(Clearwisdom.net)
8. The gathering of fellow practitioners
One day in August 2000, I was brought to a dark, damp and mildewed cell. Five other practitioners were also brought in, one after another. They were Liu Guihua, Deng Chunxia, Liu Rangfang, Fu Meilin and Wang Junhua. We were all the kind that the wicked guards called "would rather die than repent." We hugged each other in excitement and tears ran down our cheeks. The guard standing by said, "At last, you can see your beloved ones."
The three wooden boards lying on the floor were our beds. The cover on the window left only one seam. The toilet was an old basin. We had to buy plastic bags from the wardens for disposal of feces. We were not allowed to wash our clothes for a long time, let alone take a shower. In August, the room was too hot and humid to bear. All six of us had diarrhea. We needed to use many plastic bags every day. However, we were only allowed to dump the bags into the outside paper box once every 24 hours. A foul odor filled the cell.
We were given "black flour" steamed buns to eat. Sometimes the steamed buns were made from rotten bread dough, the kind that is said to be carcinogenic. Even chickens were not to fed with this kind of dough.
At every meal we ate only the very salty pickled turnips and rotten cabbage soup. For lunch, each one was given half a serving spoon of spoiled vegetable. Once the food was sent there, a crowd of flies followed. When we encountered a kind-hearted guard we would ask her to open the door to get some of the flies out. In the evenings the light would be left on, with no screen covering the window. The labor camp was located at the foot of a mountain. In the evenings, mosquitoes and other bugs would bite us, causing our entire bodies to be covered with welts.
From August to September we were never allowed to leave this cell to get some fresh air. We were only allowed to take one cold shower and wash our clothes three times. They only gave each of us two small bottles of water for cleaning and drinking every day. They made us live under the worst conditions, intending to destroy our will.
Because of long-term poor hygiene and lack of sunlight and fresh air, two practitioners developed scabies, making their skin itch incredibly. The Third Team political instructor Zhu Tiehong was very wicked. The six of us insisted on group study and practice. Therefore, I memorized many of Master's poems. When Deng Chunxia recited Master's article "Drive Out Interference" Zhu Tiehong the political instructor saw it from the monitoring system. Zhu then cuffed Deng Chunxia to an iron chair for a day. If Zhu saw us, or if some inmates reported us practicing the exercises, the wicked police officers would beat and kick us. Sometimes we were chained together or cuffed to the heating pipes. We could not use the toilet, nor could we sleep.
One afternoon a wicked police guard, Liu Yadong, was on duty. She discovered that we were practicing. Immediately she cuffed us together. I said, "You cannot cuff me because I have diarrhea, and need to use the toilet every ten minutes." Finally, she cuffed my hands in front, and did not open the handcuffs until the next day.
The inmates who were sent to monitor us learned from the police to scold us. The collaborators [former practitioners who went astray due to brainwashing and torture] also took the opportunity to attack us. They said that our environment was so bad, and that we should ask ourselves why, claiming that the more one cultivated, the better and more comfortable the environment should be. However, why were we suffering and they (the collaborators) were not? I told them that everyday people did not practice the Fa; therefore, they would not be imprisoned because of cultivation. Those who do not step out and rectify the Fa and only secretly practice at home might not be arrested either. Is this a correct way to cultivate? Would that way of cultivating succeed in comfort? Master said, "Furthermore, how will you practice cultivation if you do not have any worries or troubles? How can you do the exercises comfortably and restfully? How can there be such a thing? That is what you think, from the perspective of everyday people."
Because I had diarrhea for a long time, my body was extremely weak. One day, I did not get up and practice the exercises. When the fellow practitioners practiced, the guard, Liu Hongguang came in and did not let them practice. I sat up and rebuked him, "Why do you make life miserable for us in this way? You force us to eat and excrete in the same room; you do not allow us to have fresh air, take a shower or wash clothes. Which law permits you to mistreat and abuse people like this? Even the murderers can go out, see the sun, and meet their family members. However, you beat and scold us at will. Is your behavior human behavior?" He said, "We treat you like this whether you like it or not. Go ahead and sue us if you can." I told him, "Sooner or later that day will come! Your crime of persecuting us will be exposed!"
