Zou Songtao was a well-known name among Dafa practitioners in Qingdao. He provided Dafa practitioners with his home as a place to study and learn the Fa (law and universal principle) while he was working on his Master's degree. He walked from place to place, introducing the most benevolent and the purest Falun Dafa to the general public. Ever since he started cultivation practice on April 8, 1996, on his 24th birthday, he had been practicing diligently and firmly. He said, "I'm not an assistant; I just want to do something for Dafa." Thus, at the group practice site, he volunteered to help correct the inaccurate exercise movements of some practitioners, instruct newcomers in the exercise movements and play the videotapes. He volunteered to order and to ship the Dafa books for others. He went to introduce Dafa in the remote suburban areas. Due to his gentle disposition, his eloquence and his wealth of knowledge, he was gradually recognized as a voluntary assistant who had not been appointed by anybody. He started introducing Dafa to the people around him only a month after he learned Fa. At that time he already realized and tried "to be benevolent to all sentient beings" and to let all sentient beings benefit from Dafa. I started my cultivation practice with his help.
Songtao, do you still remember that it would have been our 2nd wedding anniversary in a couple of days? You must have remembered that the lady at the marriage bureau said, "Songtao (translator note: in Chinese, meaning 'the sighing of the wind in the pines') and Yunhe (note: in Chinese, meaning 'a crane in the clouds'). Your names are just like contrasting lines of a poem." At that time, how happy we were as two Dafa practitioners! I felt so grateful to heaven and to our teacher since I found my soul mate in the human world. Until today, I have never changed my thought about this. It is indeed difficult to find a soul mate. Though we were together for only two short years, it has been better than a thousand years. In our family life, you were a good husband who showed every possible consideration to your wife. You always sent me a congratulatory card or flowers on our wedding anniversary or my birthday. I still remember you wrote on one card: "Crane (translator note : my name in Chinese) should soar to great heights." You encouraged me to cultivate diligently in order to reach consummation together. Why didn't you wait for me? I need you, Songtao! As a recognized good man, a kind-hearted gentleman, you never harmed others and were always kind to everyone. Why did you leave so early? You reached consummation before I. Could you tell me which heaven you are in now? Though you only stayed in this human world for a short 28 years, one may well say that you were uncommon and great all through your life since you were honest and selfless as a child and became a Falun Dafa practitioner later. The couple of weeks in July before you were sent to the labor camp were the last time we stayed together. I remember that in the afternoon on July 18, you came and picked me up at work by motorcycle. You changed your shirt specially in case you might meet my colleagues. You looked so simple and honest, pure and righteous. I was a little bit angry because you drove too fast. And now, I don't have any chance to compensate for my regret. I had been looking forward to seeing you come back home a free man. You were bearing severe tortures in the jail when our daughter was born. And I had been waiting for your return to celebrate her first birthday. But now you won't come back forever. What kind of life will it be without you! We suffered so much from being apart for the past whole year, and now we must part forever! I could never believe that a young, healthy and lively man could become a dead corpse! You looked as if you were asleep. You were dressed so simply when you were cremated---they hurried to take you away and wrapped you in a thin blanket!
Songtao, you are finally freed! You don't have to be shadowed, bugged, summoned for interrogation, kept in custody illegally, detained, beaten and cursed, or reeducated through labor. You have your real freedom finally! You protected Dafa using your own life! You used to say, "Let's go back to our home earlier!" And now you have your wish fulfilled. I remember, once you went practicing outside, and I was so worried. You said, "I'm willing to die for Dafa,." You lived up to your promise. I was so reluctant to leave you, yet you are the one who left me! Human lives just come and go so silently. I cry for the indifference of all sentient beings! People of good will, Dafa practitioners are clarifying the truth for you with their blood, tears and their lives!
Songtao, how beautiful and happy is heaven? What a sweet end you obtained at the cost of the hell-like suffering in the human world! I put the urn with your bones ashes on the desk you used to use and said to our eight-month-old daughter, "Honey, go and kiss your daddy." Our daughter crawled over and kissed the urn. She's so cute, yet she's been deprived of her father. She shouldn't have had to put up with so much! She's less than one year old! We had suffered all the happiness and bitterness of lives within one year. We got married and we had our child. You were arrested and beaten. I was beaten in Beijing. You were sent to the labor camp. I lost my job and then my husband! However, I'm sure I will firmly go through this historic era.
Good-bye, Songtao, you're bound to see in the heaven the day the Fa is rectified in the human world.
Good-bye, Songtao, we're bound to meet again in heaven.
Your wife,
Zhang Yunhe,
November 2000
