Revelations boost case of Tzu Chi founder

The Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟功德會) was yesterday considering whether to appeal a civil suit regarding a story told many times over the past few decades by Master Cheng Yen (證嚴法師), Tzu Chi's founder, after key character in the story came forward to support Cheng Yen's claims.

According to testimony given to the court in the original case, Cheng Yen visited a private clinic in Hualien 37 years ago and saw a pool of blood on the ground. She was told the blood was from an Aboriginal woman named Chen Chiou-en (陳秋吟), who had suffered a miscarriage. Chen could not pay an advance payment of NT$8,000 to get treatment and died on the way home.

Cheng Yen has since presented this story many times as her inspiration to establish a hospital that would never reject any patient. But she never mentioned the name of the doctor involved or clinic.

However, the family of Dr. Chuang Ju-kuei (莊汝貴), the doctor in question, sued Cheng Yen after her follower Lee Man-mei (李滿妹) identified the doctor as a Dr. Chuang in Fonglin (鳳林) township, Hualien.

Although Cheng Yen was cleared of the criminal charge of defamation by the Hualien District Court, last month she lost a civil lawsuit and had to pay NT$1.01 million to Chuang.

The court ruled that Cheng Yen's version of the story had damaged Chuang's reputation because she used the word "deposit" to describe the NT$8,000.

On Sunday, Chen's grandfather, Chen Wen-chien (陳文謙), who was one of the people who carried her to the hospital, said that the NT$8,000 was indeed a deposit.

"We carried Li-hsing [Chen's Aboriginal name] for seven or eight hours non-stop, but when we arrived at the clinic in Fonglin, Li-hsing's husband could not pay the deposit and he begged the doctor to save his wife. When I saw Li-hsing's husband come out of the clinic holding his wife and crying, I could never forget that scene," Chen Wen-chien said.

It was not clear why he had not spoken up before.

Chuang's family refused to comment on the revelations.

"We are not willing to comment on this anymore," Chuang's lawyer, Lu Sheng-hsien (呂勝賢), said yesterday.

But the Chuang family issued a statement earlier saying that Chuang had devoted himself to helping the Aboriginal people since 1946, much earlier than Tzu Chi, which was established in 1979. But they were glad that "a pool of blood" once again raised the public's attention to the lack of the medical resource in Eastern Taiwan.

"We are still thinking about whether to appeal the case," Tzu Chi spokesman Ho Jih-sheng (何日生) said yesterday. Ho said they had received the verdict about 10 days ago and had about a week left to decide whether to appeal.

"We do not mean to cause hostility between the two sides. Master never meant to blame the tragedy on anyone since she never mentioned a name. She just saw one incident and was inspired to improve the medical system to help others," Ho said.