The day was hot and humid. I had constant diarrhea for a long time, every 15 minutes or half an hour, no matter whether it was day or night. Afterwards I started to have bloody stool. When walking, I would tremble. I was so skinny that I looked frail. In a little more than a month I had used more than 400 bowel movement bags just for myself. At first, I only needed one bag at a time. Afterwards, I would use one bag many times. I spent over 70 Yuan (monthly Chinese income is 400 Yuan) for toilet paper alone. Everything sold to us by the labor camp was at a staggering profit to them.
Liu Guihua was over 50 years old. She also had chronic diarrhea. Furthermore, she had scabies as well. She was very thin. Once, when I saw her changing clothes, I noticed that her ribs stuck out and she looked emaciated.
Since I began cultivating, I had never been through difficulties like this. Getting out of bed was even difficult. However, the wicked police would come every day and force us to sit on the small stools. The wicked police officer, Liu Yadong was especially ruthless. He would not let me lie down, but I could not get up. They then pulled me out and gave me an enema. We realized that under such bad circumstances we should not passively endure. Therefore, we started the hunger strike, requesting improved living conditions. In over a month, when we were together, I only had about ten meals. The second day of the hunger strike the warden, Gao Xiaohua, came to us again. She snatched our moon cake and the fruits, which were bought by practitioners to respect Master on the occasion of the Mid-autumn Festival. Moreover, she said brazenly, "You are having a hunger strike, don't let the food get rotten." What an authentic thief! In the labor camp, the wicked, immoral police often embezzled the food and clothes sent by practitioners' families. One practitioner's family sent a box of "Eight Precious" porridge. When she received it, there was only one left. My family once mailed one set of new thermal underwear and two sweaters; however, I only got one sweater.
On the sixth day of our hunger strike, the vicious police started to cruelly force-feed us. Some bad police officers inserted the tubes and then pulled the tubes out again; our noses and throats were often bleeding due to the insertion. Once when they came to insert the tube and wanted to give me injections I said, "I am a practitioner. I don't need injections." I threw the needle onto the floor. Seven or eight people dragged me out, pushed me on the ground and finally gave me a shot. After I came back, practitioners helped me to look inside myself, and reminded me to maintain a pure heart. I also realized my behavior was not compassionate enough. Every day we were force-fed. I told them it is because we have been illegally detained for being innocent and received such persecution that we had to protest with a hunger strike. I hoped they wouldn't treat us like this any more. But a fierce doctor by the last name of Wang ferociously said, "It is the most pleasant thing for me to insert the tube in you." They took advantage of the opportunity of torturing us to take out their indescribable, personal anger.
One day, Liu Yadong brought people from the managing section and came to take a picture of me again. She pulled me up from the bed with force. I told her I would not submit to having my picture taken, and that I am not a prisoner. She forcibly pushed my head down. I was extremely weak at that time, but I knew that I absolutely would not have my picture taken.
The vicious police asked a prisoner, who had been a prostitute and a drug addict, to watch us, because she was ruthless. She even dared to beat and curse a sixty-year-old woman. This prisoner had syphilis. Prisoners with sexually transmitted diseases were usually kept separated from the other prisoners. However, they told her to take charge of us, to distribute eating bowls, water and steamed bread to us. In the persecution toward Falun Gong they have resorted to all kinds of cruel treatment. One day, two practitioners stood in front of the window. With a stern look one of them said, "It's really hard." The other one said, "It's even worse than begging for food on the street."
They had been transferred from Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in Harbin and were still on a hunger strike when they came. They had been detained for a very long time. After they had transferred they told me that they had been tied up with both of their hands cuffed to the bed, and they had to relieve their bowels in their pants for many days. The evil police also cruelly force-fed them for many days. When they couldn't force the food in, they poured congee [a type of rice porridge] down practitioners' necks and on their clothes, and gave them injections. Deng Chunxia once told me she was quite scared of Chen Chunmei. That evil police officer once pinched her nipple very hard. Wang Junhua also showed me a place on top of her head where her hair had fallen out. She told me it happened when the vicious police officer named Yu Dalong beat her and pulled her hair out. She said when they were on a hunger strike the evil police failed in force-feeding and poured all the food on her clothes. They didn't allow her to wash her clothes. Her sister, through certain connections, came to visit her. When she saw that she had been tortured so badly, the two sisters hugged and cried. Her sister said she would get her out, no matter how much money it would require. Wang told her sister she had nothing left except Dafa and she would definitely not leave in an unrighteous way.
