(Minghui.org) I was born in March 1949 to a poor farm family. As the oldest daughter of seven children, I helped my parents both in the fields and at home since a young age. Hardworking and tenacious by nature, I never left a task unfinished, even if it was beyond my physical ability. I grit my teeth, pushed myself harder, and never gave up.
Years of strenuous labor eventually took a toll on my health. I suffered from various illnesses including severe blood deficiency. I was the “Popsicle person” and was cold all the time no matter how many layers of clothes I wore. No matter how many blankets I covered myself with, I shivered all night and couldn’t sleep.
When my mother-in-law became very sick in October 1990, I went to a Buddhist temple to pray for her. This didn’t help her get better but led me to practice a sham qigong. Convinced that it would improve my health, I practiced so diligently that everybody at the city’s qigong association knew me.
I hadn’t recovered from any of my illnesses by practicing that qigong, but I prescribed Chinese herbal medicines for others and healed their illnesses. The more people I healed, the weaker I became. I finally had to undergo surgery.
I was only in my early forties but I could no longer take care of myself. The doctors referred to me as the “living dead.” I couldn’t walk even with the support of a walking cane and I was sick from head to toe. Doctors from the various hospitals I visited all told my family, “Make funeral plans.”
Just as I lost all hope, I found Falun Dafa and my life was renewed.
I attended one of Master Li’s seminars which began on May 28, 1994. We traveled a long way the first day and switched buses half way there. To get on the bus, I had my husband by my side holding me up while two people pulled me onto the bus and two pushed me from behind. Once we arrived at our stop, one person got off first to catch me and another person held on to me to keep me steady.
After that day’s lecture, I was able to get on and off the bus all by myself. On the fourth day of the seminar, I regained my menstrual period even though my ovaries had been surgically removed. I was convinced that Dafa was supernormal.
My husband did not attend the class but he picked me up every day after getting off work. One day he came right when Master was teaching us the exercises movements. Master invited him to join us and taught him the movements. Without realizing it, my husband completely recovered from internal bleeding of the stomach and anemia.
Two days after the seminar I was at home when I suddenly saw golden flames in another dimension flare up on three sides of my bed. It was incredible! The extraordinary scene lasted for more than three hours. That night, I felt so warm that I removed the electric blanket, the leather coat, and the hot water bottle I was using. Ever since then, my body never felt cold.
A week after the seminar, my daughter-in-law gave birth. My husband and my son were out and I was home with the mother and child. My daughter-in-law was in bed resting. When the baby cried I instinctively picked her up and started rocking her. The kettle of water on the stove began boiling. With the baby in one hand, I picked up the kettle and poured hot water into a thermos bottle. Then it hit me, “Wow! How was I, the person who couldn’t even take care of herself before, able to do all this?”
I suddenly realized I was no longer sick! I could go anywhere and do whatever I wanted! My demeanor changed and I no longer felt depressed—instead I felt optimistic and happy. I smiled all the time and told everyone, “Dafa is wonderful! It is extraordinary! You should all give it a try!”
With endless reverence and appreciation to Master and Dafa, I told everyone I met about Falun Dafa. Together with other local practitioners, we started practice sites in 48 counties and townships in our province. We also went to neighboring regions and spread the Fa in Sichuan, Guizhou, and Hebei Province.
Everything went smoothly with Master constantly watching over and protecting us. Just like what Master said,
“Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
Soon after the Chinese New Year in 1999, the local police station sent an officer to pick me up every morning at 8 a.m. and take me to the county General Administration of Sports where I stayed until 6 p.m. The officials said they wanted to learn more about Falun Dafa and how it was spread. Of course, I was happy to help.
I thought with the administration’s support, Dafa would spread faster, more smoothly, and more steadily. I told the officials truthfully what I knew, and how Dafa elevated practitioners’ morals. I recounted the numerous good deeds performed by veteran as well as new practitioners, taking place at government agencies, factories, mines, and nursing homes. I basked in the happy memories of spreading the Fa while sharing these heart-warming stories.
March 20th was my birthday. My husband’s family came to pick me up for a celebratory lunch. Officials of the General Administration of Sports scolded them, “We’re trying to get her to turn away from Falun Dafa. Don’t disrupt us.” My relatives were intimidated and left.
Upset, my son went to the police station, “What crime has my mom committed? I don’t want you to come to my home anymore.” The chief police smiled, “It’s nothing. They just want to know how Falun Dafa is spread. Don’t worry about it.”
