Brief biography of Li Hongzhi: founder of Falun Gong and president of the Falun Gong Research Society.
Source: Chinese Law and Government v. 32 no6 (Nov./Dec. 1999) p. 14-23 ISSN: 0009-4609 Number: BSSI00019541 Copyright: The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited.
In 1992 a remarkable person and remarkable type of gong emerged in China's qigong circles. These were the Falun Gong, which was accepted by the China Qigong Science Research Association as a school of gong, with Li Hongzhi as its founder, directly under the Association's purview. Li Hongzhi made his first public appearance in May the same year. With his completely new approach that changed the traditional theories and methods of gong, and with his unique skills and characteristics, he has been attracting more and more qigong afficionados. All people who have shown interest in practicing Falun Gong are filled with admiration for his profound theories and methods, amazed by the superlative powers of his gong, and have been drawn by the unique effects of his gong. Falun Gong is like a resplendent pearl that, with its dazzling light, is dispelling the accumulated dust in the hearts of gong practitioners and has lit a bright light on the broad path of cultivation and practice (xiu lian da dao).
Li Hongzhi was born into an ordinary intellectual's family in the city of Gongzhuling, Jilin Province on May 13, 1951 (the eighth day of the fourth moon by the lunar calendar).
As a child, Li Hongzhi stood apart from his peers by virtue of his natural intelligence and benevolence. Seeing how hard his mother had to work, he took up, of his own accord, such chores as looking after the house, cooking meals, chopping firewood, and taking care of his younger brother and sister. The latter and his peers liked to play with him, as they always felt safe when they were doing so.
At the age of four, Li Hongzhi was given personal instruction in the highest traits of zhen-shan-ren (truthfulness, benevolence, forbearance) by Master Quan Jue, tenth-generation teacher of Buddhist Dafa, which is passed on to only a single disciple. At first, the master would only play with him and did not teach him Gongfu. If he did something good, the master would be pleased; if he did something bad, the master would show his displeasure. At times, his childish nature would make him deliberately do naughty things, such as fighting with his little friends. But after that, something would always happen. Sometimes he would trip and fall time and again for no apparent reason and would not be able to stand steadily on his feet. At other times, no one knew why, the skin on his hand would break open and blood would flow. Whenever this happened, the master would stand at a distance and look on without saying a word. And when Li refused to admit he had been wrong, some bigger children would suddenly come and give him a beating. The master would still look on very sternly without saying anything. A smile would appear on his face only when the boy admitted he had been wrong.
When Li Hongzhi was eight years old, he suddenly became aware that something had appeared at the corner of his eyes. Gradually, he realized they were the words zhen-shan-ren. It was the master who had impressed these words in his eyes. No one else could see them, but they were constantly visible to him. In the years that followed, the master told him the meaning of these words: Zhen means to do true things and speak the truth; it means not practicing deception or speaking untruths, and not concealing one's mistakes; this will eventually result in the attainment of truth. Shan means to be kind and compassionate, to refrain from bullying people, to sympathize with the weak, help the poor; it means that one should always be ready to help others and do good things. Ren means that, when one experiences difficulties and suffers injustices, one should look at the bright side of things, be able to hold out, refrain from resentment and hatred, refrain from nursing grievances and taking revenge, be able to endure the worst of adversities and things that normal people are unable to endure. These apparently simple words contain an incomparable wealth of intentions; they are the highest of natural mysteries (tian ji) in the universe. Whenever Li Hongzhi recalls this incident in his past, he declares with deep feeling: "The first master stayed with me for a full eight years for the sake of these three words. This shows to what pains he was willing to go. Zhen-shan-ren sounds easy, but are most difficult to practice. The master not only had me see these words at all times, he also wanted to impress them firmly in my mind, and he stayed with me until he saw that I was truly able to carry them out." It was these strict demands that laid a solid xin xing (temperamental) foundation in the young soul of Li Hongzhi.