The evil not only tortured us physically, but also destroyed us mentally. They set up loud- speakers in every room. Everyday, they loudly broadcast vicious articles. The vicious police also asked the collaborators to harass us. They laughed at us, "How come such great deities are being locked up in the room?" I promptly pointed out to them, "The reason you think this way is because you are not steadfast in the Fa; because you could not forbear and therefore became a betrayer. Cultivation is difficult, but the reason the evil persecutes us is not because that we are wrong, but because wherever there is righteousness, there is evil. Evil is simply bad; it just wants to harm people. Their persecution towards us is not towards us as individuals, but towards Dafa and towards Master. I absolutely will not take the betraying path! Even if I am detained for ten thousand years, I won't regret it." The collaborators never came back again to persuade us.
Some practitioners, who had not studied the Fa very thoroughly and were deluded, still wanted to help us. They helped us to distribute Master's new articles. There were also prisoners who felt Dafa was good, they helped us to distribute articles too. But once the vicious police found it, it would mean a brutal beating or prolonged detention term. The longest one was prolonged for half a year. Some evil police officers even used promises of reducing the prison term to entice prisoners to do bad things. Forced by the vicious police, some prisoners confiscated our new articles and betrayed us. During the days I had been detained, I didn't miss a single article of Master's. I read all of them; and I have memorized them all. For a very long time we were separately detained in single cells. Sometimes I didn't even know how the articles came to my cell, but I knew it was the power of Dafa. If you genuinely cultivate, Dafa can do everything. I thank Master's kindness to offer salvation to me. Thank you Master, for giving us the Great Law of the Universe!
Though the police often searched our bodies, they could not search completely. In addition, Fa has filled our mind and dissolved in our heart. How could they possibly take it away? In those difficult days it was Master and Dafa that guided us. We strengthened our righteous thoughts and belief, while in this mundane hell, and closely followed Master's Fa-rectification progress. I believed in Master and in the Fa, and I knew that no obstacles could stop us. We understood and realized everyday that Master gives us hints, watches and protects us.
In late August it was cloudy and drizzly for days in Jiamusi. The one-story house we lived in was flooded by water that came down from the hill. Our room was the only one the water didn't come in, in spite of the fact that the corner of the wall had holes one could see through. It was only our cells that escaped the flooding. During the following days it continued to be cloudy and kept drizzling. Both rooms next to ours were flooded very badly; even the clothes storage room was filled with water. When the water abated, all the clothing had become moldy and smelled bad. The collaborators and the vicious police also said it's a miracle that our room was dry. We knew why. It is because Master is protecting us! Master is taking care of us!
Since several of us continued our hunger strike, the wicked police separated us from each other. One day in late September 2000, Liu Yadong brought in several vicious police officers. They moved me to a cell in another location to be monitored by a "nobler" inmate. There was only one bed in the cell - that was for her. Several pieces of wooden boards on the floor were to be my bed. They forcibly gave me an IV. On the first day they ordered the "noble" prisoner and a collaborator to watch me. On the second day, they once again forcibly gave me an IV; then they locked the door from outside. I lay on my bed and recited "Lunyu." When I had just recited it for the second time, that inmate said, "The IV stopped dripping." I said to her, "See, they shouldn't have given me the IV, please take out the needle." She removed the IV bottle and poured the liquid into a toilet bucket. The same thing happened on the third day. That inmate told me if I gave her 500 Yuan and she could get the book to me. I did not answer her so she threatened me. Shortly after, she got scabies all over her body. She said to herself, "This must be retribution."
After they stopped the medicine, the wicked police started to have the collaborator harass me each day. There were 2 or 3 groups a day. I could not take a rest at noon. Each time I recited Master's new articles to them I hoped for them to wake up after hearing Master's articles. However, they did not dare to come back to Dafa under these extremely vicious circumstances. These people did not have strong wills, so they were willing to be controlled by the evil and get temporary ease. Some collaborators' words were very wicked. I didn't like to hear it at all and told them not to talk nonsense. Some of them stopped talking any further. Some said that the guards urged them to come; otherwise, they would have not come. I felt pity for those who have gone astray due to the brainwashing. They destroyed themselves with their lack of belief in Dafa. I told sub-division head Gong Chunbo, "Those collaborators still fool themselves, thinking that they are still cultivating." Gong Chunbo said, "Cultivate what? They have sworn at their Master and Dafa; what else can they cultivate?" Indeed, even the common people could understand, yet the collaborators still fooled themselves and others.
