(Clearwisdom.net) Before practicing Falun Dafa, I had abandoned myself to despair because of my illness. In 1985 a relative of mine had helped me get a job in a coal mine. Owing to the adverse conditions in the pit, I developed arthritis. I spent all the family savings on treating the illness. However, all the medicines and treatments failed to have any effect. I thought at the time that, to have such a disease at such a young age, I was finished. What was I going to do with my life in the future? I had an elderly mother, a sick wife, and several children. I just didn't dare to think about it any further.

Falun Dafa gives me a new life

Later, I was told that qigong could cure illnesses, so I pinned all my hope on qigong. Among the various qigong styles, I chose Falun Gong and began to practice the exercises earnestly. From reading the Falun Gong books and practicing the exercises, my illness was miraculously improved and the symptoms disappeared without my realizing it. My mental condition also improved. I began to have peace of mind and became broad-minded.

Through studying the Fa and cultivating, fundamental changes took place in my world outlook. In the past I had been very selfish, but after learning Falun Dafa, I would think about other people first in whatever I did. I had a very relaxed mind, and when I spoke I would always have a mind of kindness, allowing me to get along with people around me very well. Others all said that I had changed. Therefore I tried to persuade my wife to practice the exercises. Not long after, my wife's illnesses also disappeared thanks to her practice of Falun Gong.

I was sentenced to three years of forced labor for going to Beijing to appeal

All of a sudden, on July 20, 1999, the Jiang regime began to persecute Falun Gong, so I had to practice at home. After August 2000 I could not even practice the exercises at home any more. Leaders of my work unit talked to me, and the police from the local sub-station ransacked my house and took away all the Falun Dafa materials. A peaceful life was disrupted. They confiscated 5,000 yuan cash without giving me a receipt. What's more, I was detained for a month and seven days.

In January 2001 my wife and I went to Beijing to appeal. We were arrested even before we got to our destination. The police came and asked us to swear at our Teacher. When we ignored them, they pushed us onto a bus and sent us to the Tiananmen Police Sub-station.

Officials from our provincial office stationed in Beijing then took us back to our county police department. Several policemen handcuffed my hands behind my back. It was so painful that beads of sweat kept dripping down my face. They forced me to my knees and stretched my arms out to the sides. Then the police put very thick books on the backs of my hands. Whenever I lowered my hands, the thugs would hit my fingers. They tried hard to force me to say that I would quit Falun Gong. I told them, "We have benefited a lot from practicing the exercises, and we all became healthy both physically and mentally. Practicing Falun Gong is beneficial to both the family and the society. I cannot praise the exercise enough. How could I swear at Falun Gong? Falun Dafa is good! There is no way that I would quit Falun Gong."

Then the police used a hand generator to shock me. They connected two wires to my thumbs and turned the spindle faster and faster. The faster it went the higher the electric voltage. When I lost consciousness, they doused me with cold water to wake me up. Liu, the head of the police department, said, "Even if you are a piece of iron, we will polish you until you shine." The police stripped off my clothes and tied me to a telephone pole to let me freeze for a night. They even threatened to drag me into a police car, drive me to a remote place, push me out of the car by the roadside, and shoot me. They would say that I was shot trying to escape. Several prison guards tortured me the whole night, and I lost consciousness several times. However, they failed to make me submit. Before dawn broke, they handcuffed my hands behind my back and pushed me into another room. It was the winter of 2001. It was snowing heavily outside, and the temperature had dropped to ten degrees below zero or lower. At the time, I was only wearing sweat-soaked autumn clothing. Shortly after 8 o'clock the next morning, they beat me. Failing to achieve their goal, they began to use lies to deceive me, "It's guaranteed that you only need to say 'I quit.' We'll let you go home to celebrate the Chinese New Year." Because I wanted to go home very much, I made the compromise against my will. Then, instead of releasing me, the police sent me to a detention center where I was sentenced to three years of forced labor one month later. They sent me to the Xuchang Forced Labor Camp.

Four years of torture inside the Xuchang Forced Labor Camp

In the forced labor camp, a dozen or so practitioners refused to write what the camp called "homework." As a result we were locked up in solitary confinement. Our hands were tied with a rope behind our backs and we were hung up. We went on a hunger strike to protest the torture and the prison guards finally agreed that we could write down our own experiences, but we were still not allowed to talk to each other. Each practitioner would have two personal cangues (1), one at each side. They did not allow us to talk and forced us to recite the prison regulations and do military drills.

