[Minghui Net] On the morning of December 30, 2000, nine of us Falun Dafa practitioners came to Tiananmen Square, the heart of China and the center for Chinese politics, economy, and culture. Tiananmen Square has now become the prime location for the evil forces to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. The square was filled with terror and had soldiers, police, special agents, and police vehicles everywhere. When my wife and I reached the center of Tiananmen Square, I took out a 5-meter [about 16 feet] long banner and another practitioner quickly came up to help me unfurl the banner. We shouted loudly: "Falun Dafa is good!" "Reinstate the innocence of Falun Dafa!" etc. At that moment, my mind was blank and it had only the vibration of our voices. This had lasted for less than 30 seconds. The policemen rushed over, yelling at us. When additional policemen and special agents arrived, they pushed us into a police vehicle. They also tried to take away the banner. My wife held the banner tightly and did not let them take it. The police heavily hit her on her head with batons. She was injured badly, with blood running from her head. Her clothes on her right shoulder area were soon soaked with blood. We shouted: "Don't beat people." However, those evil policemen were in a rage! They violently beat those practitioners who did not want to get into the vehicle.
We were taken to the back yard of the Tiananmen Police Sub-Station. There were already 200-300 practitioners in the yard. When they saw us coming, they welcomed us with applause. For another time, my mind and soul got cleansed and purified. I did not have fear. What I deeply felt was the power of Dafa. A moment later, some practitioners took out their banners they carried and shouted: "Suffocate the evil! Dafa eliminates the evil! "Reinstate the good reputation of Master Li!" At the beginning, the policemen came up and tried to take the banners away. Later, facing the noble spirits of Dafa practitioners, they were at a loss. All practitioners shouted together and their righteous voices were shaking heaven and made the evil tremble.
A short while later, ten of us were pushed into a police vehicle and sent to the Longtan Police Station. In the afternoon, a policeman took me away for interrogation. He pretended to be kind to me and told me the ruse that he would help me out. He wanted me to tell him my name and address. I took this chance to introduce Dafa to him and wholeheartedly told him that he should take advantage of his position and do more good deeds instead of bad ones. I went through my first interrogation in this way. In the end, he wanted me to sign my name. I thought a moment and signed "A Dafa guardian." I did not tell him anything. In the night, ten of us were put in a small room that had no more than 10 square meters [about 85 square feet] of space. We learned and helped each other by exchanging our experiences and knew that our Teacher was watching us and we had to pass the tribulation well, and not cooperate with the evil. Ten of us passed that night sitting on chairs. During that night, I awakened frequently. Master Li's poems in Hong Yin [a book of Master Li's poems] kept coming to my mind. I realized that there were big tribulations waiting for me. So I was ready for the tribulations to come. Next day, the police wanted to take I.D. photos of us. They gave me one number and wanted to have my photo taken when I got inside the room. I turned my head away and did not allow them to take my photograph. A policeman hit me fiercely on my head and yelled at at me if I would let them take my photo or not. I answered, "No!" He grabbed my hair. I struggled with all my strength and would never surrender to the evil. In this way, they took a photo showing their hands grabbing my hair. In the afternoon, another policeman came to interrogate me and asked me my name and address. I refused, and told him out from my goodwill that he should not do bad deeds and otherwise suffer retribution [Note: this refers to the principle of "karmic retribution"]. In the end, he wanted to beat me, but reconsidered after witnessing my goodwill and righteous spirit. He had no choice but to bring me back to the tiny room. He opened the windows of the tiny room, let me take off my coat and sit down an iron chair, and then tied up my hands and feet on the chair. The room temperature was almost the same as that of the outside [below 32 0F at the time]. I was held in this freezing condition for 4-5 hours. Since I am a practitioner, this little bit of suffering was nothing to me and I easily passed the tribulation.
