Remembering My Mother and Brother

My family lives in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. There were five people in our home, including my father, mother, oldest brother, second older brother, and a younger sister. We all practised Falun Gong and followed the principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” Our life was a simple but happy one. We respected, cared for and loved each other. Not long after the persecution began in July 1999, the harmony in this family of five ended. Two are now dead and three severely harmed. The oldest brother is still being held in jail, which has left our younger sister, who has suffered all sorts of abuse, alone with our father, who has lost his sanity.

When people listen to our little sister Peng Yan talk about our mother Li Yingxiu and brother Peng Min, who passed away ten years ago, about their stories, it makes me realise that even though we are in a difficult time, a Falun Gong cultivator's calmness, hope for the future, and firm conviction are beyond ordinary people. Let us listen to the story told by my sister Peng Yan.

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My Mother

My mother Li Yingxiu was born on July 16th, 1949. She was young when she was sent from Wuhan to Xinjiang during the Cultural Revolution. After twenty years of hard labour, she suffered all sorts of illnesses. She moved back to Wuhan in 1987 due to severe asthma, emphysema, and tuberculosis, as she could no longer work or live in Xinjiang. But her family finances were very tight. There was no money to seek medical treatment. Her illnesses got worse.

In 1997, my father discovered the Falun Gong book Zhuan Falun. He read it, felt it was great, and decided to learn Falun Gong. He encouraged his whole family to learn, so my mother began to practise Falun Gong in June 1997.

We got up early to exercise and went to study the Falun Gong teachings with the group in the evenings. When we came home, we shared experiences. We enjoyed happy lives and felt full of hope for the future.

My mother's health improved, as did her mood. Mother said that since she found the “heavenly book,” she was determined to be strict with herself and view herself as a cultivator.

We lived on the ground floor at the time. Our neighbours upstairs often poured out dirty water and threw down their trash just for convenience, and the yard was full of the dirty water and trash. My mother just cleaned it up without complaint.

On July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong. Like millions of Falun Gong practitioners, mother also went to Beijing in October 1999 to appeal for justice for the practice. She was arrested and held in a sports stadium in Beijing. She was later beaten and held in Xicheng Detention, and subsequently transferred back where Wuhan City Liangdaojie Police Station staff sent her, to the Baofenglu No. 1 Detention Centre for one month. She was held in the Women's Correction Centre for two weeks in October 2000.

At one point, with my father, brothers, and I all being held in jail, only my mother was outside by herself. Even though under tremendous pressure, her heart of cultivation was firm. She came to visit us with money, clothes, new Falun Gong articles, and even Zhuan Falun.

Mother was very thrifty with herself, but with us, she was always generous. She cared for our needs in every detail. Besides taking care of us four when we were in jail, she also took care of fellow practitioners who were held with us. I was worried that she would run out of money, and I asked her stop giving us money, but she brought more every time she came. She told me, “Don't worry too much, just use whatever you need.”

Brother Peng Min was brutally beaten while in jail, and he was paralysed. Mother knew that was because he firmly believed in Falun Gong. The letter mother wrote to me, “If you learn that anyone in our family has been hurt in any way, don't be affected by it. We are all cultivators.” The encouragement from mother was brief, but her faith in Falun Gong was firm.

After CCP thugs killed my brother, they were afraid their crime would be exposed on the Internet. They held my mother and brother Peng Liang in the Hongxia Brainwashing Centre in Qingling, Wuchang, attempting to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] them. Mother was still in deep grief for my brother. She could not eat for days, and due to the poor conditions in the brainwashing centre, she developed a high fever and was sent to Wuhan No. 7 Hospital. When she returned, four guards brutally beat her. When mother attempted to record their crime, they beat her even harder. The severe beatings caused brain injury and she was sent back to the hospital and died there. She died only 22 days after my brother passed away, on April 29th, 2001.

My father went to see mother's body for the last time from Hewan Forced Labour Camp. Her hair was shaved off, there were wounds on her face, blood and pus in her mouth, and her head was covered with blood. My father asked the guards and hospital staff, “How did my wife die?” A doctor said, “She died of stroke. The blood on her head is from the autopsy” Mother never had any medical history of stroke. With father's persistent inquiry, one staff member from the Public Security Bureau unintentionally revealed, “Her death was because she talked too much after her son died.”

Brother Peng Min

My brother Peng Min was born on August 2nd, 1973. He didn't attend high school because money was too short in those days. He went to a trade school to learn how to repair motorcycles. Even though he could not continue his education, he was very diligent, and loved to learn. He kept learning by teaching himself. He went to Wuhan University, took classes for business management and later became a manager in a private company. He began practising Falun Gong in July 1997.

