Once upon a time in Chinese history, there was a man named He Chang. He was born in Wu County. Since childhood, He Chang had taken a keen interest in cultivating the Tao* and had been leading his life in seclusion.
One day, a swarm of locusts plagued Wu County and took a severe toll on the life of the Wu county residents. The governor of Wu County, Qing Hong, sent a messenger to visit He Chang and offered him the position of Governor of Wuxi City. Although He Chang declined the offer, he sighed after the messenger left and moaned, “How can I be impervious to the locust plague in Wu County and still focus on my Taoist cultivation in seclusion?” He travelled to the Wu County on foot and moved into a local home. After the arrival of He Chang, the locusts in Wu County either died or disappeared. After the locust plague ended He Chang departed from Wu County.
Later on He Chang was offered the position of “Dr. Fang Zheng”, an ancient Chinese government official position for learned people of virtue and righteousness. Persistently, He Chang declined the offer, and quietly passed away in his home years later.
A story of how pests such as locusts flee from a Taoist cultivator shows that a genuine cultivator will bring people around him tremendous good fortune. On the other hand, think about how much karma one will create by persecuting a cultivator!
According to incomplete statistics, since Jiang Zemin started to persecute Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) practitioners on July 20, 1999, as of March 30, 2004, more than 920 Falun Dafa practitioners have been verified as having been tortured to death in China. However, according to the government's official internal statistics, the actual number of practitioners who died after being arrested had already reached 1,600 by the end of 2001. In addition, there are at least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners who have been sentenced to illegal prison terms and over 100,000 practitioners who have been consigned to forced labour camps. Thousands of practitioners have been forcefully sent to psychiatric hospitals to be tortured with injections that damage the central nervous system. At least 10,000 practitioners have been forced to leave their homes and have gone into hiding to avoid further persecution.
Meanwhile, natural disasters including sand storms, locust plagues, and earthquakes have taken place with alarming frequency in China. In 2003, a large SARS breakout in China sent the entire China populace into terror. In 2004, cases of SARS were again reported in Guangdong Province. Soon after that, avian flu broke out in southern China. One bizarre epidemic has come one after the other and no cure has been found for any of the epidemics. It is time that the Chinese people learn from the warnings of nature. Heaven will not tolerate China’s persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners. According to the lessons learned from He Chang’s life story, the Chinese people will be free of disasters only when they begin to treat Falun Dafa practitioners with kindness and fairness.
Source: Investigations Into Deities (or Sou Shen Ji in Chinese Pinyin,) a Taoist anecdotic collection by Gan Bao (circa 300 A.D.)
*Tao also known as “Dao,” a Taoist term for “the Way of nature and the universe”; 2. enlightened being who has achieved this Tao.
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