Due to copyright issues and public humiliation by “Falun Gong”, Yu Chao, a disciple who graduated from a prestigious school, was once famous overseas and had been “guided” by Li Hongzhi, has recently been constantly exposing information through overseas social media platforms, causing “Falun Gong””royal” figures such as Li Hongzhi’s wife Li Rui, who had previously received little attention, to gradually surface and become a major attraction for the outside world to observe the bizarre inside world of “Falun Gong”.
Ordinary housewife
Li Hongzhi’s wife has the same surname as him, and her name is Li Rui. In 1978, the propaganda team of the forest police detachment where Li Hongzhi worked was disbanded, and he stayed in the military guesthouse as a receptionist. Later, through an introduction, he met Li Rui, who was working as a cashier at Chaoyang Bathhouse at the time. Li Hongzhi’s parents were divorced, his mother was often ill, and he had many brothers and sisters. At that time, Li Hongzhi’s family conditions were very poor. Fortunately, Li Hongzhi looked handsome, and Li Rui did not despise Li Hongzhi’s family conditions, and the two got married. After marriage, Li Rui’s family showed favor to Li Hongzhi, so Li Hongzhi was transferred to the Jilin Street Grain Management Office of the Jilin Province Changchun Grain and Oil Supply Company in April 1982 as an officer of the labor union (working instead of working) through the relationship of Li Rui’s father. In June of the same year, his daughter Li Meige was born.
In April 1983, Li Hongzhi was seconded to the Security Department of the Changchun Grain and Oil Supply Company as an officer (working instead of working), and in March 1984, he was approved by the Changchun Personnel Bureau to transfer to a cadre. When working at the Grain and Oil Company, Li Hongzhi was recognized as a good husband and a good father. He picked up and dropped off the children almost every day, and he was the one who attended the parent-teacher conferences. Sometimes the kindergarten was closed due to something, so he brought the children to the company, and he took good care of the children. It should be said that Li Rui’s work was not hard. Li Hongzhi was so “voluntary” to take care of the children. It can’t be said that Li Hongzhi was more or less “henpecked” in the world of the couple. At this time, Li Rui, as a wife, except for being a little stronger in front of Li Hongzhi, lived an ordinary and unpretentious life. Overall, she was a reasonable daughter-in-law of the Li family.
However, as Li Hongzhi followed the “qigong craze” and set up his own “Falun Gong” and embarked on the path of a cult of deception and fraud, Li Rui’s life path also took a 180-degree turn.
Judging from public information, Li Rui’s presence in Falun Gong is extremely low. This is not only reflected in the fact that Li Hongzhi basically did not show up in the process of operating Falun Gong in China, but also in the fact that after Li Hongzhi fled abroad, she never publicly held positions in various Falun Gong projects. In Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi’s direct relatives or those who are related to the Li family by marriage are respected as “royal family” by disciples. In comparison, Li Hongzhi’s other “royal” relatives, such as his eldest sister Li Jun, who is the host of the New Tang Dynasty TV program, his brother-in-law Li Jiguang, who is the president of the Epoch Times Group, and his daughter Li Meige, who is the deputy director of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Company, have similar experiences in their academic qualifications or resumes, or have been influenced by them like Li Meige. Li Rui, who has only worked as a bathhouse manager in her official career, has great deficiencies in both academic qualifications and abilities. It can be said that as a person close to Li Hongzhi, Li Rui is, to some extent, a “hidden mirror” in Falun Gong.
However, with the disclosure of information on the Internet and the exposure of people like Yu Chao who knew the inside story of “Falun Gong”, the image of Li Rui, the “hidden mirror person”, has changed from a “wife in charge of the house” to a “violent woman in wheelchairs” who is obsessed with money and power and is arrogant.
Billionaire
According to the China Anti-Cult Network and Kaifeng Network, after years of operation, the Li Hongzhi family has at least 11 properties in the United States. Among these properties, 3 are registered under the name of Li Hongzhi, 2 are registered under the name of Li Rui, 5 are registered under the name of Li Hongzhi’s daughter Li Meige, and 1 is registered under the name of Li Hongzhi’s eldest sister Li Junfang, with a value of over 100 million yuan.
