The Qigong group, which the authorities failed to eradicate, continues to be active and persecuted in several provinces.
by Zhao Zhangyong
On July 19, 2024, the Qingshan District People’s Court of Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, sentenced two Bodhi Gong devotees called Zhang and Yan to one year and six months in prison, suspended for two years. The two were sentenced under Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code, meaning the court considered Bodhi Gong as a xie jiao, one of the movements prohibited as preaching “heterodox” teachings. “Bitter Winter” reported on a similar Bodhi Gong trial that was held in Shandong province in 2023.
The Baotou group led by the couple of Zhang (male) and Yan (female) was raided in 2022 and accused inter alia of transferring funds to the Bodhi Gong offices in Malaysia.
Bodhi Gong was founded by Di Yuming, known to his followers as Grandmaster JinBodhi, in 1991. He was born Di Yuwang in Wuyi county, under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Hengshui, Hebei province, in 1965. It seems that the name Di Yuwang was legally changed to Di Yuming in 1978.
When he was still a child, his family moved to Xining, the capital of Qinghai province. Qinghai has a sizeable presence of Tibetan Buddhists. Di studied Buddhism in several Tibetan monasteries. According to his followers, he was also cured of illnesses that had plagued his childhood through self-cultivation and meditation.
According to anti-cultists, he later became a member of Zhonggong, a qigong group less well-known than Falun Gong that was also persecuted and classified as a xie jiao. Di claims that his teachings come from Buddhist initiations he received in Qinghai and does not mention Zhonggong.
In 1991, Di established Bodhi Gong in Beijing, where it became immediately popular. He moved his headquarters from Beijing to Dalian, and then to Guangzhou, and set up branches in twenty-six provinces and regions. Its teachings combine Buddhism, qigong, and the Chinese classic “I Ching.”
The success did not escape the malevolent attention of the CCP. 1999 was the year of the great crackdown on Falun Gong, which persuaded the leaders of other qigong movements that they were also at risk. In 1999, Di Yuming escaped to Canada and settled in Vancouver. This was also the opportunity to promote a substantial international expansion of Bodhi Gong, most often called abroad Bodhi Meditation, which opened centers, in addition to Canada, in the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Romania.
The branches in Taiwan and Malaysia, according to the Chinese authorities, also oversee a clandestine activity in China, where, however, the group may now have less members than it does abroad. However, as it happened with Falun Gong, Bodhi Gong was somewhat revitalized in China by the COVID-19 pandemic, as many became interested in Qigong as a way of strengthening the immune system.
In Baotou, the CCP has also mobilized the China Buddhist Association, which supports the crackdown and teaches local Buddhists that Bodhi Gong is a heresy and a xie jiao.
