Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 188
the West, has suddenly disappeared. In its place is the glory of a great and splendid
China! ‗Chinese gongfu is truly something special!‘30
The qigong movement and its many masters offered instant help, certainty, goodness,
power and greatness. As long as they were registered and remained a qigong group that did
not present contradictions to the tenants of the CCP, the government stood aside. It was
always willing, however, to step in if it seemed necessary.31 With the development of these
new large, charismatic qigong movements however, came the specter of the sectarian
threat as they began to offer more than health benefits and to adopt the ‗offending features‘
of previous sectarian groups.
Language
To think that my person would mingle with this vulgar, stinking flesh, with
these slaves, dogs, and goblins and act the part of one of these evil rebels.
These villainous imposters of today spout heresies and destroy the orthodox
writings.
The above quote is by Kou Qianzhi, a fifth-century Chinese aristocrat who had the Daoist
title of Celestial Master.32 He had been ‗visited twice by the god Laozi‘ and had the power to
‗exercise control over the religious affairs of the dynasty‘. Here he is complaining about all
those ‗frauds‘ who claim to be Li Hong (the messianic name of Laozi) as he tries to clean up
the Daoist practices at the popular level. This intense language of labeling the ‗other‘ seems
to accompany the paradigm of ruling power versus sectarian ‗other‘ and is being used in the
current conflict by both sides. As Kluver describes it, in China ‗once conflict has emerged
into the open, the language used to describe one‘s rivals becomes almost violent, in ways
that make the Western partisanship seem almost collegial‘.
The Chinese government has used the word ‗cult‘ to label the Falun Gong along these same
lines as a label to brand, to degrade, to define and to marginalize. While the Chinese term
xie jiao (deviant teachings) has been utilized for over a millennium as part of the ruling
power-sectarian paradigm, its current translation into the word ‗cult‘ may reflect the
government‘s adaptation of modern Western discourse. The irony is that the Chinese
government may have chosen the Western discourse as a means of gaining sympathy and
understanding from the West, whereas it appears to have achieved the opposite effect and
annoyed and prejudiced the West‘s willingness to listen.
The use of intense derogatory language to berate and degrade the ‗other‘ reached a modern
height in China during the Cultural Revolution. To be ‗labeled‘ was dangerous and
frightening, and terms such as ‗ox-monsters‘, ‗snake-demons‘, ‗evil spirits‘ and ‗monstrous
freaks‘ were used. The cruder the language used, ‗the more one was perceived as being one
with the workers, peasants, and soldiers‘.33 Li Hongzhi, a young man during the Cultural
Revolution, did not escape the influence of this use of language. Li used the rhetoric of
possession to describe and warn off his practitioners from other spiritual or qigong masters:
‗The human society is very terrible. Most of the so-called masters of great reputation in
India are possessed with boas. The Qigong masters in China are mostly possessed with
foxes, or yellow weasels, and some with snakes‘.34
When Li was confronted by a challenger to his role as master within the Falun Gong
movement his response was not too different from that of Kou Qianzhi in the fifth century.
Li warned that ‗a vile person in Hong Kong who lost her senses has severely interfered with
Dafa by saying absurd things due to demonic interference from her own mind... nobody
should pay attention to what the saboteur in Hong Kong has instigated or give her an
audience... At present, those irrational scum are already under the manipulation of secret
agents‘.35
the West, has suddenly disappeared. In its place is the glory of a great and splendid
China! ‗Chinese gongfu is truly something special!‘30
The qigong movement and its many masters offered instant help, certainty, goodness,
power and greatness. As long as they were registered and remained a qigong group that did
not present contradictions to the tenants of the CCP, the government stood aside. It was
always willing, however, to step in if it seemed necessary.31 With the development of these
new large, charismatic qigong movements however, came the specter of the sectarian
threat as they began to offer more than health benefits and to adopt the ‗offending features‘
of previous sectarian groups.
Language
To think that my person would mingle with this vulgar, stinking flesh, with
these slaves, dogs, and goblins and act the part of one of these evil rebels.
These villainous imposters of today spout heresies and destroy the orthodox
writings.
The above quote is by Kou Qianzhi, a fifth-century Chinese aristocrat who had the Daoist
title of Celestial Master.32 He had been ‗visited twice by the god Laozi‘ and had the power to
‗exercise control over the religious affairs of the dynasty‘. Here he is complaining about all
those ‗frauds‘ who claim to be Li Hong (the messianic name of Laozi) as he tries to clean up
the Daoist practices at the popular level. This intense language of labeling the ‗other‘ seems
to accompany the paradigm of ruling power versus sectarian ‗other‘ and is being used in the
current conflict by both sides. As Kluver describes it, in China ‗once conflict has emerged
into the open, the language used to describe one‘s rivals becomes almost violent, in ways
that make the Western partisanship seem almost collegial‘.
The Chinese government has used the word ‗cult‘ to label the Falun Gong along these same
lines as a label to brand, to degrade, to define and to marginalize. While the Chinese term
xie jiao (deviant teachings) has been utilized for over a millennium as part of the ruling
power-sectarian paradigm, its current translation into the word ‗cult‘ may reflect the
government‘s adaptation of modern Western discourse. The irony is that the Chinese
government may have chosen the Western discourse as a means of gaining sympathy and
understanding from the West, whereas it appears to have achieved the opposite effect and
annoyed and prejudiced the West‘s willingness to listen.
The use of intense derogatory language to berate and degrade the ‗other‘ reached a modern
height in China during the Cultural Revolution. To be ‗labeled‘ was dangerous and
frightening, and terms such as ‗ox-monsters‘, ‗snake-demons‘, ‗evil spirits‘ and ‗monstrous
freaks‘ were used. The cruder the language used, ‗the more one was perceived as being one
with the workers, peasants, and soldiers‘.33 Li Hongzhi, a young man during the Cultural
Revolution, did not escape the influence of this use of language. Li used the rhetoric of
possession to describe and warn off his practitioners from other spiritual or qigong masters:
‗The human society is very terrible. Most of the so-called masters of great reputation in
India are possessed with boas. The Qigong masters in China are mostly possessed with
foxes, or yellow weasels, and some with snakes‘.34
When Li was confronted by a challenger to his role as master within the Falun Gong
movement his response was not too different from that of Kou Qianzhi in the fifth century.
Li warned that ‗a vile person in Hong Kong who lost her senses has severely interfered with
Dafa by saying absurd things due to demonic interference from her own mind... nobody
should pay attention to what the saboteur in Hong Kong has instigated or give her an
audience... At present, those irrational scum are already under the manipulation of secret
agents‘.35
