(Minghui.org) My father was a teacher and he was denounced during the Cultural Revolution. My mother died of stress, leaving behind my two sisters and me. Our family was banished to the countryside. We went through hell and I dropped out of school in the second year of primary school. My father remarried and my stepmother brought her five children to form a new family with ours. She then gave birth to my younger brother, therefore I have eight siblings.
My husband’s family are honest, simple farmers. The highest ranking official they ever saw was the village Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary.
The persecution began a year after I began practicing Falun Dafa. The TV spread rumors to vilify and defame Dafa. I went to Beijing to reason with the government. When I came home, my older sister and hot tempered younger sister ran up to me. My older sister hit me with her slippers, shouting, “How dare you go to Beijing!”
Without saying a word, my younger sister picked up a stool and smashed my glass cabinet. I was later arrested for distributing flyers about Dafa. As the police dragged me out of the house, I hooked my foot around the sewing machine’s metal leg. The skin on the back of my leg tore, yet my husband, who had been a soldier, sat on the edge of the bed and did not move or say a word.
I knew Dafa is good but they didn’t know. They were truly afraid of the CCP!
The police demanded to know if I would continue practicing. They told me if I said yes, I would be sentenced to prison. Because I refused to give up my belief, I was sentenced to eight years in prison and I was denied family visits. While I was detained, five of my relatives—my parents, father-in-law, aunt and uncle—passed away, yet I was not allowed to see them for the last time.
After I was released, my stepbrother asked me if I planned to jump off a building and kill myself. I explained that the teachings of Dafa prohibit killing. I said that Master Li told us that “it is a sin to commit suicide.” I said that Falun Gong practitioners would not take their own lives. He replied, “Then I feel assured.” He finally understood that the CCP was smearing Dafa’s reputation.
In 2015, I filed a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, the former CCP leader who initiated the persecution, along with 200,000 other Falun Dafa practitioners. My uncle and I filed a lawsuit together.
In 2017, I became a plaintiff again. How did this happen?
My stepsister had introduced my son to a woman. We paid the bride token, the wedding date was fixed, and the money for the restaurant and MC for the ceremony was paid. The woman suddenly changed her mind and refused to marry my son. My stepsister carried out the negotiations back and forth. Although it was not easy for my husband and me to save money, we reimbursed my sister 400 yuan in telephone bills. We knew that we could not let others take a loss.
Unexpectedly, the bride refused to return the bride money because we practice Falun Dafa. She even boasted, “Your family practices Falun Dafa. Go ahead and and file a lawsuit, you’ll lose for sure!” As it involved the persecution of Falun Dafa, this was not just a personal matter. Master said,
“Human history does not exist for [people] to take being human as its final goal, nor is human history a recreation ground created for the evil to display its viciousness.” (“To the 2005 European Experience Sharing Conference,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress III)
Practitioners strive to be good people, but this does not mean that good people should be bullied. I thought about suing her.
I knew nothing about the law; could I sue the woman? When I offered incense to Master, the sentence, “As I rectify heaven, rectify earth, and rectify all lives” from Master’s poem “In One Thought” (Hong Yin II) came to mind. I knew that this issue would not be tolerated by the laws of heaven. I’d never been to court before, but I filed a lawsuit to ask for the return of the bride money.
We lost in the first trial. I appealed to the secondary court. This time, it was far away from home and the young woman had someone to assist with the case. What should I do? I just kept moving forward. My nephew, who had a car, offered to take me to and from the court. I found an upright judge who ruled in my favor. He said, “Marriage fraud is marriage fraud. It has nothing to do with one’s belief.” The court overturned the first court’s judgment. We won the lawsuit and got back most of the bride money. The lawyer told us, “You should ask for the other expenses back also.” Afterwards, I realized that Master had arranged everything!
Last year, the local police collaborated with the village and grassroots Party officials to harass Falun Dafa practitioners. They photographed practitioners and pressured them to sign statements promising not to practice Falun Dafa. At the end of March, the village Party secretary brought a police officer to my home. They did not find me at home, so they waited outside for several days.
In September, an elderly relative passed away. All my friends and relatives went to the funeral. The village Party secretary found my sister at the funeral and asked, “Why isn’t your sister here?” My sister told him, “If my sister wanted to give up practicing Falun Dafa, would she have stayed in prison for eight years? Stop looking for her; she will not sign papers promising to stop practicing. Even we would not allow her to do so.” Her husband, who was beside her, exclaimed, “You guys are really something! We don’t bother you, yet you continue to cause trouble.”
My brother-in-law used to be a village Party secretary, so he was misled by the CCP’s lies and had a bad impression of Dafa. The village Party secretary saw my family speaking up for Falun Dafa and asked, “Are you a Party member?” My brother-in-law asked him in return, “So what? Have you been to Hong Kong? There are Dafa practitioners everywhere.” He inferred that many people outside China practice Falun Dafa. Can the CCP stop all of them from practicing?
He looked at the official and said, “Do you realize how good my sister is? If she buys something and the vendor gives her too much change, she will travel a long way to return the money. Would you do this?”
My uncle’s wife, who was next to him, also spoke up: “My sister is such a good person, yet you persecuted her for so many years. You continue to harass her and stop people from saying Falun Dafa is good!”
Everyone began to criticize the village Party secretary. He had no choice but to explain: “I have orders from above.” He was saying that he too was threatened by the CCP.
When my brother saw the village Party secretary and the village head, he shouted angrily, “Why are you still harassing my sister?” They did not say anything this time nor did they make a move.
Everyone has a scale in their heart; human hearts are the court. All these years, what practitioners say and do is compared to what the CCP says and does. Who is righteous, who is evil; who is kind, who is wicked: people have understood this long ago.
Many of my family members have withdrawn from the CCP and have read Zhuan Falun, the main book of Dafa’s teachings. Some recovered from terminal illnesses; some who were told by doctors they could only live for two months lived for more than a year. I had a relative who studied prophecies and fortune telling. After he read Zhuan Falun, he burned the materials from those other practices. My sister who hit me with her slipper when I went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa has now begun practicing.
I know “Falun Dafa is great!” My family also knows this.
(Selected submission in celebration of 2026 World Falun Dafa Day on Minghui.org)