(Minghui.org) A small incident many years ago still remains fresh in my memory. A colleague of mine was supervising her toddler in a playground when she saw an earthworm wriggling on the ground nearby.
“Stomp on it,” my colleague said to her daughter. So the little girl stepped on the worm with her foot. “You’re so brave!” My colleague praised her young daughter loudly as she picked her up and hugged her, as if the child had done something heroic.
I was a bit taken aback, thinking: Such an innocent child should be taught to cherish life and protect nature. Why would you tell her to deliberately kill a harmless creature?
As I thought about it, I began to see why she acted that way. In today’s China, under the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) culture, all parents want their children to be strong, so they try to instill in their young minds the ‘law of the jungle’ and encourage them to aim to be in control in all circumstances.
I realized that I too, living in a society of CCP culture, had been just as brainwashed and became indifferent to many things, big and small.
I was quite self-centered before I took up Falun Dafa, a practice of self-cultivation. I had no idea about living in harmony with nature. Like others, I paid little attention to things that seemed insignificant. For example, when I saw others trampling across the grass to take a shortcut, I did the same. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but when I think about it now, I realized it was improper behavior on my part.
When I went shopping, I often ended up buying more fruit and veggies than necessary and, as a result, some of them became rotten and had to be thrown out.
What a pity! The fruit and veggies went through a growing process before being harvested. They would have been much happier to provide me with nutrition rather than being thrown away because of my negligence. I realized that I must rectify my conduct, starting with small things.
People living in China have been brainwashed since childhood by CCP culture and ideology, which embraces atheism, evolution, materialism, and so on. This mindset advocates the law of the jungle and promotes the concept of the winner-take-all, encouraging people to use all means to fight against each other for personal gain. It teaches people to fight against heaven and earth, with no concern for the devastating consequences.
People brainwashed with such ideology don’t believe in life after death, reincarnation, or that good is rewarded and evil is punished. When people no longer believe in divine beings, they have no concern for harmony with nature, no loving kindness for others, or any moral restraint. They dare to do all kinds of bad things to harm others, without any consideration for nature or humanity.
Total Destruction by the CCP
The CCP has proved by its own actions that it came to totally destroy the world and is very good at it. From destroying the natural environment to destroying China’s traditional culture, values, and spirituality, the CCP’s destructive tentacles have extended to all areas in society. Even a small village like my hometown was not spared.
I remember when I was very young, our beautiful village was surrounded by small rivers on three sides. In summertime, the river water was so clear that you could see fish darting here and there. Along the rivers, there were stretches of green grass, fragrant flowers, and songbirds flying in the blue sky. In the distance, you could see patches of rice fields. It was such a beautiful and tranquil example of nature in harmony.
Around the two small rivers to the north of our village, there was a big patch of wetland, with dense aquatic plants, such as reeds, water onions, and cattail grass, which produced sticks—ideal toys for children to play with. Old people liked to use cattail grass to weave straw sandals, baskets, and mats.
The wetland also attracted all kinds of birds, such as pheasants and wild ducks. We often found duck eggs there. There was a pond of Chinese water chestnuts, and when the ornately horn-shaped nuts were ripe, both adults and children would go to pick them. Those nuts were absolutely delicious when cooked. My older sisters often went to wash their clothes in the little river, and each time I would go with them and splash around in the water. Life was full of joy back then.
Later, we moved away and I became busy with studies and work. When I eventually went back to my hometown, it was ruined beyond recognition! Everything was ruined—the three small rivers were gone, the wetlands and the Chinese water chestnut pond had been filled in for farmland. The beautiful village I remembered no longer existed.
This destruction is typical of the CCP and the opposite to the approach in ancient China, when people’s belief in divine beings meant they valued virtue and did good deeds. They respected nature and cherished life, preserving the natural environment rather than destroying it.
An extraordinary example of such an approach is shown in the ancient Dujiangyan water conservation system. This system was constructed around 256 BC by the Qin state and remains in use even today. Instead of simply damming the rushing water from Min River, which had long troubled the Chengdu plains with severe floods, the system harnessed the river by channeling and dividing the water to irrigate over 5,300 km2 (2,000 sq mi) of land in the region. This resulted in wide-ranging benefits in flood control, irrigation, water transport and general water consumption.
