(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) in 2000. Before that, I used to be a “triad boss,” engaging in fighting, racketeering and committing crimes. Many people hated me and held grievances against me.
I was later framed, sent to a detention center and sentenced to 18 years in prison. However, people were scared of me as I often beat up other inmates and never listened to the guards.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Propaganda was spread everywhere through the various forms of government-controlled media. Prisons and detention centers were not spared. Every person there was made to criticize Falun Gong.
Every time it was my turn to criticize the practice, I became tongue-tied and confused, unable to remember a word in my prepared speech. My chest felt tight and I had shortness of breath.
A Falun Gong practitioner was locked up with me while I was in the detention center. I asked him a number of questions about the practice and wanted to learn it, but he just smiled and told me that I wouldn't be able to do it.
I became agitated and demanded to know why he thought that, but he only smiled back.
Another practitioner by the name of Li was also put in our cell a few days later. He had in his possession a roll of papers with the words “Hong Yin” on it.
When asked what they were, he replied, “These are poems written by Falun Gong’s Master. I'm studying them.”
I asked him what law he had broken. “I haven’t broken any law,” he answered. “It’s the government who is making a terrible mistake.”
Li was cleaning the floor every day, so I asked the inmate in charge of our cell why he was always assigned to cleaning the floor. The cell leader replied, “He's the only one willing to do it.”
I got angry and scolded him. The poor guy got so scared that he promised to assign somebody else to do the job right away.
On March 21, 2000, another Falun Gong practitioner by the name of Wang was put into our cell. Wang had a smile on his face all the time. I found out that he hadn’t eaten for three days.
The guard in charge of our cell called upon some inmates to torture him. I knew that they would be pouring 50 basins of cold water over his head, as it's the unspoken rule that every newcomer is to be subjected to this torture.
I had come into contact with a few Falun Gong practitioners by that time, and had developed certain good feelings toward them. When the inmates were about to do what the guards told them, I gave out a stern warning, “Don't you dare do it!”
So they didn't.
Wang spoke to me at great length about the goodness and beauty of Dafa. His earnest demeanor moved me. I wanted to learn the exercises, so he taught me.
I soon mastered all of the five exercises and felt very good from it. Wang told me that just doing the exercises wasn't enough, and that I needed to read the book Zhuan Falun.
Wang was soon released. The day after he left, the guard on duty told me that Wang had dropped by to see me but was turned away. When visitors day arrived, I noticed a man who kept looking my way. He approached me and asked if I knew Wang. I replied, “Have you brought me the book?”
That was how I got my own copy of Zhuan Falun. However, I didn’t finish reading it, and put it away.
Another Falun Gong practitioner was put in my cell more than a month later. He looked very surprised when I showed him Zhuan Falun, and questioned, “How did you get it?”
I told him that he could borrow it. He was very thankful, and kept reading it for days.
I began to wonder what he found so interesting in it, and thought that I should take another look. So I asked for the book back.
The practitioner returned the book, but said, “May I have it again when you’re not reading it?”
When I read Zhuan Falun this time, I couldn’t put it down. Master’s every word touched me. His magnanimous mercy went deep into my heart. Master has worked so long and hard to finally bring me back onto the right path home. Master has done and endured such a lot for me to ensure my salvation!
Tears are streaming down my face as I write these words.
I read the book every day from then on. The guard asked me what I was reading. When I told him it’s Zhuan Falun, he said with disdain, “A person like you wants to practice Falun Gong?”
I returned to reading my book and didn’t pay any more attention to him. I diligently studied the Fa and did the exercises every day.
I had a bowel movement three months later, with a great amount of black blood rushing out. I felt very comfortable after that. When I mentioned it to the practitioner, he told me that it was a good thing as Master was purifying my body.
Master talked about purifying the body in Zhuan Falun, which had happened to me. I was so excited and told myself in my heart that I will practice to the end!
The director of the detention center and a group of guards arrived to check on the inmates one day. They found me sitting on the floor with a pile of peppers next to me, and wanted to know what I was doing.
They burst out laughing when I told them that I was working. They all knew that I had always refused to do any work. I didn’t respond and just carried on working.
I was standing around one day when a young inmate put in charge of other inmates yelled at me to get to work. I looked at him with a smile without saying a word. Previously, I would have yelled back at him or even beaten him up.
When others saw him yelling at me, they rushed over to stop him. He became very frightened when he was told who I was.
I was able to enjoy a great deal of freedom because people were afraid of me, enabling me to obtain Dafa materials from practitioners on the outside. I would then share them with practitioners on the inside.
I told the head inmates in all wards not to torture Falun Gong practitioners and to allow them to study the Fa and do the exercises. I made sure practitioners would not be persecuted in any way.
