Li Ching Yuen
| Li Ching Yuen | |
|---|---|
 Li chingYuen.jpeg Li Ching-Yuen at the residence of National Revolutionary Army General Yang Sen in Wanxian Sichuan in 1927 | |
| Native name | 李清雲 |
| Born | 1736 or 1677 (claimed) |
| 💀Died | May 6, 1933 Sichuan, Republic of ChinaMay 6, 1933 |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Chinese |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Extreme longevity claim and spiritual practices by means of herbs |
| Height | 7 ft 0 in |
Li Ching-Yuen or Li Ching-Yun (simplified Chinese: 李清云; traditional Chinese: 李清雲; pinyin: Lǐ Qīngyún) (died May 6, 1933) was a Chinese herbalist, martial artist and tactical advisor, known for his supposed extreme longevity.[1][2]
His true date of birth has never been determined. Gerontologists consider his claims to be a myth.[3][4]
Biography[edit]
Li Ching-Yuen took life force in the mountains and was skilled in Qigong.[5] He worked as a herbalist, selling lingzhi, 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.[6]
It was generally accepted in Sichuan, that Li 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.[7]
It was after this he relocated to Kai Xian and there Li supposedly, at 72 years of age, in 1749, joined the army of provincial Commander-in-Chief Yeuh Jong Chyi, as a teacher of martial arts and as a tactical advisor.[5]
In 1927, the National Revolutionary Army General Yang Sen (揚森) invited him to his residence in Wan Xian, Sichuan, where the picture shown in this article was taken.[5]
The Chinese Warlord Wu Peifu (吳佩孚) took him into his home in an attempt to discover the secret of living 250 years.[7]
He died from natural causes on 6 May 1933 in Kai Xian, Sichuan, Republic of China and was survived by his 24th wife, a woman of 60 years.[8][7] Li supposedly produced over 200 descendants during his life span, surviving 23 wives.[9][8] Other sources credit him with 180 descendants, over 11 generations, living at the time of his death and 14 marriages.[5][7]
After his death, the aforementioned 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 Li's appearance: "He has good eyesight and a brisk stride; Li stands seven feet tall, has very long fingernails, and a ruddy complexion."[10][5]
Timeline of lifespan according to General Yang Sen[edit]
In Qijiang County, Sichuan province, in the year 1677 Li Qingyun was born. 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 Yu Zhongqi.[11]
When 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 Yu 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.[11]
In 1908, Li Qingyun and his disciple Yang Hexuan published a book, The Secrets of Li Qingyun’s Immortality.[11]
In 1920, General Xiong Yanghe interviewed Li (both men were from the village of Chenjiachang of Wan County in Sichuan province), publishing an article about it in the Nanjing University paper that same year.[11]
In 1926, Wu Peifu invited Li to Beijing. This visit coincides with Li teaching at the Beijing University Meditation Society at the invitation of the famous meditation master and author Yin Shi Zi.[11]
Then in 1927, General Yang Sen invited Li to Wanxian, where the first known photographs of Li were taken. Word spread throughout China of Li Qingyun, and Yang Sen's commander, General Chiang Kai-shek, requested Li to visit Nanjing. However, when Yang Sen's envoys arrived at Li’s hometown of Chenjiachang, they were told by Li’s wife and disciples that he had died in nature, offering no more information. So, his actual date of death and location has never been verified.[11] Li Ching-Yuen died in Kai County in 1933.[12]
In 1928, Dean Wu Chung-chien of the Department of Education at Min Kuo University, discovered the imperial documents showing these birthday wishes to Li Qingyun. His discovery was first reported in the two leading Chinese newspapers of that period, North China Daily News and Shanghai Declaration News, and then maybe one year later, potentially in 1929 by The New York Times and Time magazine. Both of these theoretical Western publications also might have reported the death of Li Qingyun in May 1933.[11]
Chinese herbalist[edit]
Li Ching-Yuen is also reported to be a real Chinese herbalist, proponent of the use of Gotu Kola and others Chinese herbs to conquer longevity.
