By Geng He
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| Geng He, wife of disappeared Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, seen at a rally in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 14. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times) |
On the afternoon of Feb. 14, during the visit by the Chinese Regime’s Vice-Chairman Xi Jinping to the United States, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing for me and Guo Quan’s wife, Li Jing. During the meeting, Congressman Christopher Smith asked me, “How can Gao Zhisheng suffer so much pain and not give up? What kind of forces have carried him forward?”
I married Gao Zhisheng nearly twenty years ago, but I never really thought about this question. I know he is a good man, and he is doing the right thing. All of this is perfectly justified in my opinion, with no need for a reason.
In China, however, these right and proper things have become terrifying things that everyone avoids. Why did Gao Zhisheng do what is right when he knew he would have to pay such a huge price? What kind of power influenced him, supported him, and made him a brave human rights lawyer with the courage to sacrifice himself?
The night after the hearing I could hardly sleep, thinking about Congressman Smith’s question and thinking about Gao’s entire life. These memories helped me piece together a complete answer.
I think there are three forces that supported Gao.
The first force is his mother. Gao wrote a thorough and extensive description of his great mother in his article “My Plain Folks Mother.”
When Gao Zhisheng was 10 years old, his father passed away due to illness. When his father died, the family had nothing, just a pile of debts and seven kids. To make the issue worse, the only adult kid of the family, Gao’s big brother, became sick. His illness was due to selling too much blood to pay for his father’s treatments.
His brother was rushed to the hospital, making the already debt-ridden family even poorer. In such extreme poverty and tragic circumstances, Gao Zisheng’s great mother, 38-year-old Li Guilian said only one sentence, “We must live on.”
She started to carry on the entire family’s work by herself, working 20 plus hours a day—working in the farm before sunrise, then doing laundry and cooking for the kids after returning from the fields. After the kids slept, his mother would weave yarn into fabric, make clothing for the kids, and repair shoes.
Every piece of the kids’ clothing was filled with their mother’s untiring labor; each was made from scratch. Each meal and each piece of clothing required a huge amount of labor by their mother. One year of such suffering and their mother became skin and bones.
However, one year after their father’s death, she told the kids who had stopped going to school to start again, to take turns going to school. Their mother’s decision was like a fairy tale to these kids, who worried about their mother. The second oldest refused to go to school, but ended up going when mother insisted.
With their mother’s help, all the kids finished middle school after a few years. Their mother’s decision changed these kids’ lives.
Gao is the smartest of the kids, and required the most effort from his mother. He studied by himself through elementary school. The thought of the tremendous suffering his mother took on when he attended middle school still brings tears to his eyes.
Gao Zhisheng had to walk 3 miles to go to middle school, and his mother had to wake up very early to prepare breakfast and lunch for him. There was not a single alarm clock in the village, so his mother had to wake up many times during the night, looking at the stars to figure out when she and little Zhisheng needed to get up. During a rainy night, his mother would not sleep at all trying to figure out when little Zhisheng needed to get up.
During three years of middle school, Gao Zhisheng was never late to school, he studied very diligently to repay his mother, and graduated in the top three of his class.
Despite carrying such a heavy burden, his mother, who was a Buddhist, never stopped performing kind acts to help the poor—she always tried to do all she could to help the poor. She frequently brought beggars to their home, gave them food, and then let them stay to avoid the rain. Especially during the winter, Gao’s home would have10 plus poor people staying at one time.
There were two particular instances of his mother helping the poor that Gao Zhisheng still remembers clearly. During a very windy and cold winter night, someone told Gao’s mother that a group of poor beggars went into a broken and abandoned cave to stay the night. Gao’s mother immediately got up and took the kids with her to the abandoned cave.
Gao saw that the cave entrance was sealed with straw and hay. Gao’s mother removed some of the hay, and Gao saw eight people, male and female of various ages, all cuddled together. All were shocked, looking at Gao’s mother. Gao’s mother invited them back to the house to avoid the cold.
Those poor people didn’t say anything, looked at Gao’s mother, then looked among themselves, and finally followed Gao’s mother to the home. Gao’s mother served them hot food. That night, the floor of their home was filled with poor people.
Another time, during the summer, the food in the family’s farm had not matured yet, so their family relied on borrowing food from others. One day, a beggar mother and son came to Gao’s home. Gao’s mother told them to sit down, then she went into the family farm and broke off a few corn cobs that were not mature yet, and gave them to the mother and son.