The chief continued, “We even made a report to the higher-ups about how the law enforcement benefit as Dafa spread in the region. Remember how all the families used to fight over water when it’s time to plant the rice every year? Physical fights broke out and people really got hurt. Now it doesn’t happen anymore as more people took up the practice. There are also fewer conflicts between family members and neighbors.”
When my son told me about his conversation with the chief, I told him, “Sharing these things with the officials at the Sports Administration is also a way of spreading the Fa. With the protection of Master and the Fa, I will be okay.” I continued going to the General Administration of Sports every day. I explained in even more detail how beneficial the practice was and why it was spreading far and wide by just word of mouth.
The Sport Administration officials finally revealed their intentions in April, “We need you to turn in your password for contacting your master and a list of all local coordinators, otherwise don’t even think about reuniting with your family.” I was shocked—they had hidden agendas and had this planned all along. I didn’t have any such password and how could I turn in a list of fellow practitioners, given their intentions?
The police chief ordered his officer to not take me to the Sports Administration anymore. However, suspicious-looking men started to pop up everywhere around me. When I went to wash clothes in the river, a man on the riverbank watched me. When I went to the farmers’ market, a person just a few meters away saw me then nodded to another man. Even when I did house chores at home, there was always some strange man walking back and forth outside my window or my door. I wasn’t scared but thought it was comical. I just ignored it.
The nationwide persecution against Dafa was officially launched by the Chinese Communist Party on July 20, 1999. It was on that day I found out that the person I thought was the director of the county General Administration of Sports all along was a police officer.
He laughed an evil laugh and said, “I am the head detective at the county police department. I have been investigating your case for six months and have collected evidence against you. However, as long as you provide me the list of local coordinators or confirm all locations where you’ve been, we’ll let you go.”
I didn’t reveal any local coordinator’s identity, instead I just kept talking about how wonderful Dafa is. The head detective was furious. He kept me until midnight before taking me home with a few other officers. They ransacked my home.
As soon as they walked in, the police tore up my Dafa exercise instruction poster and another poster with the introduction to Dafa written in calligraphy. They took Master’s picture, the On Dafa poster, and a picture of the Falun emblem. They also confiscated my ticket to the Falun Dafa lecture seminar, my graduation certificate, a picture of me and Master, and my disability certificate (my left eye’s legally blind since I was five), several hundred Dafa pins, banners that said “Free Instructions,” several stacks of Dafa brochures, and Dafa exercise outfits.
More than twelve police officers from the county 610 Office and the director of the county detention center came to my home at 9 a.m. on May 23, 2003. They lied to make me open the door, barged in, and ransacked my home. The detention center director obviously didn’t feel comfortable participating in this illegal raid. He left quickly, saying that there was “insufficient evidence.” I learned later that this director was fired from his position that day.
Because I attended Master’s seminar and met him in person, the police took me into custody in an attempt to extract more information. They went to my home, broke in, and took several dozen Falun Dafa emblem pins, 30 pins with Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance characters on them, a blue satin flag with a hand-embroidered Falun emblem, two sets of exercise outfits, 233 posters, more than a dozen copies of Zhuan Falun, two stacks of Hong Yin books, and 50,000 yuan in cash, including my granddaughter’s Chinese New Year money.
After my arrest on the morning of May 23, the police took me back to the station, handcuffed me to a chair and started a long interrogation that lasted until 6 p.m. the following day. Two officers took turns interrogating me and didn’t give me anything to eat or drink. I was then taken to the brainwashing center and locked up. The room I was in had a lock on the outside but no latch on the inside. The room was bare with the exception of an empty bed and a plastic basin.
I was still asleep at 6 a.m. the next morning when I felt a heavy blow on the back of my head. I thought I was dreaming. I turned around and found my self being attacked by three burly men—they hit and kicked me. I asked them, “Why are you hitting me?” One barked, “How dare you ask?” and proceeded to slap my face.
One of them, with leather boots on, kicked me off the bed before kicking me hard on my chest, my lower back, and my private parts. The three men tied my hands behind my back and tied my body from the shoulders to the heels with a rope. They pushed me to the ground, and kept shouting, “Aren’t you going to beg us to stop?”
By now, many other detainees gathered outside the door and watched in horror. I heard someone saying, “She only got here last night and you’re already beating her like this? It’s ridiculous.” The three men stopped, cursed, and walked out. One of them kicked me hard on the lower back on his way out.
