Li Qingyun
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Li Ching-Yuen or Li Ching-Yun (, (died 6 May 1933) was a Chinese
herbalist Herbal medicine (also called herbalism, phytomedicine or phytotherapy) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. Scientific evidence for the effectiveness of many herbal treatments ...
,
martial artist Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the pres ...
and tactical advisor, known for his supposed extreme
longevity Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is defined Statistics, statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth ...
. His true date of birth has never been determined. Gerontologists consider his claims to be a myth.


Biography

Ching-Yuen worked as a herbalist, selling lingzhi,
goji berry Goji, goji berry, or wolfberry () is the sweet fruit of either '' Lycium barbarum'' or '' Lycium chinense'', two closely related species of boxthorn in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. ''L. barbarum'' and ''L. chinense'' fruits ar ...
, wild
ginseng Ginseng () is the root of plants in the genus ''Panax'', such as South China ginseng (''Panax notoginseng, P. notoginseng''), Korean ginseng (''Panax ginseng, P. ginseng''), and American ginseng (''American ginseng, P. quinquefol ...
, he shou wu and
gotu kola ''Centella asiatica'', commonly known as Indian pennywort, Asiatic pennywort, spadeleaf, coinwort or gotu kola, is a herbaceous, perennial plant in the flowering plant family Apiaceae. It is native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia, ...
along with other Chinese herbs, and lived off a diet of these herbs and
rice wine Rice wine is an alcoholic beverage fermentation, fermented from rice, traditionally consumed in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, where rice is a quintessential staple crop. Rice wine is made by the fermentation of rice starch, during wh ...
. It was generally accepted in
Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...
that Ching-Yuen was fully literate as a child, and that by his tenth birthday had travelled to
Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...
,
Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...
,
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
,
Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
,
Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
and
Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
with the purpose of gathering herbs, continuing with this occupation for a century, before beginning to purvey herbs gathered by others. The
Zhili Zhili, alternately romanized as Chihli, was a northern administrative region of China since the 14th century that lasted through the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty until 1911, when the region was dissolved, converted to a province, and renamed ...
warlord
Wu Peifu Wu Peifu (also spelled Wu P'ei-fu) (; April 22, 1874 – December 4, 1939) was a Chinese warlord and major figure in the Warlord Era in China from 1916 to 1927. Early career Born in Shandong Province in eastern China, Wu initially rece ...
(吳佩孚) took him into his home in an attempt to discover the secret of living 250 years. He died from
natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinc ...
on 6 May 1933 in Kai Xian, Sichuan,
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
. Ching-Yuen supposedly sired over 200 descendants during his life span, surviving 24 wives. Other sources credit him with 180 descendants, over 11 generations, living at the time of his death and 14 marriages. After his death,
Yang Sen Yang Sen ( zh, t=楊森, p=Yáng Sēn; 20 February 1884 – 15 May 1977) was a warlord and general of the Sichuan clique who had a long military career in China. Although he was a provincial warlord, he served Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuominta ...
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's appearance: "He has good eyesight and a brisk stride; Li stands seven feet tall, has very long fingernails, and a ruddy complexion."


Timeline of lifespan according to General Yang Sen

It is alleged that Ching-Yuen was born at
Qijiang County Qijiang District () is a district of Chongqing, China, bordering Guizhou province to the south. The district has an area of 2,748 km2 and a population of 1,213,770 (de facto resident population 825,500 as of 2017). In October 2011, Qijiang ...
, Sichuan province, in 1677. By age 13, he had embarked upon a life of gathering herbs in the mountains with three elders. At age 51, he served as a tactical and topography advisor in the army of General
Yue Zhongqi Yue Zhongqi (; 1686–1754) was a Chinese military commander of the Qing dynasty. He was a descendant of the Song dynasty general Yue Fei, and served as Minister of War and Viceroy of Chuan-Shaan during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor. ...
. At age 78, 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 100th year of life, as was subsequently done on his 150th and 200th birthdays. In 1908, Ching-Yuen and his disciple Yang Hexuan published a book, ''The Secrets of Li Qingyun's Immortality''. In 1920, General Xiong Yanghe interviewed Ching-Yuen (both men were from the village of Chenjiachang of Wan County in Sichuan province), publishing an article about it in the
Nanjing University Nanjing University (NJU) is a public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. The univers ...
paper that same year. In 1926,
Wu Peifu Wu Peifu (also spelled Wu P'ei-fu) (; April 22, 1874 – December 4, 1939) was a Chinese warlord and major figure in the Warlord Era in China from 1916 to 1927. Early career Born in Shandong Province in eastern China, Wu initially rece ...
invited Ching-Yuen to Beijing. This visit coincides with Li teaching at the
Beijing University Peking University (PKU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. It i ...
Meditation Society at the invitation of the famous meditation master and author Yin Shi Zi. Then, in 1927, General Yang Sen invited Ching-Yuen to Wanxian, where the first known photographs of him were taken. Word spread throughout China of Ching-Yuen, and Yang Sen's commander, General Chiang Kai-shek, requested him to visit Nanjing. However, when Yang Sen's envoys arrived at Ching-Yuen's hometown of Chenjiachang, they were told by his wife and disciples that he had died in nature, offering no more information. So, his actual date of death and location have never been verified. In 1928, Dean Wu Chung-Chien of the Department of Education at Min Kuo University discovered the imperial documents showing these birthday wishes to Ching-Yuen. His discovery was first reported in the two leading Chinese newspapers of that period, ''
North China Daily News The ''North China Daily News'' (in Chinese: ''Zilin Xibao''), was an English-language newspaper in Shanghai, China, called the most influential foreign newspaper of its time. History The paper was founded as the weekly ''North-China Herald'' ...
'' and ''Shanghai Declaration News,'' and then maybe one year later, potentially in 1929, by ''The New York Times'' and ''Time'' magazine. Both of these Western publications reported the death of Ching-Yuen in May 1933.


