(Clearwisdom.net, June 4, 2003)
"Our good friend 'big tall Li' is gone..." Every one cried when hearing this bad news from a tearful voice over the phone. We have lost another respected fellow practitioner.
Li Zhongmin passed away, making us clearly see our undeniable mission--exposing the evil and saving sentient beings. As long as the persecution carries on ceaselessly, not stopping even for one day, we cannot stop for even one day. We calmed ourselves after a sad moment, and have written this precious memory.
Li Zhongmin was a 30-year-old resident of No. 64 Lijiatun, Tangtun Village, Wanjialing Town, Wafangdian City, Dalian City, Liaoning Province. He used to be an employee of a foreign enterprise in the Dalian Development District. He was very tall and strong, had a pure, trustworthy look, was very stable and open minded, and he was very warm and meticulous when taking care of others. Fellow practitioners liked to call him 'big tall guy," or "tall Li."
Before July 20, 1999, Zhongmin was a volunteer assistant of the (former Xishan) Dalian Development District group practice site. For the convenience of group Fa-study, two other fellow practitioners and he rented a big apartment together. He was very nice and benevolent towards others. Cultivating Dafa, he disciplined himself according to the Fa-principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Once the District labor Union organized a "Give Our Love" drive to benefit farmers in the far away mountain area, Zhongmin donated 800 Yuan* from his salary, which caused a big stir in his district.
In June of 1999, police started harassing practitioners at their group practice sites. The site where Zhongmin practiced the exercises received heavy harassment. Police did not allow them to hang up free teaching banners at the site as before. Zhongmin tried to stop the police from taking down the banner, and the police took him to the local station. Ever since then, Zhongmin was targeted as a key member for persecution.
On July 20, 1999, police arrested several volunteer assistants. Fellow practitioners went to the city government to peacefully appeal, requesting a release of all illegally detained practitioners. A large group of police and army soldiers beat and pushed away these cultivators who hold themselves to the Falun Dafa standard of not hitting back when being attacked, or insulting back when being insulted. Most practitioners were forced to leave the front area of the Dalian City Government Building. Since Zhongmin and several other practitioners insisted on staying there, they were beaten up by the police.
One fellow practitioner recalled that she was shocked when she saw Zhongmin because he had wounds all over his face, and his neck was purple because of bruises he received from the authorities. Zhongmin told us later that there were many police who beat him and pinched his neck until his skin broke.
From then on, the evil started its wild persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners. Police locked Zhongmin in the Wafangdian City Detention Center in Dalian City, Liaoning Province. He kept practicing the exercises, and was often beat up by prisoners.
In June 2000, Master published the article "Towards Consummation" (Essentials for Further Advancement II). Zhongmin went to Beijing to validate the Fa on five occasions. The first two times, he walked out of the Tiananmen police station in an open and dignified manner, and took the banner he had used with him.
During the talks he had with the police at Tiananmen station, he enlightened that there were many fellow practitioners who had not stepped forward yet, and he wanted them to validate the Fa by coming to Beijing, because he firmly believed that he was walking the most righteous path. He told fellow practitioners what he experienced in Beijing, how moving and mighty the scenes of Dafa disciples amidst Fa-rectification were. With his encouragement, many fellow practitioners also stepped forward solidly to validate the Fa.
Upon exchanging experiences, he thought that he could do better by going to Tiananmen once more. He had no money left, so he sold his bike, and went to Beijing by train with another fellow practitioner in July 2000. The two of them brought a huge 1.4 meter long, one meter wide banner to the top of the Tiananmen building at a time when the check ups by police were very strict. Unfortunately, because the size was too big, they did not manage to open the banner completely, and were caught by the police. Both uniformed police and plainclothes police beat him until his face was swollen beyond recognition. They sent him to the Tiananmen police station again. With righteous faith and righteous thoughts, he walked out under the plainclothes police officers' eyes.
He found his fellow practitioner quickly, but they were betrayed by a motel owner. He was taken to the Dalian Drug Rehabilitation Institute (where the brainwashing class was held), repeatedly tortured, and then sent back to the Dalian Development District Detention Center. He was then illegally sentenced to 2.5 years of labor camp, and illegally locked in the Dalian Labor Camp. He went through four and a half months of torture in the labor camp. With righteous thoughts, he made it past five gate-guards, and escaped the evil den. The evil was always chasing him around after that.
The cruel torture and the evil environment in prison could not shake his diamond like solid faith in Dafa. After escaping, he studied the Fa calmly for several days, found several fellow practitioners, and had several small sharing conferences. They studied Master's "Teaching the Fa at the Great Lakes Fa Conference in North America," (Guiding the Voyager). They upgraded their understanding together, and enlightened that not only should they validate the Fa, they should also negate all the old forces' arrangements. They should upgrade in an open and dignified manner, and come back safe and sound. Zhongmin decided to go to Beijing for the fourth time.