On July 21, 2002, the prison guards held a meeting and told several people to criticize and denounce me. They pasted slips of paper on my face, spit at me, and forced me to stand still in front of a wall with my arms raised up to rest on the wall. I could not stand with my legs close to the wall, so the guards stepped on my feet and beat them. The toes of my left foot were bleeding because the nails were broken as a result of this treatment. If my hands slipped down, I would be kicked and punched. The guards also forced me to stick my head against the wall with both of my hands tied behind my back, and they deprived me of sleep for three days and nights.

On the afternoon of August 5, the head of the forced labor camp personally directed the criminals to beat practitioners, strip off their clothes, and pour cold water on their heads. They also whipped the practitioners with wet towels, beat their buttocks with shoes, pricked their fingers with needles, brushed their anuses with a toothbrush and then stuck the tooth brush into the practitioners' mouths. Several criminals pried my mouth open and jammed chopsticks into my tongue and mouth. Then several more criminals came to restrain my hands, feet, and head so that I could not move, and then they slapped my face, punched my chest and stepped on my toes until I spit blood. Just as the beatings stopped, several other criminals came and lifted me up and smashed my crotch against the steel bedpost. The pain was unbearable.

After we lodged a strong protest against the torture, the guards pretended to criticize these criminals and promised to deal with them sternly. One of the criminals, Chen Sizhong, said publicly that it was the prison guards who had ordered them to do it. Guard Zhao Zhimin severely scolded him and slapped his face. It turned out that these criminals not only escaped unpunished but also had their terms reduced as a reward.

In October, the prison guards stepped up their persecution of practitioners and used even worse torture methods including "Roasting a Whole Lamb." This torture requires the hands to be cuffed behind the legs and a stick to be inserted underneath the four limbs. When the stick is lifted, the victim hangs in the air. After resting the ends of the stick onto the backs of two chairs, the victim swings back and forth. The prison guards also used electric batons to shock every part of my body, which made my arms feel extreme pain. At that time I gritted my teeth and strengthened my righteous thoughts with Teacher words:

I was steadfast in believing in Dafa and had very strong righteous thoughts. Therefore, I did not feel the pain at all from two o'clock in the afternoon to half past six in the evening. On the contrary, I felt very light. No matter how the evil guards swung or shook it, the electric baton failed to have any effect on me. Finally, at their wits end, the guards had to wind it up. The result was exactly as Teacher described, "There will be bright flowers and another village ahead!" (Zhuan Falun)

The prison guards incited the personal cangues to keep constant surveillance on Falun Dafa practitioners and made them have even less freedom in an environment which was already quite restricted. The personal cangues would report everything about the practitioners, including what we said and what we did. They would even report things like going to the toilet and brushing our teeth. The personal cangues would not allow the practitioners to talk to each other. You would be considered as having become normal and "transformed" if you would swear at or beat other people. If you refused to renounce Falun Gong, they would force you to take an oath every day, otherwise you would be tied up and beaten. Sometimes, several criminals would press you down, squeeze your testicles, and pinch the inner sides of your thighs. When other people all knocked off for the day, they would not allow you to rest. Another practitioner and I resisted the evil deeds with righteous thoughts. We were determined not to denounce Falun Gong, not to take any oath, and not to beat or swear at others. Finally the prison guards gave up.

On March 20, 2003, we were attending a meeting, which was held to deal with two practitioners. Actually these two practitioners had not done anything illegal. They had been detained and sentenced to two years of forced labor simply because they practiced Falun Gong. When they stood up to say something, they were carried out of the meeting room by several criminals. I stood up immediately and said, "You must allow people to speak!" As soon as I said this, several people came and dragged me out of the office. They forced me to my knees. I resisted the evil with righteous thoughts and refused to get on my knees. The prison guards tied me up with ropes and intended to shock me with electric batons. At that time I had one thought, "Let the electric current bounce back!" Immediately, the guard who had an electric baton in his hand jumped and shouted repeatedly, "This baton is leaking electricity! This baton is leaking electricity!" They failed in their attempts to persecute me. At that time I did not know Teacher had published the article "Stop the Evil Acts with Righteous Thoughts" yet. I passed the tribulation with the firm belief in our Teacher.

At the time I did not know about the arrangements by the old forces, so I suffered a lot of tribulations that I should not have suffered. I knew to be steadfast in believing in Dafa, but I did not know that saving sentient beings was our most arduous mission. During the two meetings held to criticize and denounce Falun Gong, whenever I was asked to say something I shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" Each time I was dragged out of the meeting room, and each time I was tied up with ropes and beaten. I firmly believed in Falun Dafa and never yielded to the evil. As a result my detention was illegally extended for another 12 months.