A female political instructor from the county 610 Office and police department visited me a few hours after the beating, at around 10 a.m., and made a report of what she learned to the police chief. The guards then cut off the rope that had dug into my flesh.
I could barely stand. Someone helped me get downstairs and the director of the brainwashing center met me just outside of the office. He slapped me in front of everyone and cursed angrily, saying that I caused a big fuss and cost him his job.
My whole body trembled so hard that I couldn’t stand. I remember someone kept calling my name, held my hand, and took me to the bench to sit down. Three of my teeth were knocked out and four more fell out in the next few days. By noon, my midsection swelled so badly that I looked like I was nine months pregnant.
The guards wiped my face clean and took me to Zhengxing Hospital in the afternoon, and then to the Huayang No. 2 Hospital. The doctors asked the guards, “What happened to her? Why did you wait so long? She could have died.”
We didn’t get back to the brainwashing center until almost 1 a.m. Four male and two female police officers stayed with me that night. One female officer revealed to me that to cover up their crime, the 610 Office wanted me dead. However, the police chief sent the six officers to stay with me 24-7 and told them not to walk away at any time. Later the police chief himself told me that he didn’t expect me to get beaten so severely. All he could do at that point was to protect me to prevent further harm. This kind police chief later was transferred to the traffic department.
In hindsight, it would have been very easy to kill me considering how badly I was injured. However, with Master’s arrangement, six police officers were assigned to protect me, otherwise I would not have survived.
Even more incredibly, I didn’t feel much pain during the process, even though I was beaten so severely. I know that compassionate Master endured it all for me, otherwise I would have sustained severe concussions, injuries, and bleeding of the internal organs and would have been in great pain. I would not have survived.
I couldn’t eat anything for a week and the swelling on my mouth lasted for three months. Because I didn’t cooperate with the police, I was taken to the detention center a week later, on May 30, 2003. As soon as we arrived, I vomited blood. The detention center doctor came to check on me and was worried that my condition would deteriorate.
The guards took me to the county hospital the next morning, with my hands cuffed and feet shackled. The doctor was shocked, “How cruel! Why would you beat someone like that!”
The swelling on my abdominal area was so bad that I couldn’t even get into the car after the hospital visit. The guards removed the cuffs and pushed me in. I couldn’t stop vomiting blood that afternoon and was taken to the county Chinese Medicine Hospital. The doctor prescribed seven bags of Chinese medicine, big and small. I didn’t take any of it.
Despite the fact that I was in very bad shape, I was thinking clearly the whole time. I told everyone, “I am not sick. I was beaten at the brainwashing center.” At the detention center, I also told everyone what happened to me at the brainwashing center and whenever I got a moment, I recited Master’s poem Genuine Cultivation.
After being held at the detention center for seven months, I was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on December 30, 2003. Shortly after being transferred to the Chuanxi Women’s Prison, my health declined rapidly. I vomited blood, passed out, and had difficulty moving my arms and legs.
After passing out twice at the workshop, I no longer needed to perform labor. The guards were told to take me to the prison hospital. The doctor examined me and said, “Your internal organs are a mess. What happened?” I told him I was beaten at the brainwashing center. I also told him about Dafa and why the persecution was wrong.
Whenever someone asked, I told them about Dafa. The guards and inmates gradually changed their attitudes and were no longer hostile. The guards became nice to me and I even received some special treatment.
During my many visits to the prison hospital, the guards always took off my handcuffs and shackles as soon as we were out of sight. They were eager to learn more about Dafa and asked many questions about how Dafa was practiced around the world. Whenever my family came to visit, I was allowed to see them and whatever they brought me, I was allowed to keep. With the doctor’s order, I slept on a bed and got two hot showers a day.
I was trying to take a nap one day when I suddenly saw Master. He said, “You can’t fall down anymore.” And I haven’t fallen since. Worried that I would fall and never get up again, the prison authorities pulled me out of “special watch” and placed me on a different floor. After he heard the length of my term, the prison doctor was concerned and suggested I take my medical records with me so I could continue with the treatment. Pressured by the doctor, the authorities reduced my term and I was released early on July 27, 2006.
Two other things happened and I am forever grateful to Master and my fellow practitioners. In May 2004, local practitioners gathered outside of the prison to show their support for me. A cellmate who was allowed to spend some nights at home told me, for three days straight, more than 30 people gathered outside the prison, asking to see me.