Later, Gao’s brothers and sisters all started working. Especially after Gao became a lawyer, his mother’s economic situation improved significantly. From that time on, she was able to help more poor people. The number of “poor relatives” she took in grew larger and larger.
Gao’s fourth brother told him that their mother took in all the poor people from the nearby village as her relatives. These “relatives” always come to their home for dinner during holidays. She also paid school fees for some poor kids who lost their fathers. Gao didn’t know about this until these poor kids came to his mother’s funeral.
A memory that particularly stuck with Gao happened during the Chinese New Year before her mother passed away.
One day, after the family had finished cleaning up after dinner, one father brought two kids to their doorstep to beg for food. Gao’s elder sister was going to turn them away, but their sick mother, who was in bed, struggled to open her eyes and ordered the elder sister, “Runrun (his elder sister’s nickname), please treat them to dinner.”
When that family was eating dinner, Gao’s mother repeatedly asked Gao and his siblings to ensure that the father and two kids eat their fill, while enduring pain from her sickness. When she heard the two kids coughing non-stop, she asked Gao to give them money to see a doctor.
After the father and his sons finished eating, Gao Zhisheng asked his sister to sanitize the utensils with hot water. Gao’s mother opened her eyes in great pain and criticized Gao, “You have changed. Now, in your eyes they’re poor people and are different from you. It is because you think they are different from you that you think this way.”
His mother’s deep compassion was unforgettable to Gao and had an profound impact on him. He wrote, “I had often been moved to tears by my mother’s acts of compassion from her belief in Buddhism. Twenty years have passed, and I have become the famous lawyer who represents the underprivileged. Oftentimes, my colleagues would bring to my office people who are on crutches, in wheelchairs, or can’t afford to pay for the lawsuits, and scenes of my mother helping poor people would arise in my mind.”
Gao’s mother’s last words to her children were, “Don’t ask the poor people from the village to pay back the money they borrowed from me. You must continue to help those poor kids with their schooling until they graduate.”
On Mar. 6, 2005, Gao’s mother passed away with a smile on her face. She left behind seven children, 14 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and countless crying poor “relatives.”
A few days after his mother’s death, Gao wrote with tears “My Plain Folks Mother” in front of his mother’s coffin. At the end of the article he wrote, “My mother was heroic. I often say this with confidence. Mother was an ordinary person, but this didn’t prevent her from having a great character. Her great character was reflected constantly in the small acts of her daily life.
“Most of her life was lived in adversity, but she never stopped helping others who were also in difficult situations. Despite her economic situation, she continued to help others. (When I wrote these words, I was in tears).
“Her big heart and great character have a lasting impact on all of us. She was poor most of her life, but she gave us countless spiritual wealth. Her life is a book, although she doesn’t know how to read.
“Remembering her great character has been painful yet blissful to me. Even a hundred articles is not enough gather up my memory of my ordinary mother. But regardless, I have to write something to express how much I miss my great mother.”
The second force that supports Gao comes from his faith in humanity. He said in his article “Who Can Overcome Human Nature”: “It’s the most stupid thing to declare war on faith, because this is declaring war on humanity. Ever since man’s history, there was no force that can overcome humanity, and there won’t be in the future. [The Chinese Communist Party] has made a foolish choice to declare war on Christianity and Falun Gong. Humanity has never been overcome by any powerful force.”
The third strength that supports Gao comes from his religion. Gao wrote in his article “Voice from My Heart”: “Outside friends might think my family is miserable. In fact, my wife, Geng He, is most bitter. I am an optimist and believe in God. Although I was tortured nearly to death, it was only physical pain. A heart filled with God is full, and leaves no space for accepting pain.”
The torture Gao endured can’t be described by words. Every time when I think of him living in the darkness of hell, my grief, worry, and anxiety makes me not myself. But I believe, as long as Gao is alive, he’ll keep his strength by believing in God; he’ll keep his inner light and hope.
In the past, Gao Zhisheng provided legal help to countless people. Today, he needs help. He needs help from international society. I came to Washington DC this time to call for more help for my husband from international society. I hope the international society knows what a decent person Gao Zhisheng is, and he is in prison for upholding justice, and is subjected to brutal torture.
I sincerely thank Mr. Smith for his questions. It made me better understand my husband and thus step deeper into his inner world. I hope more people will get to know him better, help him to gain freedom as soon as possible, and help him soon reunite with us.
Geng He
Feb. 15, 2012
From - http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/opinion/what-gives-gao-zhisheng-the-strength-to-press-on-195254-all.html
