a sister, her husband, their children, and many relatives and friends. In the early days, their lives were rather difficult, so Grandpa Li would always help them solve their problems.

His old, broken-down home was rebuilt; his brother-in-law's crude home was renovated, and the lives of his old friends and relatives improved a great deal. However, he never expresses any arrogance just because he has done so much for them. His contributions have never changed his affection towards his relatives and friends and compassion towards other people.

What touches us the most is that whenever he goes back to Xiamen, he always lives in his old house. Although the old house is not as well equipped as a modern hotel, he still cannot part from his affection towards his hometown, the soil, his home, and the people.

Once I went with him to his old home, located in the busiest district of Xiamen. His brother-in-law was living there. The house was hidden away in a small alley so narrow that only one person could walk through . No one could find this place without some help.

Several of us followed Grandpa Li through this narrow alley. We walked up some stairs and a tiny, traditional, U-shaped house appeared before us. The center room was the living room, and the rooms to the right and left were the bedrooms. The rooms were not very big, and it was rather crowded with five people in a room.

Grandpa Li was rather happy that day. He showed me the "honeymoon suite," where he and his wife sleep whenever they come to Xiamen. The room was only 106 square feet, and it contained an old wooden bed with a mosquito net. When his 220-pound body lies on the bed, it squeals with the weight, but Grandpa Li still loves it.

We are touched by his powerful affection toward the past. That affection has become engraved in his bones.

He lives a luxurious life in Taiwan, his business is booming, and his children are following in his footsteps. But he still cannot forget the people and things in his hometown.

He took time to wander around the elementary school he once attended. He has taken the time to find out where his old teachers are, and he also learned what the school needed. He felt melancholy about all the renovations that the school needed, and he was saddened to learn about the demise of former teachers and classmates.

Whenever he talks about his school years, it is enough for him to dwell in deep thoughts. Those times were hard, but it is still a sweet memory. After he finished elementary school, he could not continue his education. Poverty cut off his path to junior high school, and national calamities ruined his hopes for further study. No wonder he is deeply attached to his only alma mater. No wonder he has provided thousands of scholarships for students every year and financial assistance for hundreds of teachers who earn a low income.

Grandpa Li's passion for his hometown is especially manifest in his love for its products. He talks with great relish about the local food. Actually, Xiamen-style dishes are also available in Taiwan. The same specialties may even be more refined in Taiwan than in Xiamen, but Grandpa Li still prefers food products imported from that city. The only reason is just that he loves his hometown.

Whenever we go with him to Xiamen, he always considers himself the host, simply because Xiamen is his home. As the host, he makes sure his guests feel at home. And he always wants his guests to enjoy the taste of local food.

When Tzu Chi was holding free clinics in Xiamen, he stayed at his old home while the other volunteers stayed in a hotel. Without concern for the distance from his home to the hotel, he told us that he would prepare our breakfast each day. And indeed, he always rushed to the hotel with plastic bags of food and an insulated pot.

He opened the pot and scooped up bowls of peanut soup for us. Then he opened the bags and took out all kinds of snacks made with green beans, red beans, black sesame seeds, etc.

He urged us to drink the soup while it was hot, and he told us that the peanut soup was made at a very old, traditional store. The green bean cakes were special products of Xiamen, the red bean cakes were well-known in Xiamen, and the black sesame seed buns were hard to come by. In his eyes, everything from his hometown was special and perfect.

He especially likes xianbing from Xiamen, a baked pie. Those who have eaten one know that a xianbing from Xiamen never betrays Grandpa Li's love for it. It is not greasy, not too sweet or too salty, and it melts in your mouth. Local residents love it, and people from Taiwan like it too.

No wonder that whenever we leave Xiamen, Grandpa Li always forces us to take with us some boxed xianbing. No guests may refuse, because it would be disrespectful, especially to his hometown. If you don't respect him, he can take that. However, if you don't respect his hometown, he can become furious. This is his love towards his hometown.

There is a Chinese poem about a person leaving and returning to his hometown. The first two lines from the poem go like this: "One leaves home when one is young and comes home when one is old. The accent is there, but the hair around the temples is withered." Everything changes and the past cannot be brought back, but Grandpa Li still thinks dearly of his old friends and relatives and still stubbornly loves the soil and products of his hometown. It seems that passing time cannot shake his devotion even one bit. Grandpa Li is Xiamen.




Born in Xiamen, Fujian Province in 1926, Grandpa Li came to Taiwan in 1949. Although a successful businessman in the shipping industry, he still regrets not being able to attend school when he was younger. Vowing to nurture experts in maritime affairs, he established many scholarships for poor students to learn about shipping and aquatic products. He joined Tzu Chi when he was sixty years old and has contributed generously. He often participates in Tzu Chi overseas relief missions. His daughters, Li Chia-ying and Li Yi-hui, are Tzu Chi commissioners. In 1999, at the recommendation of Tzu Chi, Grandpa Li received the first National Civic Service Award in recognition of his moral virtues and public contributions.