At the age of eight, Li Hongzhi was already highly proficient in Dafa and had acquired supernatural powers. When he played hide-and-seek with his companions, he had only to think "other people cannot see me" to make himself invisible to others, who could not see him even if they directed a flashlight at his face. With a simple flick of a finger, he could draw long, rusty, and crooked nails out of pieces of wood. When water pipes froze up in winter, he had only to tap them with his hand for the pipes to bend; even he himself did not know how he did this. As he was playing with his little companions in snow-covered fields, he could jump and fly through the air. If he found two people about to get into a fight, he could prevent one of them from approaching the other simply by thinking that that person should not go near the other person.
One day, when in the fourth grade of elementary school, Li left school without taking along his school bag, and when he went back to get it the door of the classroom was locked and the windows had been shut. He thought that it would nice if he could get in. No sooner had the thought flashed through his mind than he found himself in the classroom. Another thought, and he was out again. Even he thought this was miraculous. On another occasion he had this thought: what would it feel like to be in the middle of a window pane? No sooner had he thought this than he found himself positioned in the window. He at once felt as if his body and brain were filled with shards of glass; it was most uncomfortable, so he hurriedly got out again. He did not know, at the time, what was the power of gong; he thought everyone was like this, and paid no attention to the matter.
The first master had a great influence on Li Hongzhi. He planted the seeds of zhen-shan-ren in his soul, conferred on him extraordinary gong, cultivated his xin xing, and caused him to develop many excellent qualities. Li Hongzhi has always been ready to help others; whatever he does, he thinks of other people first. When he sees a stone in the road, he picks it up and throws it to one side for fear that someone else may be tripped up by it. When he was in elementary school, he often went to Nanhu Lake to swim. One day, as he walked past the lake on his way home, he suddenly heard people shouting: "Someone has fallen in the water! That person won't make it!" He approached and saw a person struggling weakly in the water some distance from the shore. Without a word he took off his clothes, jumped in the water, and quickly swam across to the person. "Take a deep breath," he said. "Don't struggle. I will save you!" That person obediently did what was asked of him. As Li Hongzhi pulled the person onto the bank of the lake, he found that the victim was an adult much bigger than himself. After the person had recovered somewhat, Li went home. Such things happened more than once, but he never told anyone about them. Ten or more years later he touched upon these incidents in passing, as though such things were quite natural and deserved no mention. As a youngster, Li Hongzhi was a very compassionate person. He would shed copious tears whenever he saw descriptions in movies and novels about the sufferings of good people.
Li's first master left him when he was twelve years old. Before leaving, the master said to him: "There will be more masters coming to teach you." The second master taught him, in the main, the Gongfu of the Taoist school; simultaneously he studied bare-handed fighting methods, fighting with sword and spear, and both internal and external gong. The master would take him to places where there were no other people and practice gong with him. When practicing the ma bu zhan zhuang (immobile stance with legs spread apart), he would stand like that for hours on end, frequently with sweat pouring down like rain. His body became as flexible as cotton as and hard as iron. Two years passed, season after season. Ordinary people can hardly imagine how much perspiration he expended. He practiced until he attained the acme of perfection. A deep affection grew between his master and himself, yet this master also left. Before leaving, the master told him: "My name is Baji Zhenren and my wanderings take me across the four seas. After I leave, remember just one thing: Work hard at practicing gong." In the years that followed, Li Hongzhi kept that admonition firmly in mind. He worked hard at practicing gong. In the silence of the night, in places no one knew about, come winter or summer, day in and day out, he practiced until his hands were covered with calluses. There is no telling how many shirts and jackets were soaked through with his perspiration. His persistence was rewarded: at an early age, his Gongfu had already reached the highest world levels.