9. The head of the evil - "strict discipline" division
On September 30, the female division had a new building. Since they started abducting Falun Gong practitioners the Forced Labor Camp, which could not even pay its employees and was about to close, suddenly got funding for new a building. The authorities also repaid the salaries that it owed to the employees. It is said that many Forced Labor Camps across the country have got new buildings. The evil Jiang has been massively building jails in order to persecute Falun Gong, using citizens' hard-earned money to torture fellow Chinese citizens.
We were put into the "strict discipline" division on the first floor. More than ten steadfast and unshakable Dafa practitioners were being kept there. Liu Yadong was the division head. Everyone knew that she got this position from persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. She was cruel and vicious, as were several other wicked officers in the "strict discipline" division.
Liu made many rules to abuse and mistreat us. She used the collaborators to monitor, humiliate and abuse us. Some of the collaborators were even more vicious than common inmates. They did not allow us to drink water. They did not allow us to remove the toilet bucket. They did not allow us to put toilet paper into the bucket or plastic bags but made us put them into our own pockets. We had to clean up our bed at 4:30 a.m. and then sit still on small benches. We had a one-hour break at noon; then sat again until 9 p.m. before we were allowed to sleep. The winter in the North is very cold. Icicles hung outside the windows. We were very cold, though we wore cotton-padded shoes and goose-down jackets. We sat on small benches everyday for the entire day. Our feet were extremely cold and our legs became swollen. When the leg was pressed, an indentation remained. Thus, I sat down on a bed to take a rest. But that wicked squad leader saw it. I showed her my swollen legs, asking her how a person could sit on a small bench for more than ten hours. She replied without showing any human concern, saying that this was the rule and if I did not obey, she would throw out my personal belongings. She was just a young woman in her twenties, but was very harsh and cruel.
We ate and went to the toilet in the same room. Guard Liu Yadong ordered the collaborators to block all windows against any ventilation. Mold of all kinds of colors grew on the wall. We were not allowed to take showers for long periods of time. Sometimes, we could not take a shower for 2 or 3 months. We also washed our clothes less than two times each month. More and more practitioners got scabies all over their bodies. They festered and oozed body fluid everywhere. Some practitioners had layers of scabies, which looked horrible. Liu Guihua had scabies all over her body. She could not sit or walk, and had to remain standing in the room in miserable pain. The wicked police did not allow her to wear clothes and let other practitioners see her body, saying if they did not give in, this would be their fate, also. Liu Guihua was once an excellent middle school teacher. She was now humiliated and abused by these vicious people.
In spite of all her horrid deeds, Liu Yadong was several times awarded with a citation for "model police officer" in Jiamusi Forced Labor Camp for her skill in torturing people. Even her colleagues said that she was ambitious in her persecution of Falun Gong. Liu swore at or beat Falun Gong practitioners at her will, and used all kinds of methods forcing the practitioners to give in. Starting from October, the collaborators visited each cell every day, in attempts to deceive practitioners. The collaborators were free to go to the restroom, wander around to different cells, chat to each other, see family members and make phone calls. Once one gave in, he or she would be treated well. Regarding those steadfast practitioners, the evil authorities made special plans to brainwash and torture them. I read a plan that was left behind by a police officer saying to "use both soft and hard persuasion." Liu Yadong had a talk with me saying, "The central government has left instructions. If a person does not get transformed, for each month of their sentence, we can extend it by an additional half a month, which could be accumulated for up to one year." Furthermore, she said that when the extended term had been served, they still would not release the practitioner. This is what the government has claimed to be "education and transformation with kindness." This is what the "law" of China is. These so-called laws are absolute lies and nothing but persecution!
Liu Yadong realized she could not trick me, so she discussed with the collaborators how they could force me to give up Dafa. Finally, they sent a collaborator to talk to me. Along with several other collaborators, she tried to persuade me with their evil theory. I noticed her theory was inconsistent, so I pointed out that she contradicted herself. She was so enraged that she was out of breath. Since then she never showed up again.
The evil guards tried to deceive Dafa practitioners with their backward logic, such as "you made your family and relatives suffer because you came out to validate Dafa." In reality they were afraid to admit who the real ones are that made our families and relatives suffer; the ones that illegally detained kind-hearted people and put them into prison. They are the very ones that deprive us of our freedom; they are the very ones who have so severely abused some of our fellow practitioners and ended up torturing them to death; they are the ones who made our families and relatives suffer. In a perverted way of thinking they are blaming us for our families' suffering. History will judge everyone fairly as to who is righteous vs. evil, and who is right and who is wrong.