The guards later had me transferred to a detention center outside the local jurisdiction. There, my hands were cuffed behind my back for 24 hours. The cuffs dug into my flesh. I was in excruciating pain after several hours, so I started to recite Master’s verse:
“Great enlightened beings fear no hardshipTheir will is cast of diamondLife or death, they have no attachmentForthright and broad-minded on the road of Fa-rectification” (“Righteous Thought, Righteous Action” from Hong Yin Vol. II)
I recited it over and over again. I survived the torture, then protested the maltreatment by going on a hunger strike. I stopped eating for nine days.
My skin had already turned pale by the time I was taken to the hospital. I overheard a doctor say to the guards, “Why do you guys take so long before bringing them here. If you do that next time, don’t even bother…”
They tried to force-feed me, but I put up a strong resistance. They used a special tool to pry my mouth open and succeeded to get a bit of food in, but I spat it all out.
They didn't know what to do with me, so I was taken back to my local detention center. The section chief there had managed to get a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong within a day by using the death bed torture. He threatened to use the same method of torture on me if I didn't stop practicing Falun Gong.
He knew local inmates wouldn't dare touch me, so he gathered a few inmates who were not local to tie me to the death bed.
I was stretched out with my limbs bound to the four corners of the bed, and was left there for hours. I couldn't move. I went on a hunger strike to protest. Some people I knew begged me to eat something on the fifth day, but I refused. They decided to force-feed me the next day.
About six large men descended on me. They carried me from the death bed to a chair. Then someone tried to force a tube down my nostril. One after the other they tried but none of them could do it, so they gave up and left.
They returned in the afternoon and told me to cooperate, but I didn't. I then heard a voice in my ear, “Send forth righteous thoughts!”
As soon as I started to send righteous thoughts, I saw tiny objects falling down like raindrops, the size of the tip of a needle. Some of them were making a kind of hissing sound.
I heard the prison doctor say, “I won’t do it. I’ve had enough!” He left. The others then abruptly left.
More people were sent over to beg me to eat. I told them, “If the section chief doesn't set me free from the death bed and allow me to read my book and do the exercises, I will continue with the hunger strike.”
The section chief finally gave in and allowed everything I demanded. From then on, I was given ample freedom to practice Falun Gong. I also used every opportunity to talk to whomever I met about Dafa.
I was later transferred to Baoding Prison, where I continued to practice Falun Gong.
I was put in solitary confinement one time, so I sat down to send forth righteous thoughts. A guard saw what I was doing from the surveillance camera, and came in with an electric baton.
I was not afraid, but sent forth strong righteous thoughts that the electric shocks would be felt by the one who administered them.
As soon as the baton landed on my body, I heard the guard scream in pain, and left. He never tried to touch me again.
Master said:
“Dafa does not leave the body,The heart harbors Zhen-Shan-Ren;In the world is a great Arhat,Spirits and ghosts fear greatly.” (“Mighty Virtue” from Hong Yin)
I would always carry Dafa books and other materials on me so that I could give them out to practitioners when I ran into them.
They conducted daily spot checks and body searches in the prison. I sent forth righteous thoughts so they would skip over me. When it looked like I would be the next one to be searched, something would always happen or the person searching would be called away at that moment.
I had never been searched for over a decade, so the Dafa materials I had on me were never discovered. It is truly incredible and amazing. I knew it was Master’s merciful grace that protected and saved me each time.
A practitioner was beaten so badly for doing the Falun Gong exercises that his leg had to be amputated. We were in uproar when we heard what happened, and all practitioners wrote complaints to the authorities to expose the brutal act by the guards. But only mine was accepted.
I also managed to get the news to the outside, so that practitioners could get it published on the Minghui website. The guards were furious when they found out.
They put me in a small metal cage during the night so that I couldn't move, and handcuffed me and hung me on a tree that was crawling with ants during the day. I was tortured like this for more than a week.
I managed to cope being put in a small cage, and found that the ants stayed away from me when I was hung from the tree.
I am grateful for Master's protection and watching over me for more than a decade.
I spent 16 years in prison, 14 as a Dafa practitioner. In that terrible environment, I remained steadfast in my cultivation, relying on my absolute faith in Dafa and Master, doing my best to do the three things well. I also helped over a thousand people quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
Under Master's guidance and protection, I found my life’s meaning and direction.
After my release in 2014, my family and friends, still under the influence of the CCP’s lies and propaganda, tried to persuade me to stop practicing.
I used my personal experiences to tell them about the beauty and goodness of Dafa, and to relate to them that if it were not for Dafa and Master I wouldn’t have become a better person, one who is healthy and wholesome.
They have already noticed the changes in me. My once fierce expression and demeanor has been replaced by kindness and gentleness. I actually look quite handsome now, with my skin fair and ruddy, my manner mild and friendly.
The power of Dafa moved them so much that some of them quit the Party and some started practicing Falun Gong.
As to my old friends, despite their awareness of my 16-year incarceration, all stepped forward to lend me a hand so that I could build up my own legal business. In return, I helped them all to quit the CCP.
Fellow practitioners and I cooperate together and help each other on our mission to do the three things well, to help Master in Fa-rectification and to save people.
I humbly prostrate myself in front of Master in deep gratitude.