(Clearwisdom.net) Note: This article is about a 53-year-old country woman who has never had any schooling. Before practicing Falun Dafa she suffered from several illnesses, and was often bedridden. She needed constant medication, including injections, and she suffered continually from extreme pain. In 1998 she was fortunate enough to begin Falun Gong practice. In a very short period of time she not only recovered her health, but also miraculously changed from one who could not read or write, to a practitioner who could read Zhuan Falun (1) and other Falun Gong books. During the five years of persecution of Falun Gong she experienced hardships and tribulations, and she almost lost her life. However, she steadfastly upheld her beliefs using righteous thoughts, keeping in mind the Fa (2) rectification mission bestowed on Falun Dafa practitioners. With the compassionate blessings of Teacher she finally walked out of the den of monsters and merged into the grand current of the Fa-rectification. Following is her Fa-rectification experience, which fellow practitioners recorded from her oral account.
One day in May 2001, the "610 Office" (3) of Baoji County, Shaanxi Province, along with policemen Kang Baoquan and Yan of the police bureau, broke into my house quite unexpectedly. They searched all cases and cupboards, and confiscated my Dafa books, cassettes, Teacher's photos, a cassette recorder, cushions for meditation, and so on. Therefore, I decided to go to Beijing to appeal.
On May 29, 2001, I arrived in Beijing and went to Tiananmen Square. While I was looking for the appeals office, policemen arrested me and pushed me into a police car. I was taken to a room where there were about eight other Falun Gong practitioners handcuffed to a row of metal chairs. Among them was a female practitioner who had blood coming from her face, as a result of beatings. However, she was still patiently clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to the authorities. She said to me, "Don't cooperate with them!" Her words strengthened my righteous thoughts. This practitioner was soon released. The on-duty policemen covered our heads with water-melon rinds, and the water from the rinds dripped down our necks. After dark, they shifted us to another place, and locked me and another practitioner into an iron cage.
The next day the police began interrogating me. They tried to force me to tell them where I was from, but I did not say a word. They attempted to lock me into the cage again. Since there was a male inmate in the cage I refused to get in. A policeman then pushed me into the cage and locked it. Then he said to that male inmate, "I'm giving her to you as a gift so that you can do whatever you like to her." The male inmate attempted to grab and rape me. I resisted and banged my head against the iron bars of the cage. He was afraid that I might hurt myself, ending up dead, so he pulled me back and yelled for help. He told the policeman that I was too upright, that he could not do anything with me, and asked to be let out. He was let go, and I began a hunger strike to protest. The policemen handcuffed me and hung me by the handcuffs for about half a day. Because my back was injured, I could not straighten it. Two young policemen beat my head, pricked the bottoms of my feet with bamboo sticks, and kept saying "how much fun this is." I kept clarifying the truth and explaining Falun Gong to them. When I saw one of them cough I told him to stop smoking, for smoking harms one's health. I also asked them to be good people and treat Falun Dafa practitioners kindly. Later, one of the young policemen told me, "I know Falun Gong is good and those who practice Falun Gong are all good people. I must find a copy of Zhuan Falun and read it for myself. A few days later, the policemen dragged me out of the cage and said that they would give me injections. I firmly held on to the iron bars of the cage and refused to go. The policemen hit my hands with iron bars, and forcibly dragged me onto a rickshaw to take me to a hospital. The doctor threatened, "If you do not tell us where you are from, I will give you an injection. After the injection you will certainly tell us out of your free will." I sent forth righteous thoughts and ended up with no injections at all.
A few days later, I was sent to a train with another practitioner, who was covered with cuts and bruises. We held our arms together to give each other some support. During the trip, when people asked us what had happened, I replied, "It was the work of the policemen, simply because we practice Falun Gong." I got off the train at Xi'an. After doing more than an hour of sitting meditation at the train station, I felt my spirits return. I went to stay with a practitioner, and continued to clarify the truth and hand out truth-clarification flyers. One day when I came back from handing out truth-clarification flyers and was studying the Fa, several policemen broke into the house and wanted to arrest me. I told them that I am cultivating Falun Dafa and was not a bad person." The policemen said, "Our job is to arrest those who cultivate Falun Dafa." One of the policemen snatched Zhuan Falun from my hand and asked me where I was from, and who gave me the Dafa materials. I did not cooperate with the persecutors, and did not say a word. The policemen beat me and hurt my leg. They videotaped me, and after the local police recognized me, and I was turned over to them.
Only after I was thrown into the local detention center did I learn that after I was forced to leave home, my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, who was still on breast milk, had been arrested, and were being held at the local detention center. They are not Falun Gong practitioners. The food in the detention center is very poor, just some watery and tasteless dishes without any nutrition. My daughter-in-law stopped producing milk, so her baby was crying and screaming because he was hungry all the time. Then my relatives carried the baby out of the detention center, however he was still crying all day. He later had a fever of 40 degrees Celsius (104oF), suffered from convulsions, and went into a coma. My relatives had been in a state of anxiety and endured a lot. I went on a hunger strike to protest the inhuman act and finally they released my son and daughter-in-law.