An interesting sidelight was thrown upon the unique properties of fo-ti-tieng (Gotu Kola) by a 107 year old Indian sage named Nanddo Narian, who claimed that the herb provides the missing ingredient in a man's diet, without which, he can never control disease and decay. He found it to be, in practice, the finest of all herbal tonics and nutrients.
The results of the studies performed upon Gotu Kola by the French in Algeria revealed what appears to be a new vitamin not known in any other food or herb. It was described as the "youth vitamin X" that exerts a rejuvenating influence upon the ductless glands, the healthy functioning of which is, the means by which the brain and body are maintained for healthy activity.
Doubts about his real age[edit]
Li's longevity claim could likely never be firmly established. The census documentation of rural 17th-century China is so sparse by comparison to modern records as to make any sort of successful investigation improbable. Li's history follows the course of other Chinese longevity myths, such as that of Chen Jun's 443 years and extreme fecundity. Given the hyperbolic claim, and its similarity to well-discounted longevity myths, experts universally discount his legendary age. The possibility that he was in truth a Supercentenarian of some sort can be neither established nor definitively disconfirmed.
By contrast, the longest confirmed, documentable lifespan is of a French woman, Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years, less than half the lifespan of Yuen. He also claims to have been 110 in 1787, over 110 years before the next time that happened.
The Taiji Quan Master Wong Kiew Kit wrote about Li Qing-Yun in his homepage, answering to his readers' questions: "I am not sure whether the Good Luck Man, Li Qing Yun, was a real person or just a myth, but he is certainly an inspiration to us."
See also[edit]
- Longevity myths
- Longevity claims
- Oldest people
- Jiroemon Kimura – a Japanese supercentenarian and the oldest verified man
References[edit]
- ↑ "史上第一長壽！256歲的李青雲 長壽秘訣只有一個字". Likenews.tw. Archived from the original on 2014-12-31. Retrieved 2015-03-10. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "256歲娶24妻 李慶遠長壽秘訣公開 | 即時新聞 | 20130927 | 蘋果日報". Appledaily.com.tw. 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2015-03-10.
- ↑ Young Robert D.; Desjardins Bertrand; McLaughlin Kirsten; Poulain Michel; Perls Thomas T. (2010). "Typologies of Extreme Longevity". Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research. 2010: 1–12. doi:10.1155/2010/423087. PMC 3062986. PMID 21461047.
- ↑ "Li Ching-Yuen: 129-Year-Old Man?".
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Yang, Jwing-Ming (1989). Muscle/Tendon Changing and Marrow/Brain Washing Chi Kung: The Secret of Youth (PDF). YMAA Publication Centre. ISBN 0-940871-06-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) Search this book on
- ↑ Castleman, Michael; Saul Hendler, Sheldon (1991). The healing herbs: the ultimate guide to the curative power of nature's medicines. Rodale Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-87857-934-1. Search this book on
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Li Ching-Yun Dead". The New York Times. 6 May 1933.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Miami Herald (12 October 1929). "Living forever". The Evening Independent.
- ↑ Harris, Timothy (2009). Living to 100 and Beyond. ACTEX Publications. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-56698-699-1. Search this book on
- ↑ Yang, Sen. A Factual Account of the 250 Year-Old Good-Luck Man. Taipei, TW: Chinese and Foreign Literature Storehouse. Search this book on
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 Sen, Yang; Olson, Stuart Alve (2014). The Immortal: True Accounts of the 250-Year-Old Man, Li Qingyun. Valley Spirit Arts. p. xvi-xix. ISBN 978-1-889633-34-3. Search this book on
- ↑ Complete Stories. 1933. p. 95. Search this book on
External links[edit]
- Chi Kung – Qigong – Meditation
- CEMETRAC – Centro de Estudos da Medicina Tradicional e Cultura Chinesa Script error: The function "in_lang" does not exist.
- Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog – Time article on Li Ching-Yuen (15 May 1933)
