Fan Li (范蠡) was an advisor in the state of Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period. He had been to the state of Wu as hostage with King Gou Jian of Yue. Three years later they came back and he helped Gou Jian to carry on a reform. At last Yue was able to defeat the state of Wu. After the victory he resigned and renamed himself Tao Zhu Gong (Chinese: 陶朱公; pinyin: Táo Zhūgōng; literally "Lord Tao Zhu"). He became a successful businessman in his later years and was famous as a rich person. Yue was a state in China which existed during the Spring and Autumn Period. ... The Spring and Autumn Period (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) represented an era in Chinese history between 722 BC and 481 BC. The period takes its name from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the period whose authorship was traditionally attributed to Confucius. ... This article is about the Spring and Autumn state. ... Historical drawing of King Gou Jian of Yue King Gou Jian of Yue (越王) (reigned 496 BC - 465 BC) was the king of the Kingdom of Yue (present-day Shanghai, northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu) near the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, named Luo Gou Jian (雒句踐). Gou Jian was... Yue can refer to: Yuè ((T: ç²µ S: 粤), an abbreviation for Guangdong province of the Peoples Republic of China, and also: Yue, a subdivision of spoken Chinese spoken in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, and Macau. ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... A businessman (sometimes businesswoman, female; or businessperson, gender neutral) is a generic term for a wide range of people engaged in profit-oriented enterprises, generally the management of a company. ...

He managed a pharmacy selling traditional Chinese medicine. The pharmacy originally included only two elderly employees, He Bo (Chinese: 何伯; pinyin: Hé Bó) and De Shu (Chinese: 德叔; pinyin: Dé Shū in Mainland China, Dé Shú in Taiwan). The business began to expand only when Tao Zhugong hired He Bo's youngest son, Xiao Wen (Chinese: 小文; pinyin: Xiăo Wén). For other uses, see Pharmacy (disambiguation). ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... The highlighted area in the map is what is commonly known as mainland China. Mainland China (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: is a geopolitical term which is usually synonymous with the area currently administered by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC); however, it excludes the two special administrative regions... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ...

He wrote a book known in English as "Golden Rules of Business Success" (Simplified Chinese: 经商宝典; Traditional Chinese: 經商寶典; pinyin: Jīng Shāng Băo Diăn; literally "Manage Business Jade Advice"). This book remains popular today as its advice is sometimes considered timeless. It includes Twelve Golden Rules and Twelve Golden Safeguards describing the art of successful business management. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Traditional Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 正體字/繁體字, Simplified Chinese: 正体字/繁体字) refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... Look up Management in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The Twelve Golden Rules are as follows:

• Be a good judge of character.
• Be customer-oriented.
• Be single-minded.
• Be captivating in your sales promotion.
• Be quick to respond.
• Be vigilant in credit control.
• Be selective to recruit only the best.
• Be bold in marketing your product.
• Be smart in product acquisition.
• Be adept in analyzing market opportunities.
• Be a corporate model.
• Be farsighted in developing a total business plan.

The Twelve Golden Safeguards are:

• Don't be stingy.
• Don't be wishy-washy.
• Don't be ostentatious.
• Don't be dishonest.
• Don't be slow in debt collection.
• Don't slash prices arbitrarily.
• Don't give in to herd instinct.
• Don't work against the business cycle.
• Don't be a stick-in-the-mud.
• Don't overbuy on credit.
• Don't under-save (keep reserve funds strong).
• Don't blindly endorse a product.

Cartoon versions of this book are widely available in Singapore, both in Mandarin Chinese and in English. The Mandarin version includes Hanyu Pinyin and an English translation for each of the original business principles. This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. ... Pinyin (拼音, Pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of...

References

Xu, Hui. Jīng Shāng Băo Diăn: Táo Zhūgōng Shāngxùn. 2nd ed. Singapore: Asiapac Books Pte. Ltd., August 2002. <See http://www.asiapacbooks.com/product.asp?pid=299. English translation available at http://www.asiapacbooks.com/product.asp?pid=60&cid=43.>