My brother always has a smile on his face. I remember we all liked fairy tales as children, and loved to read stories of cultivators, and books of Taoism and Buddhism. We all believed in Buddha and God. We often discussed, “Who am I? What is the meaning of our lives?” and we kept looking and searching.

My brother was a strong person, and able to endure hardship. When he was eighteen years old, he left home searching for a place where he could cultivate. When he returned after two years, he told us that he had gone to many places. When he ran out of money he worked for others, and he once worked in a coal mine. He risked his own safety to rescue six co-workers after an accident. He travelled to Hua Mountain and befriended an orphan whose Master raised him as a child. From his friend, my brother learned that it is very difficult to cultivate, and extremely difficult to find a true cultivator. His friend's Master mentioned that the temples were too chaotic, and that he refused to enter them. Later my brother went to Shaolin Temple to learn martial arts. When he found the temple, he realised that it was not a place for him to cultivate, since everyone there was pursuing profit and fame.

My brother contacted a mountain climbing team when he was twenty-three years old, in 1996. He prepared his gear to climb a snow-covered mountain, and told us it would be good to train his willpower. But when he arrived there, the team had already left. He was sorry that he missed the chance. We were, on the contrary, very happy.

My brother and I were very close. We talked about everything and anything together. When I began to practise Falun Gong, he encouraged me to do better. We went to a different exercise site, and he asked me to listen to others share their experiences. We learned a lot, and discussed among ourselves our cultivation experiences. We improved quickly together. Every morning at 3:40 a.m., he took me on his bike to the exercise site. At 7:00 p.m. every night, he took me to study the Falun Gong teachings. He would also finish the exercises and then come home. He took us to form another new exercise site at the TV station, and we went there with a recorder every day.

I remember the very first time we came to an exercise site. My brother was shocked to see so many elderly ladies double crossing their legs doing meditation. That was great! He double crossed his legs and did the meditation for half an hour. Fellow practitioners thought that he was a veteran practitioner. Once they learned that it was his first time, and not only could he double cross his legs but also last so long, they were very surprised! He understood that Falun Gong was special.

My brother was very down to earth. He was sincere, his smile was so natural, and people liked him very much. He didn't say much, and never said anything using strong words. When others were sharing their experiences, he listened quietly. He always treated others kindly, was forgiving and considerate, loved to help others, and was able to endure hardship without complaint. He treated things and people around him with a compassionate heart.

Before we were arrested, his last words to me were, “Remember, no matter where you go, always treat others with kindness, and cherish every relationship.” Recalling his life, he had always done that.

On April 5th, 2000, my brother and I met at the Hongxia Brainwashing Centre ( it is currently called the Yangyuan Brainwashing Centre). I was very upset when I saw my brother. Only one month after his arrest he appeared abused out of shape as he was held by two guards. But his eyes were firm and bright. He looked at me, very concerned, for my face and my body were covered with red bumps. “What has happened to you?” I told him that was caused by the shackles. I never imagined that this was the last conversation we would have. The sight of his back became an eternal moment in my heart.

My brother passed away on April 6th, 2001. A healthy, kind, active young man lost his precious life due to persecution and brutality. He was only twenty seven years old. His layers upon layers of wounds revealed that the time spent in the detention centre was a living hell.

Even some of the guards admired my brother's character. During the detention, he refused to cooperate with them and continued exercising. The guards began to savagely torture him round after round. He endured mental and physical torture, had no fear of the evil guards, and he was always kind to other inmates, inspiring them with the wonders of Falun Gong.

There is Justice in This World

As I understand it, the following perpetrators have met with justice in the last ten years: Guard Li Yong who persecuted Peng Min to death in Qingling Detention Centre of Wuchang, died in a motor vehicle accident in the summer of 2001. He was 35 years old. Former Wuhan Public Security Bureau Director Yang Shihong attempted to climb the ladder of power through brutally persecuting practitioners, and increasing the so called “transformation” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] rate, but he was sentenced to a life imprisonment for corruption. Zhao Zhifei who is the deputy director of Hubei Province Public Security Bureau and also director of the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), was sued in the United States of America on December 21st, 2001. The United States Federal Court determined Zhao Zhifei committed a crime against humanity and violated international human rights law. Within his district, there were Falun Gong practitioners who were tortured, detained, and persecuted to death.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/4/16/239056.html