[PureInsight.org] When Qin Hui, the treacherous prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty (960-1279), framed the loyal general Yue Fei, the first person to preside over the case was He Zhu, the Palace Assistant Secretary. He Zhu knew that Yue Fei was innocent by the conclusion of the trial, especially when he saw the words “loyally serve the country with all one’s heart” tattooed on Yue Fei’s back. He was moved by Yue Fei’s loyal spirit of devotion to the country.
Under enormous pressure, he submitted a report to Qin Hui, declaring Yue Fei as innocent. Qin Hui was furious, and asked the emperor to find an excuse to transfer He Zhu from his post. He soon demoted He Zhu to be a local official, and promoted Wan Qixie as Palace Assistant Secretary to preside over the case, which led to the murder of Yue Fei.
He Zhu knew that both emperor and prime minister had every intention of killing Yue Fei, and He Zhu would be promoted and rewarded after it was done. He was also aware that if he did not go along with their malicious plot, he would lose his official position and be dismissed, and at worst be put to death, perhaps even implicating his whole family too. But He Zhu was not moved by the pressure and interests, and with great moral courage, chose not to associate with evil.
Although his fame and fortune were damaged for a while, his good name was left to history in the end. This incident tells us a truth: goodness requires not only conscience, but also courage. If you merely have good intentions in your heart, but you don’t have the courage to stay firm to goodness in your actions, you don’t have the courage to say no to evil, and you even betray goodness against your will under pressure, or temptation of interests, and suppress goodness, then what is the essential difference between this and evil?
In the long history of China’s 5,000-year-old civilisation, there have always been loyal people who defy power to protect justice and kindness, thus pushing the wheel of history to roll forward. Just to name a few: Wei Zheng and Fang Xuanling in the Tang Dynasty, Di Renjie in the Wu Zhou Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan and Bao Zheng in the Northern Song Dynasty, Wen Tianxiang and Lu Xiufu in the Southern Song Dynasty, Hai Rui and Yu Qian in the Ming Dynasty, as well as the “Six Gentlemen of 1898” in the Qing Dynasty, and so on; There are countless examples of these outstanding individuals.
Before the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) wanted to mobilise the national army to forcefully suppress the student demonstrations. The commander of the mobilised army, with great moral courage, refused to implement the military order from the Central Military Commission to suppress the students. It was an act of moral courage to defend the people in defiance of the CCP’s authority.
On July 20, 1999, the CCP raised the butcher’s knife against hundreds of millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China, using various cruel methods to brutally persecute them. Han Guangsheng, then director of the Shenyang Judicial Bureau, did not want to abuse his power to persecute innocent Falun Gong practitioners, so he resigned from his official position and moved overseas. Through his actions, he expressed his opposition and resistance to the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, which was a shock to the evil CCP.
On the contrary, in the face of power and pressure, many people sell their conscience for money and profit. They act against their conscience by blindly executing their superiors’ unjust orders to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. It has brought great suffering to the people, and of course is seeding enormous evil retribution for the perpetrators themselves and their descendants.
Being good will bring about blessings, while evildoers will eventually meet with retribution. The law of cause and effect spares no one. Although Qin Hui, Wan Qixie and the other evildoers who framed Yue Fei seemed successful for a while, they were later cast into iron men by the people. Their statues are seen kneeling before Yue Fei’s tomb, to be forever cursed at by later generations.
In light of this historical lesson, I wonder if those officials and staff at all levels of the regime, who are still carrying out the CCP’s persecution campaign against Falun Gong, turn themselves around and return to justice and kindness. Can they courageously take a stand against the persecution, protect the innocent, and stand on the side of justice?
Chinese version: https://big5.zhengjian.org/node/280018
(Pureinsight)