The Baoji City Forced Labor Commission sentenced me to two years of forced labor. I resolutely rejected the sentence so I refused to fingerprint or sign the document. They forcibly sent me to the Shaanxi Provincial Women's Forced Labor Camp, where I refused to answer the roll call and recite the prison regulations, but continued to practice the exercises and send forth righteous thoughts. When I practiced the exercises the drug--addict inmates would beat me up, or curse at me. In the evening all the inmates were organized to watch television, which was full of slanderous programs and fabricated charges against Falun Gong. I refused to watch. Others asked me why I did not watch the TV programs. I told them that Falun Gong practitioners constantly lived by the principles "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance," thus they would under no circumstances kill a life. All these programs were nothing but lies, which could deceive them, but could not deceive us.
The political instructor of the Number Two Division, Liu Junlan, flared into rage and attempted to beat me up. However, many inmates stopped her, and her attempt failed, so she hated me very much. She stepped up the persecution of me by locking me into a very cold room to torture me with the freezing cold. I thought to myself that I was not afraid of the cold, so I put my hands into my pockets and started to do "holding the wheel in front of the lower abdomen." I felt very warm, and perspired all over. The criminal who was ordered to watch me felt my back and said I was really perspiring. When the political instructor found that the freezing did not work she changed tactics. She began to make promises instead. One of the division leaders said, "You have not practiced for a few days. I will put you in a small room so that you can practice behind closed doors. I told them I would not practice by myself and I wanted to do group practice. I continued my hunger strike to protest. The division leader asked me why I would go on hunger strike. I told them that I was not guilty so I would not eat meals prepared for criminals.
After about two weeks they began to force-feed me through my nose, and poured a package of milk powder into me. I felt I was getting weaker, but I did not even drink water. The police guards sent me to the prison hospital where they force-fed me by inserting a tube through my nose into my stomach. I sent forth righteous thoughts thinking that I did not want any filthy things to go into my body. As a result they tried for more than eight hours to administer medication, and my whole body was covered with needle holes. They still failed to find my blood vessel. A few days later they took me to an unknown hospital in Xi'an to undergo some tests. When I was sitting outside I clarified the truth to the people next to me. I was later sent back to the forced labor camp. I continued to maintain my hunger strike and felt extremely weak. I thought that I might not live much longer. The division leader felt my nose a few times to see if I was still breathing. I was thinking that I might not open my eyes again. That night when I was dying, a righteous thought appeared from my heart. I still had a mission to accomplish so I could not die. I began to recite Teacher's new articles and Zhuan Falun, and at the same time I thought that the evil would never suppress the virtuous. I will instruct them to sign the document and release me unconditionally for I still had a lot of things to do and I could not stay there any longer.
In the afternoon of the next day, the police guards gave me oxygen support and sent me back home. After arriving at home I continuously sent forth righteous thoughts and my health recovered very quickly. I continued to hand out truth-clarification materials, and one day I met four male youths and gave them the truth-clarification materials. One of them said, "Your material is very precious. We are all workers at a printing house. If you give us one copy we can print additional copies and give them to our friends and relatives." I said, "That is very good. This is our predestined relationship." Another day I met a woman who picked up a flier and said, "I will give you one Yuan (4). It's not easy for you to produce these materials." I did not take her money, but I was very moved. I realized that there are still many kind-hearted people with predestined relationships waiting for Falun Dafa practitioners to clarify the truth to them and save them.
I thought that it would be very good if we could buy a copying machine. With the help of fellow practitioners we bought a copier, and I learned to operate it very quickly. After that, I worked day and night to print truth-clarification materials, however, because I ignored Fa study a loophole opened and was taken advantage of by the evil. The Dafa material processing site was ransacked, which inflicted heavy losses to Dafa, and I was forced to wander from one place to another to avoid being arrested. The police department offered a reward of 10,000 Yuan for my arrest. With the help of kind-hearted people I broke through the police blockade and evaded the chase.
I begged all the way from Shasnxi to Gansu and then to Ningxia. My feet were bleeding and I had blisters on my face from exposure to the sun. I suffered from hunger and cold. It was comparatively easy for me during the day but it was very difficult to find a place to rest in the evening. Since I often traveled in desolate places it was hard for me to find shelter from the wind. When I left home it was summer and I only had a short-sleeved shirt, however in autumn and winter the cold wind chilled me to the bone. To keep warm I collected empty fertilizer bags, stuffed the bags with paper, and then covered my body. I would eat one pack of instant noodles every two days. In this way I wandered for more than ten months.
One day in Ningxia I fell asleep in a corner near the back door of a house. In my dream I heard Teacher giving a lecture. Teacher said, "If I can not save you, nobody else can." (Zhuan Falun) There were three people beside me. One of them said, "After I strengthen your energy you just go back, because you can not go forward any more." I said, "My Teacher did not say that and I will not listen to any other people." Another person said, "Since your tribulation started your Teacher did not get a wink of sleep." I cried in the dream and said, "Teacher, please have a rest." When I woke up I felt very sad and my gratitude toward Teacher is beyond description.
Now I have merged into the grant current of the Fa-rectification again. However, my son has been arrested, and the burden of the family has fallen on the shoulders of my daughter-in-law, who is pregnant. Owing to the persecution by the Jiang regime I have been forced to leave home and wander to other parts of the country. A happy family has been broken up. As a mother I can only silently wish for the safety of my daughter-in-law and the good health of my grandson. Every minute of suffering or sacrifice of a Falun Dafa practitioner is endured so everyday people can learn the truth of Falun Dafa.
(1) Zhuan Falun - The main book of Falun Gong
(2) Fa - The law and principles
(3) "610 Office" - A bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.
(4) Yuan -- Chinese currency. 500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.