Li Hongzhi began to work in 1972. Around this time, his third master--a Grand Dao master--came to him from the Changbai Mountains. The Daoist title of this master was Zhen Dao Zi. He differed from the two previous masters in that he did not wear religious vestments; he looked like an ordinary person and he never said where he lived. This master taught the internal cultivation of gong. Most of the practicing was at night, since people did not dare openly practice gong in those days. Sometimes the master would train him by calling out his subjective awareness (zhu yishi) and, even when asleep, he could feel the master putting things in his mind and in his celestial eye (tian mu). The internally cultivated gong of Grand Dao places very strict requirements on xin xing, and the master demanded that he conduct xin xing cultivation in his everyday life. Whenever he did something wrong, the master would censure and admonish him through the mouths of other people. Because of such strict requirements, Li Hongzhi's xin xing attained an extraordinarily high realm. His colleagues, sensing that he was straightforward, sincere, and honest, all wanted to make closer acquaintance with him. He never argued with people. Some people did not understand this and said he was stupid, that he was not getting or demanding what belonged to him. He had indeed reached the state where he had absolutely no regard for the multitudinous desires and personal interests of ordinary people. He let all such things take their natural course, took little interest in them, and treated them with equanimity. Other people would take up the cudgels against the injustices and censure to which he was subjected, but he himself dismissed such things with a smile.
The Grand Dao master left in 1974. After that a Buddhist female master came to teach him the theories and methods of Buddhist Gong. By this time, although Li was only twenty-three or twenty-four years old, his powers of gong had attained a very high level. In 1982, Li switched jobs and went to work in the city of Changchun, where he put even greater efforts into cultivating his gong. In the ten or more years that followed, he would change masters practically every time he reached a new level; some were Buddhist masters, others Daoist masters. At each level he reached, he suffered hardships and tribulations, many of which are inconceivable to ordinary people.
Today, the gong powers attained by Li Hongzhi have reached an extremely high level, some of which can hardly be imagined by ordinary people. One evening in July, 1990, he and several apprentices were practicing gong in the courtyard of a government organization in Beijing. Soon, the sky became overcast. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, seemingly just overhead, and the apprentices were becoming somewhat nervous. According to the rules of most types of fa, such weather was inappropriate for practicing gong. However, they saw their master sitting with his legs crossed on a large stone, steady as a mountain and showing not the least sign of vacillation or any intention of withdrawing. So they continued to practice gong. Strangely enough, although the clouds were very heavy and very low, and thunder shook the skies, no rain fell. When the practicing came to an end, the master calmly told his apprentices: "It will not start to rain before half an hour is up. You may leave now with your hearts at ease." One of the apprentices lived in the western part of the city, and it took him about half an hour to get home by bus. Just as he stepped through the door of his house, the rain came pouring down, as if a hole had been pierced in the sky. There are many such miraculous stories told about Li, but they will not be recounted in this article, as ordinary people may find it hard to accept them.
After several decades of arduous cultivation and refining, not only did Li's powers of gong reach extremely high levels, but more importantly, he began to see the truth of the universe, to see more and better things that have always existed in the universe, to see the origins of mankind, and to see the development and future of mankind.
As Li Hongzhi experienced all these travails, one thought kept nagging at his heart: Why did the masters teach me Gongfu? Why am I here in the world? He had no time to inquire too much into the matter while he was practicing gong. He would think about the matter occasionally, but never found any answers. Along with the increasingly higher levels of his gong powers, however, he acquired an ever deepening recognition of humanity and human life.
The human race should have been good and beautiful in the first place, but because it has lost its xin zhi (mental wisdom), people's souls are now being corrupted and their bodies are suffering tortures. Their economic living standards are rising by the day, but their spiritual qualities cannot keep up. His heart pained him whenever he thought of this. The people need strong and healthy bodies, and they need good and beautiful souls, if they are to build up a good and beautiful society and a good and beautiful life. He became aware of his own responsibility, and he made up his mind to devote his efforts to making people physically healthy and to constructing a good and beautiful paradise of the soul. He made up his mind to attain this objective by refashioning the Dafa, which he had spent so many years learning and cultivating on his own, into a Dafa suitable for practice by ordinary people. He also saw that this objective, although good and beautiful, would be very difficult to attain; the road would be filled with complexities, hardships, and dangers. Once he had made up his mind, however, he took action without the least hesitation.