In late December 2005, my son came to visit and asked me to buy retirement insurance. I thought, “No. I’m not paying any money to the CCP. Plus, I’m a prisoner. How can I get insurance?” The warden said, “Let’s take a photo so your son can help get the process started.
My son applied for a retirement plan and I was insured. I knew Master arranged it so I’d have an income after being released.
When a local practitioner was meditating one morning in March 2007, she saw Master tell her to “go and help X (my name).” She immediately contacted a practitioner couple, and the three of them came to help me. It had been more than six months since my release, but my cultivation state was stagnant and I'd slipped into depression.
While one practitioner and the husband came to pick me up, the wife stayed behind and cleaned my home. I didn’t want to go with them at first. However, they were determined—they packed a bag of clothes, and we climbed into their van. They had a small apartment and the couple let me stay in the main bedroom.
We studied the Fa together that afternoon. The next day, the couple invited more local practitioners to help. They divided into two groups and took turns studying the Fa with me. The couple also did the exercises with me every day. I was very touched.
Within two weeks we studied all of Master’s lectures. The couple told me, “We’ll be going to Fa study tomorrow followed by a sharing conference. After that, you are free to go home.”
Besides experience sharing, the conference organizers also played Master’s Fa teachings and exercise demonstration. Before I went home, the couple gave me a big bag of truth-clarification fliers and urged me to go to the local practitioner’s home for weekly Fa study and to pick up new editions of Minghui Weekly.
Another practitioner helped me write articles exposing the persecution that I was subjected to, and gave me the entire set of Master’s Fa teachings. I was deeply moved.
With Master and fellow practitioners’ help, I bounced back quickly and became as energetic and diligent as I was before the persecution. I helped set up more than a dozen Fa study groups and three truth-clarification material production sites in the neighboring regions. In the process, I closely adhered to Master’s teachings in dealing with various conflicts that came up.
In late 2009, our county coordinator and a practitioner in charge of a material production site told me to not attend the local Fa study anymore. The weekly Fa study at my home needed to stop as well. They explained that I was targeted by the county authorities and it posed a risk for me and other practitioners. The coordinator repeatedly told the practitioners of these Fa study groups to not contact me. It was a huge blow.
I did as I was told—if the coordinator said I shouldn’t go to the local Fa study groups then I wouldn’t.
Feeling depressed, I often went to the neighboring counties and joined the local practitioners there. The happy memories of me spreading the Fa there in the early days kept me going. However, I did poorly in my own cultivation and slacked off on doing the three things. I didn’t know what my problem was and I felt helpless.
A practitioner who knows me well brought an elderly practitioner to visit me in July 2014. This elderly practitioner had recently retired and moved to our area. She is sharp-minded and very clear on the Fa principles. We had a long sincere conversation and exchanged our understandings of the Fa principles. In the end, she said, “I think your problem is the mentality of ‘I’m okay with whatever level I can cultivate to. I don’t care.’ That is not truly cultivating.”
She continued, “Master saves you, protects you, and endures for you, but for what? Ask yourself who haven’t you let down? You don’t cherish this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cultivate; you don’t cherish your predestined relationship with Master and sentient beings; you don’t cherish Master’s having always looked after and protected you over the years. If you don’t cultivate diligently, you’re disappointing and letting Master down. This is a very serious problem. You’ve cultivated for so many years. why are you letting your demonic nature dominate?”
“You have to make up your mind to cultivate, diligently and solidly. Let the Fa be your guide. Study the Fa often and study the Fa well, with a clear and clean mind. Let the Fa guide you in your every thought, every word, and every move. That is cultivating diligently. If you do, your cultivation state will change and you will improve. Master has told us clearly long ago,
‘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,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
That practitioner was spot on. I have to cherish every opportunity, cultivate myself, study the Fa often and well. Through studying the Fa and truly paying attention to the meaning of the Fa, my heart is now calm and not easily moved when I run into difficulties. Guided by the Fa, I now look inward for my own shortcomings and truly cultivate myself. It’s just as Master said, “If xinxing is improved, everything else will follow up.” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun)
Along with practitioners in my Fa study group, we cultivate ourselves diligently and solidly and do the three things well. With the guidance of Master and the Fa, local practitioners steadily walk on the path of returning to our divine realms. We lead a fulfilled and happy life.
Thank you, Master, for compassionately saving us!