Longevity

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 ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' 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. 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. 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."
Gerontological Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek ('), meaning "old man", and ('), meaning "study of". The fi ...
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. Additionally, the connection of Li's age to his spiritual practices has been pointed to; researchers perceived that "these types of things he myth that certain philosophies or religious practices allow a person to live to extreme old ageare most common in the
Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...
". One of Li's disciples, the
Taijiquan is a Chinese martial art. Initially developed for combat and self-defense, for most practitioners it has evolved into a sport and form of exercise. As an exercise, tai chi is performed as gentle, low-impact movement in which practitioners p ...
Master Da Liu, told of his master's story: when 130 years old Master Li encountered in 1807 a hermit over 500 years old, who taught him
Baguazhang ''Baguazhang'' () is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the '' Wudang'' school, the other two being tai chi and '' xingyiquan''. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or ''neijia''). ''Baguazhang'' literally means "eigh ...
and a set of
Qigong Qigong ()) is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation said to be useful for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese medicine, Chin ...
with breathing instructions, movements training coordinated with specific sounds, and dietary recommendations. Da Liu reports that his master said that his longevity "is he performed the exercises every day – regularly, correctly, and with sincerity – for 120 years." The article ''"Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog"'', from the 15 May 1933 issue of ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' reports on his history, and includes Li's answer to the secret of a long life: An article in the ''
Evening Independent The ''Evening Independent'' was St. Petersburg, Florida's first daily newspaper. The sister evening newspaper of the '' St. Petersburg Times'', it was launched as a weekly newspaper in March 1906 under the ownership of Willis B. Powell. In Nove ...
'' claims that Li's longevity is due to his experimentation with medicinal herbs in his capacity as a druggist, his discovery in the
Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
mountains of herbs which "prevent the ravages of old age" and which he continued to use throughout his life. Modern historians speculate his actual age at death to be likely 90-100 years old.


See also

*
Longevity myths Longevity myths are traditions about long-lived people (generally supercentenarians), either as individuals or groups of people, and practices that have been believed to confer longevity, but which current scientific evidence does not support, ...
*
Longevity claims Longevity claims are unsubstantiated cases of asserted human longevity. Those asserting lifespans of 110 years or more are referred to as supercentenarians. Many have either no official verification or are backed only by partial evidence. Cases w ...
*
Oldest people The following are tables of the oldest people in the world in ordinal ranks. To avoid including false or unconfirmed claims of old age, names here are restricted to those people whose ages have been validated by an international body deali ...
* Shirali Muslimov *
Jiroemon Kimura Jiroemon Kimura (Japanese: 木村 次郎右衛門, Hepburn: ''Kimura Jirōemon''; 19 April 1897 – 12 June 2013) was a Japanese supercentenarian who was the verified oldest living person between Dina Manfredini's death on 17 December 2012 and h ...
– a Japanese supercentenarian and the oldest verified man *
Zaro Aga Zaro Aga (; ) was a Kurdish man who claimed to be one of the longest-living persons ever. He claimed birth on 16 February 1774 in Mutki, and died on 29 June 1934 in Istanbul, Turkey. He was allegedly aged 160 when he died, and thus claimed t ...


References


External links


Chi Kung – Qigong – Meditation

CEMETRAC – Centro de Estudos da Medicina Tradicional e Cultura Chinesa


– ''Time'' article on Li Ching-Yuen (15 May 1933) {{Authority control 1933 deaths 20th-century Chinese people 20th-century Taoists Chinese baguazhang practitioners Chinese Taoists Historical controversies in China Longevity myths Qing dynasty Taoists