Li Ching Yuen — The Incredible 256-Year-Old Man
On May 6th, 1933, The New York Times printed an article on the deal of Li Ching Yuen, a man who was reported to be 256 years old. His death was likewise reported in Time Magazine that same week, according to International Inside. This is truly remarkable since, if true, Li Ching Yuen would have lived about four times as long as a typical human lifespan. Li, himself, said that he was born in 1736 in a village in the Sichuan Province of China, which would make him 197 years old at the time of his death. The official government record, however, showed his date of birth to be in 1677, by which reckoning he would have been 256, according to Techno Crazed. While Li didn’t have a documented birth certificate, the Event Chronicle related that a professor at Chengdu University found records from 1827 of the Imperial Chinese Government congratulating Li on his 150th birthday, and further documents later, congratulating him on his 200th birthday 1877.
Among people for whom there is an established and documented birth, the oldest is a French woman, Jeanne Louise Calment, who, when she died in 1997 was 122 years and 164 days old. The verified record for a man was for Jireomon Kimura of Japan, who achieved 116 years, 54 days, prior to his death in 2013. Even the youngest projected age for Mr. Li is well outside these parameters.
Li Ching Yuen was said to be very tall — around seven feet, and renowned martial artist. He was also an herb-seller, starting from the time he was a child. It was in the course of his work gathering and selling herbs that he learned about their properties for enhancing longevity. It’s said that for 40 years he subsisted on a diet of herbs, such as goji berries, wild ginseng, goto kola, he shoo wu and lingzhe, and rice wine.
Accounts of how he spent his early life are not entirely consistent, which isn’t really very surprising considering the times in which he lived. There are accounts that suggest that he joined the Imperial army at 51, and at 71 became a martial arts instructor. In 1926 the Warlord Wu Pei-Fu reportedly invited Li Ching Yuen to Beijing to teach at the University Meditation Society. It’s said he had 23 wives over the course of his life, and sired over 200 children. According to generally accepted talks form the province where he was born, he was able to read and write by the time he was ten years old, and had traveled to Kansu, Shansi, Tibet, Siam, and Manchuria gathering and selling herbs. He did this for 100 years. After that, he still sold herbs, but let others do the gathering.
When Li Ching Yuen was asked the secret of his longevity, near the end of his life, his response was this: “Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon, and sleep like a dog”. His diet certainly played a role in contributing to his lifespan, but Li himself felt that inward calm, peacefulness, and breathing techniques played a critical role. He was known to meditate for hours each day.
Presently, the average lifespan is somewhere between 75–85 years, and making it to a full century or beyond is considered remarkable. It’s easy for Western minds to say that Li Ching Yuen can’t have lived as long as he was thought to, but can we really know that? Li never smoked, his diet was rich in beneficial nutrients, and he didn’t consume all the processed foods that are so commonly known. Between those factors, and his meditation practices, it seems pretty likely that even if he was 256 years old, or even 197, he certainly lived a long and venerable life.