True People True Stories
By Zhang Wen Chang
INTRODUCTION
"True People True Stories," is a storybook which is spread far and wide among religious friends in all places of Yunnan. So called "True People True Stories," this book states the facts and covers time, place, testimonies by witnesses, material evidence and can be checked and verified; These are neither fairy tales nor made up by people. The stories have been kept true and it would seem strange to add anything to them. As we were told, we tried our best to record the words objectively and honestly. We added nothing to the stories and made no comments.
We listened to different people's narrations because some have a different level of knowledge and a different way of thinking; Education levels and narration skills were varied. Although the same story, there were some differences in the details. However, these make up just a small part; The content was the same.
Even though most of the stories are short and simple, they are all very interesting and meaningful. I hope that you can benefit from them.
Many such stories have also been spread among the religious friends. In this section, we only wrote nine of them which have been popularly spread in the Zhao Tong religious district. The others we will continue to collect and publish. I hope that religious friends from different places can keep on supplying us with similar stories concerning faith, religious doctrine and religious history. Thank you very much.
Finally, thanks to the religious friends who have supplied and narrated these stories.
(Composed in Kunming, December, 1987.)
1. Liu Ba Jin Rose From The Dead To Admonish His Relatives.
At the beginning of this century opposite of the high mountains at Da Wan Zi Church in Yi Liang County, a religious friend named Liu Shou Fu lived. When he was born, he was much bigger than ordinary babies and weighed "Ba Jin" (8 half-kilograms). Hence the name Liu Ba Jin.
Liu Ba Jin was a very faithful religious friend but unfortunately he married a woman who did not belong to his religion. His wife was very stubborn and her temperament strange. He once persuaded her to take part in his religious group but she abandoned the promise which she had made before marriage. He persuaded her several times but she still wasn't willing to join the religious group. Infact, she wouldn't even let her sons or daughters take part in the religious group. Liu Ba Jin had no say concerning this matter. He had to remain faithful himself and obey the religious doctrine.
Finally, one day Liu Ba Jin became seriously ill and it looked like he was going to die soon. So, he called his wife, sons and daughters to his bed and told them, "After I die, my body will be burried alone at one side because you weren't willing to join the religious group and have not followed me. I prefer not to be burried with you but rather alone." Soon afterwards he passed away.
Following his death, his wife invited a group of Taoist priests and asked them to perform the Taoist rites and readings of the Taoist scriptures. When the Taoist priests came he had been dead for three days. His body was put into a coffin and placed in the center of the room, not yet covered. Once the Taoists arrived, they hurried to arrange the room and decorate it with Taoist decorations and after a while everything was finished. The priests and his daughters and sons were in their mourning dresses and began to perform the Taoist rites ceremony when suddenly Liu Ba Jin got up from his coffin with much strength and beheld his surroundings. Then he said in a stern voice, "I don't want you to do such rubbish to me. I want you to quickly go and invite the people in the opposite room to chant scriptures for me. After this he lied down again with his face up and the priests were sore afraid. They carelessly collected their things and fled from his house in much astonishment. His wife, sons and daughters were also panick-stricken and didn't know what to do. Consequently, they had to ask the religious friends who were in the opposite room to come and read the scriptures for the dead. However, his stubborn wife, sons and daughters without upbringing still didn't join the religious group.
So far the religious friends in Da Wan Zi all knew this miraculous story. Everyone could tell it just like it was and they kept on repeating the story. Eventually the later generations of Liu Ba Jin were moved emotionally. This year (1987) on October 21st, Priest ? travelled to Da Wan and the grandson of Liu Ba Jin, Liu Ji Yun heard this. So, he immediately took his family (12 people) and went down from the high mountain, crossed the river and brook, went through the deep valleys, climbed the opposite hill and told the priest, "Ah, dear priest, I have been willing to join the religious group for a long time and follow the way of my grandfather. My wife, sons and daughters also have the same willingness. Especially within the past two or three years we have longed for a priest to come baptise us and allow us to join the religious group, but there has been no one for a long time. This morning my son-in-law heard there was a priest come, so he hurriedly ran up the mountain and told me. I was so glad and then took all of my family here right now to plead with you to baptise us no matter what happened."