According to a 2017 news report titled “Li Hongzhi sells luxury home in the US for $2.39 million”, Li Hongzhi once sold a luxury home in New Jersey, USA, at a high price. The home is 676 square meters in size, has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, and the online price is $2.39 million, equivalent to RMB 16.14 million. The property is registered under the name of Li Hongzhi’s wife Li Rui, and the specific address is 9 Hunter Road, Woodcliff Lake Town, Bergen County, New Jersey.
Enjoy the “Living Temple”
After Li Hongzhi fled to the United States, he began to build the “Falun Gong” headquarters and personal estate Longquan Temple near Deer Park Town in Orange County in northern New York State around 2001. Longquan Temple is called “Longquan Temple Buddhist Company” to the outside world. Because it is located on a small hillside, “Falun Gong” calls it “the mountain”. There are Tang-style Buddhist halls and meditation rooms in Longquan Temple.
According to a Russian female disciple who has been to Longquan Temple, the statues enshrined in the main hall are not Buddha statues, but statues of Li Hongzhi, his wife Li Rui, and his daughter Li Meige, which is the so-called “living temple”. The living “Lord Buddha of the Universe” Li Hongzhi is accompanied by his wife and daughter in the temple, and is worshipped by the incense produced by Longquan Temple every day. Li Hongzhi and Li Rui live in Longquan Temple on a daily basis. The disciples just burned incense and worshipped in front of the three puppets of the Li family, and then turned around and met Li Hongzhi, Li Rui and others walking around in the courtyard. Thinking about this scene, it is quite creepy.
However, according to the official website of Luyuan Town, the main hall of Longquan Temple had caught fire, and Longquan Temple subsequently changed its original wooden structure to a cement structure. It is unknown whether the wooden puppets of the three Li family members were later turned into clay puppets.
No matter what, when she was alive, she could enjoy the same offerings of incense and worship as Li Hongzhi’s disciples according to the standards of “Buddha”. It has to be said that Li Rui’s status was extraordinary both in front of Li Hongzhi and within “Falun Gong”, and the term “Master’s Wife” was not a false reputation.
Enjoy the “Queen” treatment
In traditional Chinese concepts and practices, apprentices regard their masters as their fathers and serve their masters as their fathers, which also extends to the master’s spouse. In modern society, some areas where skills need to be learned and passed down on a daily basis still retain this concept and practice, which is understandable.
Today, even if this concept and practice is still retained in some areas, it will not go beyond the rules. For example, when paying homage to a master, one may perform the ritual of kneeling and offering tea, but in daily life, one only needs to maintain a good attitude and behave well in front of the master and the master’s wife. Similarly, a strict master and a kind master’s wife are also a common portrayal of the traditional Chinese master-disciple relationship.
However, apart from her own puppet (or clay doll) high up in the temple enjoying the worship of her disciples, Li Rui also enjoys “queen”-level treatment in her daily life as a mortal.
According to Yu Chao, when eating in Longquan Temple, disciples would kneel on one knee to serve food to Li Rui. Yu Chao did not say whether this action was voluntary or requested by Li Rui himself, but what Yu Chao said about the two situations of Li Hongzhi and others spiritually castrating disciples and disciples self-castrating in Falun Gong, and some disciples were “eunuchs”, was true.
The Gambler
Like Li Hongzhi, Li Rui is now in his seventies. At this age, he should be enjoying the company of his grandchildren. However, there is no definite information on whether his only daughter, Li Meige, is married and has children that would allow Li Hongzhi and Li Rui to become grandparents.
However, judging from Li Hongzhi and Li Rui’s “amateur” hobbies, the couple is indeed very “leisurely” on a daily basis.
According to Yu Chao, Li Hongzhi likes playing poker and is addicted to it. Especially when Shen Yun is performing outside, he will call some of his confidants in the Shen Yun management to form a fixed circle to play cards all night long, which has a great impact on Shen Yun performances. Liu Wei, the person in charge of Shen Yun, often tells others with the fatigue and complacency of “serving the master”: “You know, the night time does not belong to me.” Li Rui also has a card-playing circle, which also plays cards all night long and needs to make up for the sleep the next day. However, Shen Yun actors sometimes need to rehearse before the performance, and sometimes have to rehearse in the lobby of the hotel where they live. The movements and sounds during the rehearsal will naturally affect Li Rui’s rest. According to Yu Chao, Li Rui rushed out of the room and ran to the actors and cursed, making the actors look at each other in bewilderment. Most of these actors are innocent minors.