In the evening, they transferred ten of us to the Chongwen District Detention Center and we were put into different cells. I was put into No. 5 cell. Once I got inside, the common prisoners came up to me and asked about me. I told them I am Dafa practitioner. They took off my clothes and then poured ice-cold water on me. At that moment, I held one thought: I came here because I wanted to protect Dafa and I would never give up this righteous thought even if it meant that I would give away my life. So the cold water did not defeat me. After that, the prisoner-in-charge made me squat there and asked me if I wanted to tell him my name and address. I answered: "I would rather die than tell you." He asked: "Do you eat?" I replied: "I don't." Thereafter he beat me several times. On the next day (January 1, 2001), the prisoner-in-charge told me: "Ok, you are great, and if you do not want to speak, do it that way." So they did not ask me again. In the evening of January 2, the common prisoners in various cells, under the instructions of the guards, started to abuse those practitioners who did not tell their names and addresses. At 6:00 pm, the prisoner-in-charge asked me to tell my name and address and I refused. He became exasperated and slapped me several times on my face. He took off my woolen sweater and my trousers and poured cold water on me when I only had a thin layer of cotton undergarments. When I was soaked with water, he made me squat near the door, and then opened the door to let the cold air to blow on me. I was in the cold for more than half an hour. After that, he did not ask me again. Because I was on a hunger strike to protest, they did not put me on duty nor let me do any work. So I could only upgrade my xinxing [mind or heart nature] during the hunger strike.
On the morning of January 5, I was taken out and put into No. 1 cell. In the evening, they started to interrogate me. They beat me up when they realized that I would not give in. They let me squat on the floor and did not allow me to sleep in the evening. When I could not hold my squatting position, they would slap me my feet with their heavy boots. When I bent down my head a little bit, they would grab my hair. During that night, a lot of my hair was pulled out. Since I knew that I would not have had these big tribulations if I had not had that big karma, I endured the abuse with ease. They tortured me this way over consecutive 3 days. I did not give in even though they did not allow me to sleep at night and oftentimes beat and cursed me. Master Li said, "No one can conquer you, if nothing can disturb your mind." On the ninth day of my hunger strike, they told me that others had started to eat and I should eat too. They also lied to me that the practitioner in No. 3 cell who came to the Tiananmen Square together with me had told his name and address. On the ninth day of force-feeding, when I found that he was not taken to the place where force-feeding was carried out, my mind was a little perturbed. What should I do? I remembered what Master Li said in "Determination"[of Essentials for Further Advancement] "Cultivation is your own matter, and nobody else can do it for you." Why should I be bothered by other's behavior? I started to look inside myself and understand the situation from the point of Dafa.
At the Great Lakes Conference in North America, Master Li said that "But gods aren't like that. They don't have thoughts like these. Once they've decided on a certain path, they'll definitely stick with it to the end." Indeed, I am a Dafa practitioner and I should follow the standards for the enlightened beings. At that moment, the heroic deeds of many Dafa practitioners during the Fa-rectification encouraged me. Some practitioners were beaten badly and some were scared for their lives. In comparison, what I experienced was nothing. When I understood this point, I felt an unparalleled ease. Suddenly one of the sentence of Master Li's poem ["A Visit to Sun-Moon Pond"] in Hong Yin came to my mind: "It's hard to find such a lone beauty." I recited this sentence again and again, and in the end I was even able to recite the whole poem of "A Visit to Sun-Moon Pond," which I never remembered before. My xinxing was rising in that realm and I felt an unspeakable happiness. What I felt was no longer pain and suffering. I kept rising in my understanding of Dafa. I wanted to protect Dafa with my life. But in the end, I realized that the thought of protecting Dafa with my life also showed I was too attached to my life, which was also an attachment and should be abandoned. In that period of time, I was force-fed 8 times. When I refused to be force-fed, they would beat me up. The guards instructed common prisoners to beat up practitioners. The common prisoners were extremely cruel when they tortured the practitioners. Master Li said: "Of course, even though the situation is still improving, the evil has yet to be finally eliminated and is still playing out. You can't lower your guard. You still need to continue to further your efforts and do well with what you're supposed to do, and truly take every one of your steps well on the way to Consummation" [Master Li's lecture at the Great Lakes Conference in North America]. Through studying Dafa, I understood that I had not done very well in many aspects when I was in tribulation. I should improve myself through validating Dafa, spreading the truth, and assisting Master Li in his Fa-rectification.
A Dafa Practitioner in China
