Why Were They Spared From the Devastating Earthquake?

(Minghui.org) Having been influenced by the doctrine of total equality, many people in China believe that if the sky falls, everyone should die together. But from ancient to modern times, not everyone dies when disasters strike. There are always some people who survive the seemingly inescapable disaster.

Ancient Stories

Here is an example of a story of three families who were spared in a devastating earthquake in ancient China.

Niu Shumei served as the prefect of Ningyuan Prefecture during the periods of Daoguang and Xianfeng (1820-1861) in the Qing Dynasty. He was honest and hardworking and achieved remarkable things, for which people highly praised him.

On September 12, 1850, there was a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of about 7.5. All the houses in town collapsed and countless people were injured or died. The government offices were also damaged. Niu’s son perished and Niu sustained such a serious injury to his foot that he had difficulty walking.

In his anguish, Niu Shumei wrote a long article to question the Town God. In the article, he accused the Town God of enjoying the incense people burned, but failing to protect them. He also challenged the Town God by asking if it was possible that everyone in the big town was wicked and deserved to die? He said he had a clear conscience, but his son was dead and he himself was injured. He asked whether the way of Heaven was not good enough for people to have faith in and if gods also made mistakes in their judgment.

That night, Niu had a dream that the Town God invited him to his place and said to him, “You reprimanded me in your writing with self-righteousness and justification, but you really don’t understand how gods and spirits function, and that’s why I have invited you here to address your question and defamatory remarks.

“All calamities result from sinful karma accumulated by people over time, and nothing is accidental,” he told Niu.

He revealed to Niu the secret of how the gods spent 50 years making arrangements about the earthquake. He said, “There was a 50-year-long investigation and note-keeping in relation to the current earthquake, and all those who were not supposed to suffer had been relocated; if they had committed new sins, they would have been moved back; even if there might have been changes at the time amid the catastrophe, such changes would have been taken into consideration and human lives would never be ignored.”

“If this was the case,” Niu Shumei argued, “Do you mean to say that there was not even one kindhearted person in the whole town, and that my son and I also deserved to be condemned?”

“There are three families in town that remain safe and sound,” the Town God said. “One is the family of a woman who has remained a widow since she lost her husband while a young woman. She raised her son by herself and is now taking care of her grandson. The second is a doctor’s family. He never sells fake medicine, and he attends to a patient the best he can whenever there is such a need, even in the middle of the night or when the roads are wet and muddy. The third one is the family of an old lady and her young grandson, who make a living by selling fried rice cakes. They are all safe and sound. You can go and check it out. I wouldn’t tell lies.

“Your son did a lot of bad things in his previous life, and as a result he met his due retribution in the earthquake,” the Town God told Niu. “You would have been condemned as well, but because you are an honest and hardworking official, you were given a lenient punishment and only your foot was injured. In a word, gods and Heaven are extremely cautious when meting out rewards or punishments, and they would never show any extra favor to any particular person. Every disaster or good fortune has its reasons, so if you do your very best to be a good official, you could be promoted to the position of Justice Commissioner.”

After hearing all this, Niu thanked the Town God and apologized for what he wrote in the article.

After he woke up, Niu went to check out the three families the Town God had told him about in the dream. Sure enough, he found the families of the woman and the doctor, even though it took him a bit more effort to find the old lady selling fried rice cakes. The old lady told Mr. Niu that she treated people fairly, and when she came across people who were old or disabled, she would sell them cakes at a discount or not charge them at all.

She also told Niu that two days before the earthquake struck, she had more customers all of a sudden and the supply exceeded demand, so she and her little grandson spent the night making fried rice cakes to sell the next day. Then came the earthquake and the two of them were covered under the collapsed house for three days before they were rescued. They survived on fried rice cakes during those three days.

Niu was very surprised to hear her story, and after that he gained an even deeper understanding of the principle of cause and effect and worked even harder to be a good official. Later, he was indeed promoted to the position of Justice Commissioner of Sichuan Province.

Why were these three families spared from the earthquake? It was because they accumulated virtues by doing good deeds. The ancient Chinese said, “Heaven does not show favoritism and will give good people the help they deserve.” It seemed to be true. As the saying goes: man proposes but god disposes. In the face of unexpected disasters, all you have to do is be an upright person, and you will be blessed by the Gods and Buddhas.

Modern Day Stories

As for modern days, below are three stories: two of the three families were spared during the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, and the third one survived an explosion.

