Health and longevity are what most people desire. But are there any recorded cases of extreme longevity? Even in modern times with advanced medical technology, a person’s average life expectancy is 75 years.
Every country has examples of people living longer than 100 years. But such cases of longevity are rare. If anyone lived for 300 or 400 years, this would cause a great stir and be regarded as a sensation or a miracle.
It seems far-fetched to believe that anyone could get that old. However, in Eastern and Western history, there have been accounts of such longevity.
The 300-year-old people of the Ross
According to Russian media reports, the elderly of the ancient province of Ross could live 300 years while maintaining perfect health. Such longevity seems impossible.
The 300-year-old inhabitants of Ross didn’t live in towns or villages, but in the quiet mountains and forests. It was very uncommon for them to leave the forests. Thus, they were seldom seen in everyday society. Instead, people would seek them out in the depth of the forest and ask them for health-preserving remedies or spiritual guidance.
Simple food choices
The Ross people were not picky about what they ate. Instead, they usually ate different berries, vegetables, grains, and edible plants.
Healed with herbs
They used herbal decoctions to cure illnesses. Living a peaceful and secluded life, the people of Ross lived in harmony with the world around them.
They were like the hermits in ancient China. Because of their centuries of experience, they had clear memories of many significant incidents in the ancient history of Ross, as they themselves had witnessed many of those events.
They were like active “libraries,” handing their ancient knowledge down to future generations. For a long time, disease and aging did not bring them a threat, but misfortune befell them, nonetheless.
The decree to eradicate the Ross
When Emperor Peter I returned from Germany, he signed a decree to eradicate these 300-year-old people of Ross. This decree is kept in the Russian State Library in the Manuscripts Department.
In the history of Russia, Peter I achieved extraordinary and unforgettable achievements. As a result, he was considered a great ruler by later generations. However, this aforementioned decree was a mystery puzzling future generations.
Controversies among academics
There is a recorded time before the decree when Peter the Great left the country for some time. When he returned, some people claimed to have had the impression that Peter I, who returned, was not the same Peter I that left. Therefore, many controversies have arisen in academic circles.
Some scholars have evaluated Peter’s changes before and after leaving the country regarding language, appearance, mental state, etc. According to some theories surrounding this person, the Peter who came back from Germany was a substitute. A prominent reason was that he did not speak fluent Russian, and his appearance was far from that of Peter I.
Therefore, the academic community believed the person behind the decree to eradicate the 300-year-old Ross people was Peter’s substitute, not the real Peter I himself. The order to eliminate the 300-year-old people was undoubtedly a historical tragedy. But it left an account that in ancient Ross in the 17th century, people could live to be 300 years old.
‘Little Pengzu’ Chen Jun
In China, there is a historical record of longevity that no one has ever broken, according to records in volume 12 of the Yongtai County Chronicle.
In the 13th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, Chen Jun, whose courtesy name was Keming, was born in the first year of Zhonghe (A.D. 881) in the Tang Dynasty and died in the first year of Trading (A.D. 1324) in the Yuan Dynasty. That made him 443 years old.
Chen Jun practiced medicine everywhere. On one occasion, Chen Jun came to Yongtai County. He saw Tangquan Village with its beautiful scenery and many hot springs, so he stayed there.
Chen Jun was charitable and respected by the villagers. After more than 400 years, he also aged and he could not take care of himself. The county annals stated: “If the elder has no descendants alive, the villagers should take turns supporting the elder.” Since Chen Jun had no descendants, the local villagers took turns helping him.
After Chen Jun’s death, his deeds were recorded on wooden plaques, and his remains were shaped like images and placed in Tangquan Temple. According to Chinese folk myths and legends, Peng Zu lived for more than 800 years. because Chen Jun lived for 443 years, he was hailed as “Little Peng Zu.”
There are many examples of longevity like the above. For instance, Wu Pu was a physician of the Three Kingdoms period (A.D. 220-480). He lived to be 200 years old and wrote a book, Pu’s Materia Medica.
Li Qingyuan, a Chinese physician in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, lived to be 256 years old. Femkas of the UK also lived for 207 years, while Japan’s Manning lived 242 years. But, according to records, all of these people had one feature in common — a quiet mind.
Peace and quiet
Whether you are a monk or are in the secular world, if you keep healthy, it is not pie in the sky to live a long life of 100 years. According to the above historical accounts of longevity, it is not impossible to reach a grand age of 100.
All it takes is a life of few attachments and few desires that shake the heart and cloud the mind. Thus, the key to longevity, one may argue, is remaining peaceful with oneself and others and maintaining a tranquil state of mind.
Translated by Patty Zhang
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