Starting in 1984, Li Hongzhi conducted conscientious investigations into the various schools of qigong in and outside the country and participated in a number of qigong teaching classes. He analyzed the characteristics of modern man, since Dafa had to be adapted to the regularities of life of ordinary people if it was to blossom among ordinary people. Ordinary people have to work, and can spend only a limited amount of time to practice gong. Traditional practicing methods are overelaborate and take too long to improve one's gong. Dafa should discard these shortcomings while retaining their advantages and strong points. He saw that the desires of the mind (xin zhi suo zhi) are the foundation of the health of humanity. All people wish for things good and beautiful, but all bad things have emerged because people have lost their xin zhi. Because the practicing methods of Falun Xiufo Dafa that Li himself had practiced in the past were not suitable for wide popularization, he made up his mind to fashion a Dafa suitable for practicing by modern man--the Falun Gong.
Starting in 1984, Li Hongzhi threw himself heart and soul into the fashioning of Falun Gong. The Buddhist Falun (Dharma wheel), the yin and yang of Daoism, in fact everything in the universe, is reflected in Falun Gong. As he was fashioning Falun Gong, his masters all came back. Supreme masters of Buddhism, Daoism, Grand Dao, and other schools all took part. Every movement and position of Falun Gong was determined under the guidance of these masters and after repeated deliberations and repeated drilling and personal experience. That is why Falun Dafa not only reflects concepts from Buddhism, but assembles all the mysterious forces of the universe and is the quintessence of the entire universe. Today, it is concentrated in the person of Li Hongzhi. After Falun Gong was finalized in 1989, Li was in no hurry to spread it in society . For caution's sake, he first had a few of his apprentices practice this gong. After two years of observation, he found all of these apprentices had reached very high levels. In other types of Gong, the level known as san hua ju ding (three flowers assembling over one's head) is attained only after ten or more years of practice, or even after decades of practice. But some of his apprentices had attained this level after only two years of practicing Falun Gong. This shows that their gong powers improved very quickly.
In May 1992 Li Hongzhi, obeying the calls of duty, made his first public appearance. The China Qigong Science Institute had, after conscientious investigations, fully endorsed the theory, methods, and effectiveness of Falun Gong and accepted it as a school of Gong directly under the purview of the Institute. It also rendered much concrete support and assistance for the popularization and teaching of Falun Gong. To date, Li has already been invited to set up several dozen classes to teach Falun Gong in various places in China and has had hundreds of thousands of students. Wherever he goes, he has received an enthusiastic welcome and vigorous support from learners of Falun Gong. Practice has proved that Falun Gong has miraculous powers and has produced inestimable effects. Li is tirelessly traveling from place to place and fulfilling his mission in a down-to-earth manner. All people who have learned Falun Gong realize that Falun Dafa is indeed a great fa for practitioners, that it has a high starting point, and that it offers much to its practitioners and selflessly provides them with treasures of the highest order. This is something that no other schools of gong are able to do.
The selflessness of Falun Gong is first of all manifested in the low charges collected for it. Wherever he sets up classes, Li Hongzhi insists on the lowest possible charges. Some types of gong have been subjected to corrective action by supervisory organizations because their charges are too high, but every time Falun Gong classes are set up, repeated negotiations are held with the supervisory organizations because charges for the classes are too low. It is not possible to waive all charges. Charges are collected for renting venues. The contracting organizations collect service charges. And after transportation fees, fees for food and lodging, and various other fees and charges are paid, very little is left. Everything that is left is used for Falun Gong construction. Li Hongzhi frequently says that, since this is for the salvation of mankind, we should not increase the burden on practitioners. Falun Gong could very well become a means for Li to become rich. Some people have approached Li Hongzhi and, with promises of high remuneration, have wanted to monopolize the teaching of Falun Gong. Some people have even invited him abroad to make big money. But all such offers have been rejected. Li has time and again reiterated his objective to serve the people. He resolutely refuses to engage in cult activities.