My family members and relatives, all kind-hearted people, please wake up! Otherwise there will be no justice in this world, since people could not tell right from the wrong, and every one in the world will suffer because of our inability to distinguish good from evil.
The collaborators spread their evil theory among us every day. They said, "You should not disturb the ordinary people's society." I told them, "Not only did we not disturb the ordinary people's society, but we are also the most righteous. Because we are the most righteous, we expose all the unrighteous ones; that is why the evil is against us. How can a cultivator comply with humankind's degenerate morality? When humankind's morals are too degenerate, human beings will be weeded out." The collaborators are talking nonsense. I started to recite Master's articles to enlighten them based on the Fa. Everything was explained clearly in Master's articles. I realized more and more the importance of following the Fa as the teacher.
When we look back to today from sometime in the future, many things will become clear: Many practitioners who betrayed Dafa and participated in the persecution against Dafa will at one point realize their mistakes and come back to Dafa. If it were not for our Master's Benevolence, with such countless sins, how could they be forgiven? Just as our Master said in Teaching the Fa at the Changchun Falun Dafa Assistants Conference, "I said as long as you can study the Fa, as long as you can cultivate, I will save you, no matter what mistakes you have made. I said that I've opened a huge door. In fact, there is no door at all. It's completely open--only your heart matters!"
In both the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp and Beijing's Xinan Forced Labor Camp, the stories used in the collaborators' letters or in their evil lectures are all similar. The evil theories are even organized into books. One day they showed me such a book. I was curious to see how they talked such nonsense and did not think the evil theories would have any impact on me. However, in doing this, I did not follow the Fa, due to my curiosity. Master told us in Zhuan Falun, "Additionally, many qigong books nowadays are false and carry a variety of messages. As one of our practitioners was turning the pages of a qigong book, a big snake jumped out of it. Of course, I will not discuss this in detail. What I just addressed are some problems resulting from practitioners' inability to conduct themselves properly; that is, those problems are caused by an incorrect mind. It is beneficial that we point them out and let everyone know what to do and how to distinguish them so that problems will not occur in the future. Though I did not overemphasize what I just said, everyone should be sure to pay attention to it because problems usually arise over this issue, and they normally surface here. Cultivation practice is extremely arduous and very serious. If you are being careless for a moment, you may stumble and become ruined at once. Therefore, one's mind must be right." I read the articles written by the collaborators, though I knew they were harmful. That night I had a dream in which I saw three dishes of poisonous flowers. Viewing them, I said, "I am a cultivator and not afraid of the poison." But I had a stomachache after I ate the poisonous flowers. I enlightened to the fact that those are not good things, and reading such messages will let harmful information into my body. Those thoughts are very harmful. As a matter of fact, Master already told us that for all the problems we might encounter, the answers are in the Fa.
It was our Master who protected me and helped me to keep my righteous thoughts in the worst den of evil. Master was with me every minute! In the meantime I realized the importance of studying the Fa. Understanding the Fa on the basis of the Fa is the only way to help us not be deceived and become moved by the evil. It guarantees us to keep our righteous belief and thoughts. Studying the Fa is extremely important. "The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts" ("Drive Out Interference").
At the end of October 2001, our male fellow practitioners passed us Master's new article Suffocate the Evil through the window when they were working outside in the yard. They also tried to let those on the second floor receive the article by wrapping stones inside the paper. I cried after reading Master's article. Our Master is so benevolent! I knew I was right [not to listen to the collaborators]. I burst into tears and acknowledged my fellow practitioners with my hands in the heshi position. They sent me Master's article at the risk of being tortured and receiving an extended sentence. I passed the articles along to many fellow practitioners.
Some collaborators are very evil, to the point that once they were "transformed" they were worse than ordinary people. They became very selfish, helping the evil to persecute other Dafa practitioners. One day I said to a collaborator who had been on a hunger strike with me once in the past, "You are very wrong! Our Master said it clearly in his new article. Why don't you try to find the new article and read it? Stop enlightening along the evil path." She said it was her task to come and persecute Dafa. This indicated that she was not herself anymore; rather, she was completely controlled by the evil forces. Soon after she left, Liu Yadong called me into her office for a body search. She did not find anything. When I went back to my cell, several collaborators were just leaving my cell, and my bed and belongings were in a mess. This is what traitors did; they took advantage of our benevolence and kindness toward them to persecute us. What does it take to change these evil hearts?
(To be continued)
