Li Ching-Yuen

Li Ching-Yuen or Li Ching-Yun (, died 6 May 1933) was a Chinese herbalist, martial artist and tactical advisor, known for his supposed extreme longevity.

Li's year of birth was alleged to be 1677, though his true age has never been determined. Gerontologists consider his claims to be a myth.

Biography Ching-Yuen 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.

It was generally accepted in Sichuan that Ching-Yuen 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.

The Zhili warlord Wu Peifu (吳佩孚) took him into his home in an attempt to discover the secret of living 250 years.

Timeline of lifespan according to General Yang Sen It is alleged that Ching-Yuen was born at Qijiang County, 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.

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 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."

The article "Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog", from the 15 May 1933 issue of Time reports on his history, and includes Li's answer to the secret of a long life:

An article in the Evening Independent claims that Li's longevity is due to his experimentation with medicinal herbs in his capacity as a druggist, his discovery in the Yunnan 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. According to some reports he was born in 1840 which would make him 93 at the time of his death.