How Old Can You Go?

... more about Li Ching Yuen

Practicing Tai Chi Ch'uan Every Day - For 120 Years

As with Qigong, Tai Chi Ch'uan is part of a Chinese system of health and longevity practices based on maximizing the circulation of life energy for improved health and rejuvenation. According to Master Da Liu, who introduced Tai Chi to the United States in the 1950s, it is a "detailed system of slow, flowing, and subtly configured motions." Like the Five Rites, it is a relaxing and toning series of exercises that releases life energy into the mind body, and thus has numerous physiological benefits. In his late 80s, Da Liu was still teaching Tai Chi to American students.

Da Liu has a remarkable tale about his teacher, Li Ch'ing Yuen, who was born in 1678 in China. He married fourteen times, had 180 direct descendants spanning eleven generations, and lived to be 256 years old, according to Da Liu. Three years before his death in 1933, a Chinese General met Li Ch'ing Yuen and later described his physical appearance: He has good eyesight and a brisk stride; lie stands seven feet tall, has very long fingernails, and a ruddy complexion. Many of Li's disciples were over 100 years old. What was the secret to his longevity? When he was 130 years old, he encountered a very old man in the mountains. This man claimed to be 500 years old and attributed his longevity to having practiced a set of exercises similar to Tai Chi Ch'uan. Called Ba-Kua, they included specific sounds, breathing instructions, dietary, and herbal recommendations.  The mountain hermit taught these to Li Ch'ing Yuen and he taught them to Da Liu.

"My longevity," Master Li Ch'ing Yuen said, "is due to the fact that I performed the exercises every day--regularly, correctly, and with sincerity--for 120 years." The best time, he noted, was between 11 p.m. and 11 a.m. when he repeated each exercise two to six times. This is similar to Colonel Bradfords advice to Peter Kelder and his students: practice daily and build to 21 times for each of the Five Rites. This regularity, claimed Bradford, will produce a powerful effect that increases with time.

What shall we make of these fabulous tales? It appears that the human body has a great number of energy channels through which life energy moves and changes. Over the years, adepts in this tradition developed exercises that would maximize this energy flow and distribution for greater health, awareness, and vitality in these traditions, whether it's China or Tibet, longevity is a science, not a gift of fate. Both the Chinese exercises and Colonel Bradford's Five Rites have us twisting and turning and stretching. They seem to compress, stimulate, and tone your acupoints, energy gates, and chakras. All of this releases dormant Qi, or prana, or life energy, much like a fountain spraying you with the precious waters of vigor and long life.