Li Ching-Yuen: Difference between revisions

▲Ching-Yuen worked as a herbalist, selling [[Lingzhi mushroom|lingzhi]], [[Goji berries|goji berry]], wild [[ginseng]], [[he shou wu]] and [[gotu kola]] along with other Chinese herbs, and lived off a diet of these herbs and [[rice wine]].<ref>{{cite book|last1 =Castleman|first1 =Michael|title=The healing herbs: the ultimate guide to the curative power of nature's medicines|year=1991|publisher=Rodale Press | isbn = 978-0-87857-934-1| last2 =Saul Hendler | first2 = Sheldon|page=206}}</ref>

▲It was generally accepted in [[Sichuan]], that Ching-Yuen was fully literate as a child, and that by his tenth birthday had travelled to [[Gansu]], [[Shanxi]], [[Tibet]], [[Vietnam]], [[Thailand]] and [[Manchuria]] with the purpose of gathering herbs, continuing with this occupation for a century, before beginning to purvey herbs gathered by others.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|title=Li Ching-Yun Dead|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/05/06/archives/li-chingyun-dead-gayehisageas197-keep-quiet-heart-sit-like-a.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=6 May 1933}}</ref>

▲The [[Zhili clique|Zhili]] warlord [[Wu Peifu]] (吳佩孚) took him into his home in an attempt to discover the secret of living 250 years.<ref name="NYT"/>

▲He died from [[natural causes]] on 6 May 1933 in [[Kai County|Kai Xian]], [[Sichuan]], [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Republic of China]].<ref name="Miami">{{cite news |last= Miami Herald |author-link= Miami Herald |title= Living forever |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=18gLAAAAIBAJ&pg=4235,1125251&dq= |newspaper= The Evening Independent |date= 12 October 1929}}</ref><ref name="NYT"/> Ching-Yuen supposedly produced over 200 descendants during his life span, surviving 24 wives.<ref name="Harris">{{cite book |last= Harris |first= Timothy |title=Living to 100 and Beyond |year=2009 |publisher= ACTEX Publications |isbn= 978-1-56698-699-1 |page=70}}</ref><ref name="Miami"/> Other sources credit him with 180 descendants, over 11 generations, living at the time of his death and 14 marriages.<ref name="NYT"/>

▲After his death, [[Yang Sen]] wrote a report about him, ''A Factual Account of the 250 Year-Old Good-Luck Man'' (一个250岁长寿老人的真实记载), in which he described Ching-Yuen appearance: "He has good eyesight and a brisk stride; Li stands seven feet tall, has very long fingernails, and a ruddy complexion."<ref name="YangSen">{{cite book|last=Yang|first=Sen|title=A Factual Account of the 250 Year-Old Good-Luck Man|publisher=Chinese and Foreign Literature Storehouse|location=Taipei, [[Taiwan|TW]]}}</ref>

▲It is alleged that Ching-Yuen was born at [[Qijiang County]], Sichuan province, in 1677. By age thirteen, he had embarked upon a life of gathering herbs in the mountains with three elders. At age fifty-one, he served as a tactical and topography advisor in the army of General Yue Zhongqi.<ref name="immortal2014">{{cite book|last1=Sen|first1=Yang|last2=Olson|first2=Stuart Alve|title=The Immortal: True Accounts of the 250-Year-Old Man, Li Qingyun|date=2014|publisher=Valley Spirit Arts|isbn=978-1-889633-34-3|page=xvi-xix|url=http://www.valleyspiritarts.com/shop/immortal-true-accounts-250-year-old-man-li-qingyun/}}</ref>

▲At seventy-eight, he retired from his military career after fighting in a battle at Golden River and returned to a life of gathering herbs on Snow Mountain in Sichuan province. Due to his military service in the army of General Yue Zhongqi, the imperial government sent a document congratulating Li on his one hundredth year of life, as was subsequently done on his 150th and 200th birthdays.<ref name=immortal2014 />

▲Whereas Li Ching-Yuen himself claimed to have been born in 1736, Wu Chung-Chieh, a professor of the Chengdu University, asserted that Li was born in 1677: according to a 1930 ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' article, Wu discovered Imperial Chinese government records from 1827 congratulating Li on his 150th birthday, and further documents later congratulating him on his 200th birthday in 1877.<ref name= time>{{cite news |title=Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745510,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310191015/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745510,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 March 2007|newspaper=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=15 May 2012}}</ref> In 1928, a ''New York Times'' correspondent wrote that many of the old men in Li's neighborhood asserted that their grandfathers knew him when they were boys, and that he at that time was a grown man.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ettington|first=Martin K.|title=Immortality: A History and How to Guide: Or How to Live to 150 Years and Beyond |year=2008| publisher = Martin Ettington|isbn=978-1-4404-6493-5|page=43}}</ref>

▲A correspondent of ''The New York Times'' reported that "many who have seen him recently declare that his facial appearance is no different from that of persons two centuries his junior."<ref name="NYT"/> [[Gerontology|Gerontological]] researchers have called his age claim "fantastical" and also noted that his age at death, 256 years, was chosen as a multiple of 8, which is considered good luck in China.<ref name=Hindawi/> Additionally, the connection of Li's age to his spiritual practices has been pointed to; researchers perceived that "these types of things [the myth that certain philosophies or religious practices allow a person to live to extreme old age] are most common in the [[Far East]]".<ref name=Hindawi/>

▲One of Li's disciples, the [[Taijiquan]] Master Da Liu, told of his master's story: when 130 years old Master Li encountered in the mountains an older [[hermit]], over 500 years old, who taught him [[Baguazhang]] and a set of [[Qigong]] with breathing instructions, movements training coordinated with specific sounds, and dietary recommendations. Da Liu reports that his master said that his longevity "is {{not a typo|due to the fact that}} he performed the exercises every day – regularly, correctly, and with sincerity – for 120 years."<ref>{{cite book|last=Liu|first=Da|title=Taoist Health Exercise Book |year=1983|publisher=Putnam}}</ref>

▲The article ''"Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog"'', from the 15 May 1933 issue of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' reports on his history, and includes Li's answer to the secret of a long life:<ref name= time/>

▲{{blockquote|Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog.|Li Ching-Yuen<ref name= time/>}}

▲An article in the ''[[Evening Independent]]'' claims that Li's longevity is due to his experimentation with medicinal herbs in his capacity as a druggist, his discovery in the [[Yunnan]] mountains of herbs which "prevent the ravages of old age" and which he continued to use throughout his life.<ref name="Miami"/>

▲==See also==

▲[[Category:Chinese Taoists]]

▲[[Category:20th-century Chinese people]]

▲[[Category:20th-century Taoists]]

▲[[Category:Historical controversies in China]]