April 30, 2003, marked the forced labor camp's most rampant persecution of Falun Gong. Three hundred eighty-five detainees suffered the worst of all persecutions on a single day. Slogans and banners slandering Falun Gong were everywhere inside the forced labor camp. The loudspeaker played filthy slanders against Dafa and our Teacher. That day they employed the most vicious and insulting methods imaginable. Thirty-seven other practitioners were persecuted to varying degrees. On the afternoon of May 5, the prison guards began to torture me. I was taken to a place nicknamed the "cohabitating room," which was a secret place for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. I was locked up in Room No. 14. Several personal cangues, incited by the prison guards, began to torture me to make a choice between Falun Dafa and denouncing Falun Dafa. In the face of the despotic power, I was very calm. I picked up the pen and wrote in big characters "Falun Dafa is good!" and then signed my name and the date.

The prison guards flared into rage, tied me up with ropes, and used rubber batons to hit my shins, ankles, fingers, the backs of my hands, and my back and chest. They also shocked my sensitive parts with electric batons. I had several burns from the high voltage current. They threatened me, insulted me, and told me to get on my knees and abuse our Teacher and Dafa. I refused to get on my knees and warned them sternly, "I cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, so I have to speak the truth. This is my only choice. No one and no group or organization can force me to renounce Dafa."

The prison guards shouted and tied me up with more ropes. I was not scared at all and just thought, "Undo it." The rope instantly loosened. Several people dragged me to a chair, tied me to it, and put on me what they called a "comfort cloth," actually a "tightening cloth," so that I could not move. Then they put a helmet on me and forced me to listen repeatedly to the recordings that slandered Falun Dafa and our Teacher. Several criminals watched me by turns around clock, and whenever I closed my eyes they beat me. They hit my thighs and genitals.

In order not to let me to have any rest, they sprinkled salt on my burn wounds. They tied my body and legs with ropes and inserted bricks underneath my ankles. This is what people called sitting on a Tiger Bench. The criminals used a rope to saw my neck back and forth. As a result my neck was bleeding and the wounds were very painful. They used all sorts of vicious means to torture me, including not allowing me to use the toilet, not giving me food or drink, and depriving me of the right to sleep for five days and nights. Under that circumstance my pants were soiled badly. At that moment I was in a state of trance. Because my main consciousness was not clear, I made a compromise. I was really unable to walk as a result of torture, so I had to lie in bed all the time. When people from above came to inspect, they would hide me until the inspectors left. To avoid being seen by others, the transfer would only take place when it was dark.

Walking out of the forced labor camp with righteous thoughts

On February 29, 2004, I merged into the current of validating the Fa once again and used my righteous thoughts to resist the evil persecution. One day a criminal forced me to squat down as a punishment. When I refused to cooperate, four criminals forced me to the floor. Then the prison guards whipped me and stepped on my toes until they were bleeding and the nails came off. I still refuse to cooperate. They took turns for over half a day pressing me to the floor, and each one of them was out of breath. Finally they ended it without achieving their purpose.

One day two criminals verbally abused practitioners in public in a workshop and forced the practitioners to work for them. I went up and tried to stop them. The prison guard called me into the office, cursed me, and told me to lie on the floor. I resolutely refused and said, "I did nothing wrong. As a matter of fact, to stop an evil deed is a good thing. You failed to follow the regulations of the forced labor camp and even did something on your own which is against the law." The prison guard had no response so he flared into a rage. He called in two criminals to tie me up. I defiantly resisted and tightly grabbed the rope. The guard used a rubber baton to hit my hand. I begged Teacher to give me strength and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. The prison guard worked me over the whole afternoon. He used rubber batons to beat me dozens of times. When he saw me still standing there silently, he gave up.

The prison guards said that since I had not renounced Falun Gong, even though my term had expired, they would still not let me go home. I thought whatever they said did not count, and I would only listen to our Teacher's arrangements. I firmly believed in Teacher and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors behind these prison guards. My wife also kept phoning the forced labor camp and wrote letters to expose the evil. She said, "If you do not release him I will sue the forced labor camp for extending his detention." Two days after the phone call I was released.

These are just some of my experiences and understandings. Please give me your valuable opinions.

Notes:

(1) Personal cangues: cangue, the name of an instrument of torture, is now used to indicate a person designated to supervise the behavior of practitioners.