Life And Times Of Li Hongzhi

Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, is not the "highest Buddha" who brings salvation to suffering people, but an evil person who has had an extremely disastrous effect on society.

Li was born in the city of Gongzhuling in China's Jilin Province on July 7, 1952. He went to primary and junior high school in Changchun, the provincial capital, from 1960 to 1969.

From 1970 to 1978, he worked on a People's Liberation Army stud farm and then as a trumpet player in a band. From 1978 to 1982, he worked as an attendant at a guest house.

Li was discharged from military service in 1982 and went to work in the security department of the Changchun City Cereals And Oil Company. In 1991, he quit this job and began practicing " Qigong", a form of martial arts that combines meditation and breathing techniques and is believed to tap the practitioner's inner strength. In May, 1992, Li started to teach Falun Gong.

In a resume he prepared in 1993, Li claimed that he had started learning a special form of Qigong in childhood from a Buddhist master, Quanjue, and completed his training at the age of 8, and that a Taoist immortal, Baji, discovered him when he was 12 and taught him Taoist practices. Then, in 1972, he learned the essence of Taoism from a master, Zhendaozi, and in 1974 started to study Buddhism from another Buddhist master until he entered public life.

Li also claims that he has supernatural abilities like the ability to move objects, control thinking, and make himself invisible and that he understands the truth of the universe and has insights into life and can see the past and future.

On September 24, 1994, Li changed his date of birth from July 7, 1952 to May 13, 1951 and acquired a new ID card. On the Chinese lunar calendar, May 13, is the birthday of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, so by changing his birthday Li could pretend that he is a reincarnation of Sakyamuni. However, Li's family members, relatives, neighbors, former schoolmates, teachers, leaders, and fellow servicemen say that they believe Li is just an ordinary person and that his so-called Qigong learning and miraculous abilities were "nonsense" or " impossible" or something they'd never seen. His only talent in childhood, many said, was the ability to play the trumpet.

Li actually did not start learning Qigong until 1988, under a master named Li Weidong, with whom he studied Chanmi Gong. He then went on to study Jiugongbagua Gong from another master, Yu Guangsheng. Using these two forms of Qigong, with some movements from Thai dance that he got from a visit to Thailand thrown in, he came up with Falun Gong. Li's resume consists of nothing but fabrication and outrageous lies.

After founding Falun Gong in 1992, Li established the Research Society of Falun Dafa in Beijing and made himself president. Following that, he set up 39 Falun Gong teaching centers in various provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China, which in turn had more than 1,900 places of instruction and more than 28,000 group exercise areas.

The Research Society of Falun Dafa manages all affairs of the teaching centers and rules on the setup of any Falun Gong organizations, with the power to appoint or remove their major leaders. Li and the research society also make rules and regulations for all Falun Gong activities.

Since May this year, Falun Gong practitioners in China have received instructions from Li, who is living abroad, in the form of "scriptures". Because of the Falun organization, instructions spread very fast and have an evil influence on a large number of people.

"The Research Society of Falun Dafa" and general instruction stations organize large-scale activities to "spread the Falun word and to exchange experiences and hold various celebrations and commemoration ceremonies". On several occasions, when they were dissatisfied with news reports and articles that exposed the dark secrets of Falun Gong or when government departments banned books and audio-video products preaching the Falun word, they organized their members to besiege some news organizations, publishers, or Party and government departments, disrupting the normal work and social order and undermining the hard-won social stability.

Falun Gong is an illegal organization with no official registration status, but with a tight system.

In spreading the Falun Gong word, Li cast himself up as the " highest Buddha" who has transcended all secular desires. But, in real life he displays an enormous greed. In the early years of " spreading Falun Gong," Li attracted followers by supposedly curing their ailments and helping them improve their health. There was a special "donation box" at his home and he instructed with a hint his assistants to tell every patient to donate at least 100 yuan for every visit.

Li also collected a large amount of money from training classes. From 1993 to 1994, he was reported to have earned 428,300 yuan in Changchun from teaching Falun exercises and from book sales. At the same time, he earned another 789,000 yuan in other parts of China from classes.

Li also publishes a large number of books, cassette tapes, video tapes, and video CDs with his teachings and sells them to Falun practitioners for 300 yuan a set. He has encouraged people to believe that his photo and "Falun emblems" with his image can have a "miraculous and inspirational effect" and encourages people to buy them.

In recent years, he has come up with new Falun products like special clothing and cushions for Falun practitioners and has reissued his books in a deluxe edition that sells at a higher price.

Investigators have found that Li has several luxury houses and limousines in Beijing and Changchun in his relatives names and, through the Falun Gong, he has got a large fortune on which he has not paid taxes.

On April 25, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the government compound in Beijing, seriously disrupting public order, with a malignant effect. Li told foreign correspondents that he had known nothing about it in advance and that he was on his way from the United States to Australia at the time. He said that he didn't learn about the incident until he was in Brisbane.

However, it has been proven that Li was in Beijing the day before the incident. On April 19, "Teenager Science-Technology Outlook", a Tianjin Normal University magazine, contained an article entitled "I'm Opposed To Qigong Practice By Teenagers" by Professor He Zuoxiu, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Some Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin took offense at the article and staged a silent protest at the university. By April 22, there were more than 3,000 of them.

Li flew back to China on Northwest Airlines Flight 087, entering Beijing at 5:35 p.m. on April 22, then, after a stay of 44 hours, left in a hurry for Hong Kong at 1:30 p.m. on April 24 on Air China Flight 109.

On April 23, the day after he entered China, the number of Falun Gong practitioners at Tianjin Normal University swelled to more than 6,300. By the morning of April 24, while Li was still in Beijing, Falun group exercise sites around Beijing had received notices that practitioners were to go to Zhongnanhai for a "group exercise".

By the time more than 10,000 exercisers showed up at Zhongnanhai on April 25, Li was in Hong Kong. He didn't leave Hong Kong for Brisbane until 10:15 p.m. on April 27.

In his book "Zhuanfalun (Turn the Wheel of Law)" and in several of his "sermons", Li has said that there is a white material called "de" (morality) with an opposite side that is dark, called "ye" (evil). By practicing Falun Gong, he says, people can be helped by the Falun (Wheel of Law) and improve their "de" and reduce the "ye force" and purify their bodies and achieve enlightenment and immortality. Practitioners can ultimately attain "salvation and reach the heavenly kingdom," or paradise.

Li also speaks of karma, or predetermination, and says that illness and other suffering is "retribution for evil deeds one has done in the past or in a past life, and that by enduring this suffering one can repay his or her evil debt." He says that anyone who believes in and practices Falun Gong doesn't need to take medicine to cure disease.

Li has criticized people who try to persuade others not to practice Falun Gong, calling them "demons" and saying that they have harmed the Falun Dafa and have prevented people from attaining "salvation".

As a result of Li's malicious fallacies and deceptive behavior, some Falun practitioners have refused to go to hospital or take medicine for their diseases, and some have lost their lives because of a lack of treatment. Some have committed suicide or lost their sanity after practicing Falun Gong, and a few have become homicidal.

Li is not bringing salvation to practitioners, but is in fact leading them to a disastrous and miserable end, and Falun Gong is doing enormous harm to both the mental and physical health of people.

China daily
1999/07/22