This priest was just travelling and had not come to visit his religious friends, so he hadn't planned on doing anything religious. However, when he heard the eager speech of Liu Ji Yun and saw their faithfulness and willingness, he was moved. He couldn't find a word to refuse them. Then he joyfully agreed and afterwards briefly spoke with them, baptised them, and accepted them into the religious family.
(Told by a religious friend in Da Wan, Yi Liang.)
2. The Defeat Of Guo Er Ding.
Who was Guo Er Ding? He was an Italian Ling Yi Hui and an Italian priest. At first he worked in the Hui Dong hospital of Zhao Tong in medical care but after the Liberation, the former priest, Zhu Tian You, who had worked for 13 years in Da Wan church, was transferred to another post. Because of it, Guo Er Ding was appointed to be priest of the church by Ji Li Zhi who was the bishop at that time. Although priest Guo didn't stay in Da Wan for long, he was very kind, modest and zealous to help the religious group's friends. His reputation was very high.
At the beginning of 1952, the local authorities took him to Jiao Kui, another church, and gathered the Jiao Kui, Da Wan and nearby village's religious friends together to struggle with Guo Er Ding against their own will. Priest Guo found the situation terrible. He thought it might bode ill rather than well and saw that a struggle was inevitable. Then he put on his short white coat, wore his tie, and prepared to be a martyr.
The Square of Jiao Kui church was crowded with people, some of them not of the religious friends, and everything for the struggle had been prepared. A person shouted, "Take Guo Er Ding here!" and then Priest Guo appeared at the door of the church. Once he got to the door, he stood there and raised his hands in the form of a big cross and blessed the crowd. After this, he lowered his head waiting for "condemnation" and a "struggle." After a long time of the authorities asking the people to condemn him, the people still wouldn't do it. Some of the authorities were agitated. Then Dai Qi Hua, Mei Guang Hui, Zhang Shun Chang, Huang XX shouted very loudly, "Beat down Guo Er Ding! Beat down Imperialism!" (slogans such as these), but the echo of the people was not much and not so warm. Nevertheless, when Priest Guo heard which direction the echo came from, he raised his hands to form a cross to bless the crowd in that direction. His religious friends that received the blessings formed crosses back to him. Because of this, the echos became fewer and fewer. Among those four active persons, Dai Qi Hua was the most active. He was shamed into anger, raised his right hand and shouted at the top of his lungs, "BEAT DOWN GUO ER DING!" This time not only was there no reply but also his right arm was no longer controlled by him. Once he had raised it, he couldn't put it down. He felt very embarrassed and didn't know what to do. Then Priest Guo saw this, approached him slowly, and watched him kindly and seriously. Meanwhile he stretched his hand and very gently touched the arm which was still raised in the air. Dai Qi Hua's hand could then be withdrawn to his body. The crowd was very astonished and everyone said it was a miracle.
After this, the struggle could no longer be developed. It stopped silently without any decision. After two days, Priest Guo was escorted to Kunming by the authorities and expelled out of the country through Hong Kong. There also were several foreign priests expelled with him out of China.
The story about Guo Er Ding is still told by the religious friends in the Zhao Tong religious region and especially by Zhao Kui and Da Wan's religious friends. They can tell you the details and the place can still be seen. When the local people tell you the story, you can see the whole story take place in your mind. The local people remember it very clearly and can talk about its details. Moreover, they still say that shortly after the incident those four persons all died suddenly. Among us, no one knows why they died and none of them had a good end. The details which the religious friends told us concerning the deaths, we cannot bear to record them any longer.
(Told by religious friends in Jiao Kui and Da Wan, Yi Liang County.)
3. He Er Zhong Besieged The Church Of Da Wan On A Large Scale.
Some classmates who came from Zhao Tong had told me the story of He Er Zhong when I was just twelve years old, but I had almost forgotten it. During my travel to Da Wan I found two old men, Zhang Cai Fu and Zhang Kai Rong who retold me this story once more.
