(Minghui.org) What does it mean to be a good person? It might mean taking care of family, helping out in the neighborhood, or protecting one’s country. However, we occasionally encounter tests that measure whether our words and actions follow our conscience.
According to The Discourses of Epictetus, Helvidius Priscus was a statesman in ancient Rome. Vespasian, who became emperor in 69 AD, forbade him from joining the senate.
“It is in your power not to allow me to be a member of the senate, but so long as I am, I must go in,” Priscus said.
“Well, go in then,” said the emperor. “But say nothing.”
“Do not ask my opinion, and I will be silent,” said Priscus.
“But I must ask your opinion,” insisted the emperor.
“And I must say what I think right,” replied Priscus.
“But if you do, I shall put you to death,” threatened the emperor.
“When then did I tell you that I am immortal? You will do your part, and I will do mine,” explained Priscus. “It is your part to kill; it is mine to die, but not in fear: yours to banish me; mine to depart without sorrow.”
In the end, Priscus was banished and executed by the emperor.
This level of integrity was also seen in ancient China. According to Zuo Zhuan (Zuo’s Commentary), Cui Zhu, who was a high official during the Zhou Dynasty, murdered Duke Zhuang in the State of Qi. After the grand historian recorded the crime, Cui was enraged and killed him.
When the historian’s younger brother recorded this crime, he was also executed. The second younger brother wrote about it, and he was killed as well.
Even though his three older brothers lost their lives, the youngest brother wrote about Cui Zhu’s crime and he explained, “Recording events truthfully is the duty of a historian. To live without fulfilling this duty is worse than death.” Cui did not kill him.
Times have changed, especially in China after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power in 1949. During the Anti-Rightist Campaign between 1957 and 1959, in order to survive, the intellectuals had to remain silent or parrot the Party line. The Cultural Revolution went further and deprived the Chinese people of their traditional culture of being honest and faithful.
The introduction of Falun Dafa, a meditation system based on Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, gradually awakened people's hearts and reconnected them with their traditional values. One such practitioner was Ms. Chen Yan, a resident of Benxi City, Liaoning Province.
With a Bachelor's degree and a decent job, Ms. Chen could have lived a comfortable life. Having benefited from Falun Dafa and witnessed its wrongful persecution by the CCP since July 1999, however, she decided to step forward and tell people the facts. As a result, she was arrested in 2015, sentenced to three years and sent to the Liaoning Women’s Prison. She was tortured, force-fed, and subjected to psychiatric abuse. But her faith remained constant.
In July 2024, Ms. Chen was arrested again for telling others about Falun Dafa. In the Benxi Detention Center, guards instigated inmates to torture her, and the lawyers that her family hired saw these injuries when they visited her. Even though she committed no crimes and she was in poor health, the Xihu Court sentenced her to five years in June 2025.
The officials also blocked these lawyers from defending Ms. Chen and again sent her to Liaoning Women’s Prison on November 5, 2025.
Her father said, “My daughter is very weak and had to be wheeled in. Will the prison still admit her?”
“There is nothing wrong with her, and she’ll be admitted,” insisted Li Tingting, deputy director of the detention center. Li claimed Ms. Chen was faking an illness and was fit to be sent to prison.
Three days later, the prison notified her family that 45-year-old Ms. Chen had died. A coroner performed an autopsy, but the report was not provided to the family. Ms. Chen’s parents also noticed black viscous fluid flowing from her body, but the coroner ignored that.
Her mother asked, “My daughter was brought here in the afternoon on November 5. Officials said she was fine and she met the criteria to be admitted. Why did she die in three days?” But the officials were silent. When she strongly objected, officials gave her an office phone number, which was not in service.
Since the persecution began 27 years ago, millions of Falun Dafa practitioners in China have been discriminated against for their faith and for living by Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They have been detained, tortured, and imprisoned. Some were sent to forced labor camps, or were subjected to psychiatric abuse, and even forced organ harvesting. Data from Minghui.org confirms that more 5,300 practitioners have already died.
“To be, nor not to be, that is the question.” Many people know this phrase from Shakespeare. But few may realize that at some point in our lifetimes, we may face situations in which we must make a choice between our conscience and the opposite side.
From Priscus in ancient Rome to the historians in China, it took a huge effort to establish human civilization, maintain it, and pass it to the generations that followed. The choices we make will decide our future.
“If you think that by killing men you can prevent someone from censuring your evil lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves,” the ancient sage Socrates said in his final speech.
“I know for certain that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death,” he said.