Falun Gong means giving and offering, and it possesses supernatural force. During his teaching classes, the first thing Li does is to adjust the students' physiques, until these students reach a state where they are suitable for studying and practicing Dafa. On this basis, he will place a Falun (Dharma wheel) in the lower abdomen of each student. This Falun, which will be used to help the student practice Falun Gong, spins 24 hours a day and is there for the purpose of fa lian ren (the fa cultivating the person). In other words, a person cannot practice gong at all times, while the Falun at all times helps the practitioner practice gong, so that modern man is absolved of the difficulties caused by the brevity of the time available for practicing gong. Moreover, he also places Falun in other parts of the student's body. Some of these Falun help to practice gong, others cure illnesses. They revolve constantly, and automatically adjust the physical condition of the practitioner. To help students master the essentials of practicing gong, he also places shang qi ji (qi promoting mechanism) on the exterior of the student's body. Like the Falun, these qi ji revolve constantly and lead the students onto the correct path of practicing gong, as well as causing the practitioner's circulatory system (jing mai) to revolve according to the zhou tian (the circulatory system of the universe).
It is safe to practice Falun Gong. No practitioners of Falun Gong will suffer from adverse changes. Li Hongzhi has time and again emphasized that no problems must arise in the practicing of Dafa. Falun Gong has excluded all factors that are likely to lead to adverse changes. For instance, there can be no yi nian in the course of practicing gong, nor can there be spontaneous gong. Also, each student is protected by his or her fa shen (Dharma body); the family of each student, and even the venue where he or she practices gong, is cleansed and protected by a "safety hood" (anquan zhao) that ensures that the student is not affected by evil information.
VHalf a year after Li Hongzhi's first public appearance in December 1992, upon receiving an invitation from the 1992 Dongfang Health Exposition, he personally led his disciples to the exposition to support the country's large-scale qigong activities. At this exposition, Li Hongzhi's name and the Falun Gong that he had devised immediately created a sensation in the capital city. Li Rusong, the general director of the exposition, and Professor Jiang Xuegui, the exposition's chief consultant, spoke very highly of Li Hongzhi's extraordinary gong strength and Falun Gong's enormous power. Li Rusong said: "The first letter of commendation received at this exposition praises Falun Gong. Falun Gong has also received the greatest number of letters of commendation." Professor Jiang said: "I have personally seen how Teacher Li Hongzhi has performed many miracles at this exposition. Falun Gong has proven itself to be the star school of gong at this exposition. As the chief consultant of the exposition, I, on my own responsibility, recommend Falun Gong to all of you."
At the 1993 Dongfang Health Exposition, Li was invited to serve as a member of the exposition's organizing committee, and Falun Gong was demonstrated at the exposition by special invitation. Li Hongzhi's academic report on quigong, presented at the exposition, opened up a new world before his listeners and evoked great interest among qigong afficionados. It had originally been decided that influential qigong masters would each present one report, but because people felt they had not heard enough after Li Hongzhi had given his report, the exposition's organizing committee decided to put on another session. People still felt they had not heard enough, so a third session was organized. All three reports were given to packed audiences, and when no more seats were available some people sat on the floor while others stood throughout the two-hour reports. Li donated all the earnings from his second report to the "China Volunteer-for-a-Just-Cause Foundation" (jian yi yong wei ji jin hui).
In view of the outstanding contributions made to the grand convention of the exposition by Li Hongzhi and by the Falun Gong sponsored by him, the convention's organizing committee and the convention's experts committee jointly decided to present the convention's sole and highest award--the "Borderline Sciences Progress Award"--to Li Hongzhi. The convention also conferred on him a special gold award and the title "Welcomed Qigong Master" in recognition of his merits. At that exposition, Li Hongzhi was honored with more awards than any other qigong master.
Today, Li Hongzhi is leading his disciples to large and medium-sized cities all over China where they are giving classes to teach Falun Dafa and ehlping people who have practiced gong for many years without much improvement rise to higher levels. He is making new contributions to people's physical and mental health as well as propagating Falun and the cultivation of Dafa.
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Translation 2000 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., from the Chinese text. Li Hongzhi, "Zhongguo falun gong chuangshiren, falun gong yanjiuhui huizhang li hongzhi xiansheng xiao zhuan," in Falun Gong (China Broadcasting and Television Publishing House, 1994).