On the lunar New Year's Eve of 2001, more than ten of them wore new clothes, and took the train to Beijing like they were celebrating the Festival. They arrived in Beijing on the morning of New Year's Day. They were unaware that the staged self-immolation had happened the day before. They only saw that police filled the Square. Several fellow practitioners and he opened a banner that said, "Falun Dafa is Good!" The police arrested them and brought them to Tiananmen Station. They took photos of him, but could not find a match in their database. Zhongmin and the other practitioners were locked in a metal cage and beat up since they refused to cooperate with the police. Later, he was locked in the Pinggu County Detention Center in Beijing.
He exchanged experiences with fellow practitioners locked in the same cell with him inside the Pinggu Detention Center, who came from all over the country. Together, they improved their understanding of the situation based on the Fa-principles. They went on a group hunger strike, and refused to be interrogated. If the police tried to forcefully pull people out, they would hold on to the metal gate together. Later police used a hoisting jack, crowbar, and pickaxe among other tools to break the gate. Fellow practitioners were all holding the metal gate without letting go. Police used high voltage electric batons to shock practitioners' hands, and beat them with wooden sticks, causing some of their faces and hands to split open. At that time, they had been on hunger strike for five whole days, Zhongmin was standing at the front row by the gate. The practitioners bodies bore the police mistreatment during the entire morning they were resisting whole morning. Later, the gate was forced open. All Dafa disciples in their cells were beaten brutally, and some of them passed out on the spot. Police put handcuffs and leg shackles on them. The handcuffs dug deeply into Zhongmin's wrists. Some fellow practitioners recalled later that it was very shocking to see how deeply the cuffs cut into his flesh. This left a permanent scar on his wrist. We can imagine how much pain he endured.
Under the strong group righteous thoughts, police started to release practitioners on the sixth day. Zhongmin was released on the twelfth day.
Upon his release, he suddenly came across two fellow practitioners at the train station. Since those two fellow practitioners had fear, they had not opened their banner. They shared experiences, and then all three of them returned their tickets. Zhongmin accompanied the two practitioners to Tiananmen Square the next day. He still had severe wounds from being held in the Detention Center. The two practitioners raised the banner while the national flag was being raised, and were taken away by the police. He felt very sad seeing them arrested. After he returned home, he enlightened that he did not reach the state of giving up the self completely. Fellow practitioners recalled that he always strictly disciplined himself based on the Fa. He always acted according to the Fa once he enlightened to some principle. In this case, several fellow practitioners had decided to go to Beijing, but still had some fear. Zhongmin had seen the pure hearts of his fellow practitioners, and, forgetting that he was still recovering from his wounds, he had been determined to lead them to Beijing.
On lunar January 15, 2001, Zhongmin took the train to Beijing again. At that time the tickets were very hard to obtain, and the police checked people strictly. None of the practitioners brought personal ID's with them. However, the five of them arrived in Beijing smoothly on the morning of lunar January 16. They arrived at Tiananmen Square right at the time of the raising of the national flag. Zhongmin crossed inside the restricted line, unfurled the banner which said "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance," and shouted, "Falun Dafa is Good!" Other fellow practitioners unfurled their banners as well. Several police officers rushed to them, and took them to the Tiananmen Station. One police officer said, "You were simply like four guardian warriors**. You are too brave. No one noticed the raising of the flag, they just saw you!"
They were then taken to the Chaoyang District Detention Center. Zhongmin started a hunger strike there and refused water. He was beaten up by prisoners when he first started doing the exercises. Later, the prisoners were too tired to beat him, and they left him alone. After more than twenty days of hunger strike without water, he was extremely weak. The Detention Center was afraid that he would die, and then released him quietly. They told him not tell any one that he had stayed at that detention center.
Although, we cannot hear Zhongmin's voice any more, his stories clearly appear before our eyes. There are many other moving stories about him.
Following the broadcasting of the staged "Tiananmen Immolation", a large number of people in Mainland China were deceived by it. In order to expose the lies effectively and save sentient beings, Zhongmin again devoted himself to explaining the facts to the public regarding the persecution of Falun Dafa.
In May of 2001, he was followed by policemen from the Development District Public Security Office on Harbin Road while delivering Dafa materials to fellow practitioners. He was then arrested and taken to a Public Security Office. The policemen used various cruel ways to torture and shock him with an electric baton. They smashed his toes with a dumbbell to force him to reveal the source of his truth-clarifying materials. He bore the pain and didn't groan once. Three to four policemen took turns beating him. The policemen sat down to pant out of breath when they became exhausted. Nevertheless, Zhongmin explained the facts to them with patience. They stopped beating him and shackled him on the 3rd floor. The policemen reported to their superior to receive their bonuses. Zhongmin's name has been issued on the wanted list since he left the labor camp in late December of 2002. He held a hunger strike to protest, sent forth righteous thoughts and asked for Teacher's support. The next morning, he miraculously moved his hands which were handcuffed from behind to his front. He jumped from the 3rd floor and made a safe escape while his hands were handcuffed. A fellow practitioner said, "When I first saw him, my heart was shaken and I almost burst into tears." Nevertheless, he smiled and humored me: "Don't be scared, it's me!" His dark red shirt and trousers were torn in several places. A compression was visible on his forehead which resulted from the violent beatings and there were dark bruises on his face. The right side of his face was severely swollen which made it difficult to open his eyes. There were many injuries and bruises all over his body. His lips were cut from biting them hard. It was more than a week when the bruises slowly faded.
