Brief Biography of Li Hongzhi

Texte d'Alexei Goncharenko

"Brief Biography of Li Hongzhi: founder of Falun Gong and president of the falung Gong research society"
Authors(s):  N/A
Source: Chinese law and Government v 32 no6 (Nov./Dec 1999) p.14-23 ISSN: 0009-4609 Number: BSSI00019541
Published by: M.E Sharpe Inc

    This article does not have an author but it is published by a magazine called Chinese law and Government whose publisher is M.E Sharpe Inc. Chinese Law and Government surveys the most important and provocative Chinese works in the fields of law, politics, and government. It features unabridged translations of important policy documents and scholarly works, and also includes works of major significance from Japanese, Russian, and Taiwan sources. 

    The objective of this article is to promote Falun gong and the Falun dafa invented by the famous Li Hongzhi. In the beginning of the article until the sixth page, the biography of LI Hongzhi is presented by portraying him as a god through the miraculous events and obstacles he has achieved and went through from the age of three. He can apparently teleport himself, save people and even heal them, by not every event will be discussed due to the difficulty acceptance by numerous readers. Throughout the years he had many masters that taught him how to cultivate his gong. The objective was to be able to master this gong in order to achieve perfection and reach a sort of enlightenment because each time he reached a new level, new knowledge through the universe became accessible to him. He kept questioning himself about life but never found any answers. Furthermore he discovers why people are weak and corrupted, and apparently it is tied to the loss of the Xin Zhi (mental Wisdom).

In 1984 he started to refashion the Falun gong by implementing elements from Buddhism, Daoism, Grand Dao, and from other schools. In 1989 as it was finalized he decided to test it and then spread his practice. Although he could have of became rich because many entrepreneurs offered him to spread by collecting money, he refused saying this practice cannot be a burden for the human being who want to practice and improve themselves and their gong.  It was also reviewed by the China Qigong science institute, after conscientious investigation Falun dafa was fully endorsed and accepted by the school of Gong directly under the purview of the institute. Li Hongzhi explains that he adapted new techniques to the ordinary human in order to achieve gong and to help his students improve themselves and achieve a better human body and mind.

    This article is a publicity to portray that Falun gong is better and more effective than any other methods  to cultivate Gong, and according to Qi Gong, the overall health and mind is improved which is why Hongzhi has a burning to desire to transmit his knowledge worldwide. At first Li Hongzhi is portrayed as a deity, thus giving the people hope and belief in his Gong cultivation practices which will later on recruit numerous followers. The most critical part of his article is the fact that his practices were approved by the China Qigong science institute which gives him certain protection against the CCP to forbid it, because some of his practices are seen as superstitious and also considered to be a cult although he refuses to have dealt with such concepts. This means anybody can invent spiritual arts and just have them verified by the Qigong institute to later generate money and lie to people. Although  the legendary teacher mentioned he does not accept big amounts of money from students, he is still charging customers as many teachers in Qi Gong even if others approached him with offers of marketing his product to generate more money, which he kindly declined to. I find that the way he restructured his explanation about Falun Dafa and Gong, is just a disguise to recruit followers and  portray Falun as better due to its mixture from other school teachings. His idea about making society better by improving the ''mental wisdom'' is interesting, but in the end it is another way to fool people out of their money and probably oppose the CCP.