In 2000, the Dujiangyan Irrigation System was added to the “World Heritage List” by UNESCO. It is regarded as a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering—an amazing reflection of the wisdom of ancient people, and an example of living in harmony with Heaven and Earth.
In contrast, under the CCP’s ideology of struggle against Heaven and Earth, the natural ecology has been severely destroyed, with indiscriminate deforestation and numerous dams built for commercial and private gains, despite strong objections from top hydraulic engineering experts. The natural ecosystem in China is now on the verge of collapse, with the Yellow River experiencing dry periods, the Huai River and the Yangtze River suffering severe pollution, large stretches of grassland disappearing, and sand storms as far as the Central Plains.
This destruction also extends to China’s traditional culture.
The CCP’s Destruction of Confucian Heritage
I once paid a visit with my family to the hometown of Confucius. My elder sister told me that she first heard about Confucius during the Cultural Revolution, when the movement to “criticize Lin Biao and Confucius” was launched. Lin Biao had been Mao’s right-hand man but was later condemned as a traitor after he fell out of favor with Mao. Sadly, many mainland Chinese are as ignorant as my sister about our traditional culture.
My sister was very surprised to learn that the descendants of Confucius were treated as first-rank officials. I shared my understanding with her: Chinese traditional culture includes Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Confucius taught people to conduct themselves by the principles of “Benevolence, Righteousness, Courtesy, Wisdom, and Trustworthiness,” and even China’s neighboring countries benefited from Confucianism. Confucius accumulated great virtue by educating the people with these principles, so it’s only natural that his descendants were blessed and enjoyed benefits from the virtue he had accumulated.
For over two thousand years, Chinese people acted according to the doctrines of Confucianism and were able to maintain relatively high morality as a result.
Emperors in successive dynasties also respected the teachings of Confucius, honored him, and paid tribute to the Confucius Temple. The title of Duke Yansheng was bestowed upon successive generations of the lineal descendants of Confucius until 1935, when it was abolished by the Nationalist government. Such honor and privilege enabled Confucius’s descendants to live a noble and prosperous life for more than two thousand years.
My sister was shocked to learn that the cemetery of Confucius was vandalized during the Cultural Revolution and his tomb and many of the tombs of his descendants were destroyed. The elderly people in the local area said the destruction was done by the Red Guards from Beijing, under the instructions of the CCP central leadership. The so-called “eradication of the Four Olds” movement revealed the CCP’s evil nature and its extreme hatred of Chinese traditional culture.
My sister had been one of countless young students who had been brainwashed by CCP ideology since childhood, so she had no idea about Confucius and his doctrines. She remembered that her school teachers had required every student to design a big poster to criticize Lin Biao and Confucius. They had to copy quotes from the People’s Daily or other official papers when writing such posters. The posters were then put up all over the school campus.
Conclusion
China’s five thousand years of traditional culture was divinely bestowed on the Chinese people, and China was traditionally known as the Divine Land. Ancient China was held in high esteem by neighboring countries for its etiquette and courtesy, and ancient Chinese people were exemplary for their demeanor, based on the virtuous principles of “Benevolence, Righteousness, Courtesy, Wisdom, and Trustworthiness.” However, the CCP has ruined it all.
Today, in the minds of the world’s people, mainland Chinese are badly behaved, foul-mouthed, untrustworthy, and constantly telling lies. The morality of the Chinese people is declining at a shocking speed.
Under the CCP party culture, if you talk about “karma” or “good and evil will be duly rewarded”, you’ll be labeled superstitious or stupid. Because people no longer believe in these things, they dare to do all kinds of bad things, with no concern for the consequences. All this has led to serious corruption and hostility in today’s China.
As stated in the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, “All nations have historically believed in God. Precisely because of their belief in God and the karmic causality of good and evil, humans would restrain themselves and maintain the moral standard of society. The orthodox religions in the West, and Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in the East, have all taught people that true happiness comes from having faith in the divine, worshiping heaven, being compassionate, cherishing what one has, being grateful for one’s blessings, and paying back others’ kindness.”
Being disrespectful to divine beings will definitely be condemned by Heaven, and the CCP will no doubt end in destruction for its own evil doings. Staying away from the CCP is truly a good deed for one’s bright future. Only by removing the CCP culture can the divinely inspired traditional Chinese culture be revived in China.
Copyright © 2023 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
Category: Perspectives