He soon started to clarify the truth when his body recovered. He wouldn't quit when fellow practitioners urged him to rest. In late June of 2001, a villager who didn't understand the truth reported the new material site in Siping Town of Pulandian City to the authority. The new machines and equipment that had been installed were destroyed. He was arrested again. When he saw the policemen coming, Zhongmin escaped to the mountain via the back exit. The policemen ran after him and fired four to five shots, leaving the villagers in a panic. He could not escape and was taken back to Pulandian Public Security Brigade. Once again, Zhongmin released the handcuff with his righteous thoughts and jumped from the 3rd floor. He again joined the great current of the Fa-rectification.
In Zhongmin's mind, the word "scared" didn't exist. Whenever he saw something that damaged Dafa, he simply would not tolerate it. The last time he returned to Beijing in 2001, he saw some slanderous words against Dafa posted in a bus, he immediately removed it while the passengers looked on. There were people in the bus who were deceived by the lies. They were angry and said that they would send him to a Public Security Office. Zhongmin explained with patience the facts about Dafa and told them how bad people had been persecuting Dafa. He told them about the bruises on his body. The passengers became quiet.
Zhongmin always thought about all those fellow practitioners who were illegally detained. Whenever Teacher's new article was published, he always tried his best to inform the fellow practitioners in prison as soon as possible. He once took a loud speaker with a prerecorded broadcast of Teacher's new article to an area near Wafangdian City's Detention Center and hung it up at an appropriate location. The fellow practitioner who went with him said: "Zhongmin, don't hang it up yet, there's a police car nearby." However, it was as if Zhongmin didn't hear any words, the only thing on his mind was to let the fellow practitioners hear Teacher's new article as soon as possible. By the time he hung up the speaker, it was dark. There were no buses and a taxi cost extra money. In order to save money to clarify the truth, Zhongmin rode his motorcycle from Wafangdian City back to Dalian City during the bitter winter nights without any warm winter clothing. A tearful fellow practitioner recalled: "When Zhongmin walked in, I was speechless." He was pale and his eyes were running. With the freezing wind chill, the watery substance from his tears and nasal mucus froze into several icicles dangling down his jaw. His face and lips were frozen stiff and numb. He was mumbling." The fellow practitioner sobbed. It was so quiet that not a sound could be heard in the house. In Northwestern China, it is very common for the temperature to drop below the freezing twenties in the winter.
In order to let more students and faculty members in the university not be poisoned by the evil lies and misunderstood Dafa, many times, Zhongmin delivered the truth-clarifying loud speakers speakers to every campus so they could all hear the facts.
Zhongmin became more industrious, frugal and down-to-earth in his life. Everybody knew that they should be frugal. The fellow practitioners recalled the hardship Teacher had to endure during his teaching of the Fa years ago. Teacher would eat disciples' leftovers including the rice grains left on the table or the peanuts that fell on the floor--Teacher would pick it up and eat it.
When it was hot in the summer and there wasn't any refrigerator, sometimes the leftovers would go bad before the next meal. Every day, Zhongmin would eat the leftovers first even when it had gone bad, enjoying his meal as usual. On one occasion when there wasn't any food in the house, I asked Zhongmin to buy some groceries when he was out on an errand. He seldom did any grocery shopping, yet he returned with a huge bag of vegetables which he'd bought. He said it cost him one Yuan. (One Yuan buys one to two kilogram of vegetables on average). There were many big and old eggplants in varying gray-green and gray-yellow color. Everyone was delighted and ate these for several days. Zhongmin never spent money to bathe in a public bathhouse. During the chilly winter, he would just take a cold water sponge bath. He never spent money on food when he was outside, he would wait until he returned home to eat. He spent every penny on making Dafa materials to save sentient beings.
Like other millions of Dafa practitioners, the persecution caused many to lose their jobs, families and material possessions. It had been almost four years since he visited and spoke with his own family. In order to validate Dafa and save sentient beings, Zhongmin devoted himself to the great current of Fa-rectification.
Many Dafa practitioners miss their families. When I first met Zhongmin, I asked about his family. When he spoke about his parents, an indescribable sorrow was written all over his face because he had not seen his family for a long time.
Please refer to the following links for more related reports:
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/5/30/36326.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/5/19/35902.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/5/14/22001.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/6/10/36761.html
*The average urban worker's monthly salary is 500 Yuan.
** The "four guardian warriors" were traditional figures whose images were normally placed in temple gates or heaven gates in Buddhist tradition.