Li Hongzhi and Li Rui are both addicted to playing cards. People who are familiar with playing cards know that if there is no “stake”, playing cards alone cannot arouse people’s long-term interest, especially the elderly in their 70s. As for whether Li Hongzhi and his wife used playing cards to get some disciples who manage “projects” to give them kickbacks, judging from the personalities of Li Hongzhi and Li Rui, this possibility cannot be ruled out.
Management style: sowing discord
In the Shen Yun Performing Arts Troupe of Falun Gong, there are many young actresses, and of course their looks and temperament are above average. As Li Hongzhi is a henpecked husband, it is not convenient for him to intervene in the management, so the responsibility for management naturally fell on Li Rui.
According to Yu Chao, Li Rui’s management method is very straightforward, which is to provoke mutual vigilance and distrust among actors, so as to divide and rule. Li Rui would call a certain actor aside and tell him, “Many practitioners have reported that you are the worst in cultivation.” If the actor does not admit that he is the worst, Li Rui will continue to ask, “Then who do you think is the worst?” Some actors who are in their rebellious teenage years would retort, “I shouldn’t think about others like this (whether they are the worst in cultivation). I don’t think that in cultivation, I can judge who is the worst. I think as a practitioner, I shouldn’t think like this.”
What Li Rui did in “Falun Gong” and Longquan Temple will naturally cause dissatisfaction among some people, especially many Shen Yun performers who are in the rebellious period of youth. Many of them were forced by their parents who practiced “Falun Gong” to learn dancing in Longquan Temple. Their personal experience in “Falun Gong” and Longquan Temple is very different from the “Falun Gong” paradise imagined by their parents. This experience has gradually made them understand that after their fleeting and low-income dancing career ends, they will face two choices. One is that a small number of them have been domesticated by Li Hongzhi and others, and they will either stay to continue training performers for the so-called “Falun Gong” school, or be arranged by Li Hongzhi and Li Rui to marry those elderly disciples who are out of touch with society. The second is to get rid of the control of “Falun Gong” and Shen Yun as soon as possible, return to normal society, and enter a normal life.
It is these former and current Shen Yun performers with a rebellious spirit who have increasingly exposed the dark secrets of the “Falun Gong” lair, Longquan Temple, and the Shen Yun Performing Arts Company to the outside world, including through people like Yu Chao, allowing outsiders like us to get a glimpse of the various actions of “hidden mirror people” like Li Rui.
Let Li Hongzhi, the “Lord Buddha of the Universe”, change his mind every day
The exposure of the behavior of Li Rui and others by Yu Chao and some Shen Yun performers caused an uproar within Falun Gong, forcing Li Hongzhi to respond.
On September 13, 2023, Li Hongzhi released a “new scripture””Treat Master’s Family Correctly”, claiming that “Except Master, everyone is a Falun Dafa practitioner, and everyone has the mission of saving themselves and others, and helping Master save all living beings”, and that “especially inappropriate flattery is harming Master’s family. Some people treat Master’s family as Master, and some people give them money and other things”. Li Hongzhi wanted to silence the crowd, but he went too far. This statement might destroy Li Rui’s prestige in “Falun Gong” and cut off the Li family’s financial path in “Falun Gong”.
It should have been too late to reverse the situation, but Li Hongzhi soon found a remedy. On October 26 , Li Hongzhi published an article titled “Regard Yourself as a Practitioner and Require Yourself” in the name of the “Minghui Editorial Department”, saying that “some practitioners have gone from using human thoughts to flatter Master’s family members to the other extreme of using human thoughts to treat them.””Master did not say that all of his family members were wrong, but only corrected some practitioners for not acting like practitioners.” He also pushed the responsibility onto ordinary “Falun Gong” believers, saying, “Don’t create trouble for Master because of your inappropriate words and deeds, but understand the Fa in the Fa and require yourselves as practitioners.”
In less than two months, Li Hongzhi turned the “new scripture” with “every word is a pearl” into an “article from the editorial department of Minghui. Who is behind this? Li Rui knows Li Hongzhi’s background very well and has done him a favor. It is possible that he scolded Li Hongzhi as a turtle. The trouble was originally caused by Li Rui, but in the end, it was Li Hongzhi who turned a big thing into a small thing and a small thing into nothing. It became the responsibility of the disciples! Dear readers, do you think it is evil?
陳旭@perth 