TIME Magazine
CHINA: Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog
In the
province of Szechwan in China lived until last week Li Ching-yun. In China
where Age means something he was a great man.
By his own story he was born in
1736, had lived 197 years.
By the time he was ten years old he had traveled in
Kansu, Shansi, Tibet, Annam, Siam and Manchuria gathering herbs.
He continued
to gather herbs for the rest of his first 100 years.
He lived on herbs and
plenty of rice wine.
When asked for his secret of long life.
Li Ching-yun gave
it readily:
“Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a
pigeon and sleep like a dog.”
The “Scholar War Lord” Wu Pei-fu. not satisfied
with this formula, took Li into his home and was lectured on “how to get the
most out of each century” by maintaining “inward calm.”
Some said he had buried
23 wives, was living with his 24th. a woman of 60, had descendants of eleven
generations.
The fingernails of his venerable right hand were six inches long.
Yet to skeptical Western eyes he looked much like any Chinese 60-year-old.
In
1930 Professor Wu Chung-chieh, dean of the department of education at Chengtu
University, found records that the Imperial Chinese Government had
congratulated one Li Ching-yun in 1827 on his birthday.
The birthday was his
150th, making the man who died last week—if it was the same Li Ching-yun, and
respectful Chinese preferred to think so—a 256-year-old.
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745510,00.html
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