Before I tell you the story, we must know a little about the church of Da Wan. It is said by Mr. Dai Qi Xue, that the church of Da Wan was built in the seventh year of Tong Zhi, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1868 AD). That would give it about 120 years of history. However, someone else said that it was built earlier and had almost 200 years of history. The church was also said to have been built by a French missionary, Mr. Lai from Paris. His original French name would need to be verified.
Considering that there were many thieves in the district at the time and for the sake of the church, Mr. Lai built the church as a small castle. The scope of the church covered 4,000 meters and was enclosed by a surrounding wall. The bottom half of the enclosing wall was built in cream-red brickwork. The average height was about three meters high and the thickness was about 0.7 meters. On the stone wall there was also a soil wall with crenel which was about two meters high. So, the enclosing wall was very firm. The worship hall was leaned against the enclosing wall and it was made of brickwork with stones placed all over. In front of the worship hall there were pillboxes which ran 15 meters high, both magnificent and very firm. The priest's confession room was close to the worship hall. To the northwest of the confession room were the stable, kitchen, etc. Then, after you went northwest opposite of the worship hall, there was a little square made with flag stone. This was where the nuns lived and where the school was located. Now, only the worship hall and one of the pillboxes on the right side of the worship hall remain. The others were completely destroyed after the Liberation. The enclosing wall was almost completely destroyed while building the road from Yi Liang to Hua Qiao just after Liberation. Now all that remains of the wall is a small portion of the southeast corner and the gate. The school which exists today near the mountain was rebuilt by the Swiss priest, Sun Zhi Xin, in the late 1930's.
Around 1900, there were so many movements against religion all over China. Many churches were attacked by people and many religious friends lost their lives. The enemies who attacked the church of Da Wan were neither the local people nor the Yi He Yuan (a movement of anti-imperialism waged by northern Chinese peasants and workers in 1900). They were people from the An Guan family of the Yi nationality. The members of this family were bandits and knew no discipline. The local people called them the "terrible bandits."
The team of He Er Niu heard that many churches in other districts had been attacked, so they thought that this was there chance to attack at Da Wan. They imagined that this church was the richest, so they formed a group of many valiant men (over 200 people) and went to rob it. They were also armed with the best guns at the time.
When the religious friends heard the news, they fled into the church. Some of the young men were perched in the pillboxes while others patrolled around the church within the enclosing wall. Women, children, and elder people hid in the worship hall and prayed one after another. They asked God to bless them but the equipment of the religious friends was rather bad. They had no foreign guns or cannons, but rather had a pair of simple guns which had been constructed by the local people. The longest gun was about two meters in length and the range was further than the short gun. The short gun was only one meter long. Aside from these, they also had four powder guns. The guns were handled by four people and the others resorted to big knives and long spears.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE That's enough of this one. If you want more, you can read the Chinese version.
4. The Rain Likely Knows Everything.
On that day the clouds were so thick and the air was humid. It looked as if it would rain and I was worried, so I asked Mr. Cheng who walked ahead of me if he thought it would rain today. He responded, "No, it won't rain today. The weather here is always like this. The clouds are always thick, it always looks as if it will rain, but it doesn't happen." Drought is very common there. Fortunately, God always blesses us religious friends. Elderly people quite frequently tell us that there once was a priest who lived there. A serious drought had occured and so the religious friends collected money and gave it to the priest. Then the miracles happened many times. After the priest prayed, the clouds became very thick and it rained. More strangely than that, the rain seemed as if it had eyes. The rain only fell on the religious friends' fields. As for the non-believers, they didn't receive any rain. The non-religious friends noticed this and felt so strange. Due to this, they also began to attend church. Some of them even said they were willing to give money to the priest and asked him to pray for them.
(Told by Cheng Lan Zhong of Da Wan, Yi Liang.)