Family’s Three-Story House Stood Safe in Earthquake

A Falun Dafa practitioner in Tianjin has a brother whose family lives in Beichuan County in Sichuan Province. Before the earthquake hit Wenchuan (about 70 miles from Beichuan) on May 12, 2008, his brother’s family had learned the facts of Falun Dafa and quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During the earthquake, all the surrounding houses collapsed, sending bricks and rubble tumbling down on their neighbors. Somehow, the brother’s family’s three-story house stood safe, with only a small crack in the wall. All seven of them escaped uninjured. When this practitioner came to visit them, the whole family cried and said, “The earthquake was so terrible that the people next to us were either dead or injured. We never expected that our whole family would be okay. We are blessed by Dafa. You must send our greetings on behalf of our whole family when you see your Master!”

Family of 43 Unharmed in the Great Earthquake

Another Falun Dafa practitioner shared this story, “When the big earthquake in Sichuan happened on May 12, 2008, the TV showed many collapsed houses in Dujiangyan, Wenchuan, and Beichuan. Many people were trapped under the rubble; I felt anxious and sad. Many of my relatives, including my brothers and sisters, live in Dujiangyan and the hardest-hit areas of Wenchuan. I immediately called to check on them, but couldn’t get through.

“A few days later, I got news that except for my eldest niece’s house, all the other relatives’ houses had collapsed to some extent and were uninhabitable. But my siblings, their children and grandchildren... totaling 43 people, were safe and sound without a single casualty.

“At the time of the earthquake, my sister-in-law rushed down from a five-story building. A few seconds after she stepped out, the house tumbled down. The woman behind her, who was only one step short of running out, was crushed by the building wall.

“My brother-in-law went to a friend’s house every day to play mahjong. On the day of the earthquake, he didn’t go, but went shopping with my sister instead. When the earthquake hit, many sales assistants stumbled and fell on the way out, while my brother-in-law and sister quickly escaped the shaking mall.”

The practitioner said she believes the reason why her 43 relatives were able to escape this sudden catastrophe was that they were all blessed by Falun Dafa for understanding the facts and supporting the practice. Their quitting the CCP also kept them from danger in the face of a disaster.

Escaping the Big Explosion

A similar incident occurred in the 2015 Tianjin Explosion: a farmer in Wuji County, Hebei Province, drove to a chemical company in a southern province to load goods. After loading, he realized that he had taken the wrong goods. He had to unload and reload everything, delaying the trip by two hours. At that time, he was very confused as this was the first time he had made such a mistake in all his years of working.

He arrived in Tianjin at 1:30 a.m. on August 13, 2015, when he heard that two hours prior (11:30 p.m.), an explosion had happened. He was more shocked to learn that the explosion site - Ruihai International Logistics Co.- was the company he had to deliver the cargo to. If he had not loaded the wrong goods, the explosion would have got him. He couldn’t help but thank Master and Falun Dafa for saving his life. His aunt, a Falun Gong practitioner, often told him the facts about Falun Dafa, and his family all believed in its goodness. In the Tianjin explosion, he personally witnessed the miracle of Dafa’s blessing.

Why the Blessings?

There are many such examples, and they abound in true practitioners of Falun Dafa and their family and friends. Why is this so?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) teaches people to guide themselves according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. It rectifies one’s mind and improves one’s character. Falun Dafa has spread to over 100 countries and has received over 5,000 awards, and Falun Dafa books have been translated into 40 languages. Only in mainland China it is being persecuted.

Given the brutal persecution in China, those who are willing to listen to the truth of Falun Dafa and recognize good from bad, will receive protection and help from Gods and Buddhas for their kindness.

Then why can renouncing the CCP bring one peace? Looking back at the CCP’s political campaigns and its rise to power more than 70 years ago, from the Campaign to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries, from the Land Reform to the Three Anti/Five Anti Campaigns, from the Purge of Counter-Revolutionary Elements to the Great Leap Forward, from the Great Famine to the Great Cultural Revolution, and from the June 4th Massacre of Students in 1989 to the persecution of Falun Gong, we can see the destructive nature of the CCP. From the common people to the chairman of the country, over half of the Chinese people have been persecuted by the CCP.

According to available statistics, over 80 million Chinese people died unnaturally during the CCP’s rule; a death toll eight times greater than the deaths of World War I and 1.5 times greater than World War II. Look at today’s Chinese society: moral degradation, farmers’ loss of land, collusion between government and business, police and bandit, social violence, and people’s discontent are prevalent.

The wicked CCP will soon receive the most severe retribution from Heaven, because it is an eternal and unchanging principle of Heaven that good receives good and evil begets evil. Those who recognize the wickedness of the CCP and take practical actions to stay away from it will be protected.