5. The Bandits Couldn't Cross No Name Bridge.
It happened at about the third or fourth year of the Qing Dynasty (about 1877-1979). There was a powerful gang of bandits in the Yan Jing Prefecture who called themselves "The Bandits." They thought that there was alot of gold in the church along with other valuable foreign goods so they decided to go and rob them. At that time, the church there was the main Catholic church in Yunnan Province. (missing information) However, the bandits had many more people than did the religious friends and were much more powerful. So, the religious friends couldn't defend themselves and fled into the main area enclosed by a surrounding wall. The bandits chased after them, wanting to break into the surrounding wall. However, there was a deep and wide moat in front of them and to get by, they would have to cross No Name Bridge. When they got up to the edge of the bridge they couldn't see anything in front of them, but when they looked back they could see very clearly. In other words, they couldn't see the road in front of them, but could just see what laid behind them. They had no choice but to withdraw. The religious friends saw this behaviour and thought that it was so strange. They couldn't tell what was wrong or if there was something mysterious stopping the bandits from crossing the bridge. They just saw the bandits come to the edge of the bridge, no one dare go ahead, and then all retreat. After several months they found out what had happened when one of the bandits told them. People then finally understood.
(Told by Huang Hong Xun of Shi Gao Chun Village, Cheng Fen Xiang, Xue Fu Prefecture.)
6. Historical Background Information (No Miracle).
Long Bing also called Long Tai Shan belongs to Yan Jing Prefecture, Jin Yuan County. Long Bing Church. A local elderly religious friend named Guo Zhong Liang said, "Long Bing Church has a history of 147 years up till now (1987). It was established in 1840 and the area was about 5,000 kilometers. It's shape was that of a square and was built on a slope. The surrounding walls were built from huge square stones and on average the stones were about 3.5 meters tall by 0.8 meters wide. There were even pillboxes along the surrounding wall. Inside the wall were many buildings and the main ones were the new and old churches, the priest and ministers' rooms, a school, etc. Near the back of the surrounding wall, there were tombs of Priest Yuan, Minister Ai Xiao Dai, and Mr. Zhang. At one time the church was very strong, but after the bandits had tried to attack it, the church became weak. Every time the bandits came, red flags were raised along the wall to warn others that they were coming. If the bandits saw the red flags from far away, they wouldn't dare go ahead. Unfortunately, after the Liberation of China, the local government of Long Bing sold the church's wood to the local people so they could build houses. The tombs were torn down and only a portion of the school remained. Over half of the stones were dragged away and now the walls stand at just about one meter tall. The people went to the local government and made them abandon this, so what's left still stands until now."
7. People Shouldn't Steal.
During China's Land Reform, some property was confiscated by the government and given to nearby people. Some people were even given holy things. Most of the religious friends took good care of the holy things and didn't dare to use them, but some religious friends went ahead and used them. For example, religious friend Den Pei Guo's family received some of the clothes that the priest wore while conducting mass. Without thinking about it, religious friend Den's wife made a dress for her daughters from these clothes. She had thought that her daughter would be very happy and charmed after wearing the beautiful dress. However, her daughter felt pain as soon as she put on the dress and cried unrelentlessly. The mother thought that the girl was sick and called the doctor over, but he couldn't find anything wrong with her. Finally, the doctor asked her to take the dress off of the daughter. Strangely enough, when the dress was taken off, the girl felt comfortable and quit crying. That wasn't enough to teach Den's family a lesson and didn't discourage them from abusing holy things. They had also received the church's locker room as their own and had turned one of the items which had used to hold holy things into a commode. Then their family and even their children died one after another. The child who lived the longest died before his fifteenth birthday. Now only the old couple remained in the shabby old locker room and they lived a poor, pitiful life. People said that they had gotten what they deserved. Nowadays, the religious friends in Long Bin often tell the youth the two stories to teach them a lesson.
(Told by religious friends.)
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE That's enough for me. My Chinese translators mentioned that in the upcoming stories there is some praying to a statue of Mary and to some tombs. If you want to read stories eight or nine, you can read the Chinese version.