University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXV.

Long Life and Vital Fluid (Chi-shou).

The fate which every one receives is of two kinds, one determines
those events which he must encounter, the other is the fate
of strength and weakness, of long or short life. The events to be
encountered are war, fire, crushing, and drowning, etc.; strength and
long life, weakness and short life are connected with the copiousness
and scarcity of the received fluid. War and fire, crushing and
drowning can supervene, therefore there is not necessarily a period
of invariable length for what has been received as fate.[1]

If the limit of strength and long life be a hundred years,
then the fluid of those who do not reach a hundred years must
be insufficient.

When the fluid is copious, the body becomes strong, and the
body being strong, life lasts long. On the other hand, when the
vital force is scanty, the body is weak, and with a weak body life
is short. A short life is accompanied by much sickness. If the span
be short, people die soon after they are born, and are annihilated,
before they are fully developed. That is because their vital fluid
is too little and too weak.

Those imbued with a copious and a strong fluid do not all
at once end their lives. If people do not meet with any accidents,
and, leading a quiet life, become exhausted and worn out, until
they die for want of vitality, it is owing to the insufficiency of
their vital fluid, which they have completely used up. Their fate
is similar to that of those who expire soon after their birth and
are cut off, before they have grown up. In all these cases the deficiency
of the fluid is the reason, why those persons do not live
a hundred years.

The fluid which fills men is either full and abundant—then
they are strong and vigorous, or scanty and poor—then they are
weak and feeble. Imbued with a full quantity, they are strong,

and live long, filled with a small dose, they are weak, and lose
their bodies.

When Heaven and Earth produce things, sometimes these things
do not grow to their full growth, and when father and mother engender
a child, sometimes its full development is checked. It happens
that a plant bears a fruit, but that this fruit withers, dies, and
drops, and it also happens that people have a son who is killed
in his youth. Had this fruit not withered, it would also have completed
one year, and had the son not been killed, he would likewise
have lived a hundred years. The decay of the fruit and the
death of the son are brought about by the weakness of their vital
force. Although their forms be complete, their feeble fluid does
not suffice to fill them.

When the cries of a new-born infant are shrill and piercing,
it will live long, when they are whining and pitiful, it will die
young. Why? Because, when the new-borns receive their fate of
longevity or short life, the greater or smaller quantity of their fluid
forms their nature.[2]

When a mother nurses her child at longer intervals, it will
be fit for life, whereas, when she nourishes it very frequently, it
will die. Why? Because the nursing at intervals shows that the
fluid is copious, and the child is strong. The frequent suckling
proves the insufficiency of the vital fluid and the weakness of
the baby.

A fondling is a son anterior to whom another son has already
been brought up and died. They say that such a fondling cannot
live, and call it a fondling. The idea is that, another son having
already died, the mother is too anxious about the new one, and
spoils his nature. The former son is dead, and the fondling is
doomed, because he is nursed much too often. His fluid being
too feeble, he cannot thrive. Though he may grow up, he is too
easily affected by external influences. He will always be the first
to catch a disease, and his alone will prove incurable.

A fate of a hundred years is the proper one. Those who
cannot complete a hundred years, though they have no proper fate,
still have a fate. In the same manner the proper height of the
human body is ten feet.[3] Therefore a man is called chang-fu,[4] and

chang-jen is an honorary designation for an old gentleman and an
old lady.[5] A man not measuring ten feet has not the proper height,
but nevertheless he possesses a body. A body cannot be declared
to be no body because of its falling short of ten feet. And so fate
cannot be said to be no fate on account of its not coming up to
a hundred years.

Heaven does not distribute long and short fates, of which
every one would obtain either. We may say that man receives his
fate in his fluid from Heaven, which is the same, whether he finishes
it sooner or later. There is a saying to the effect that, if
somebody aspires to royalty and does not succeed, this pretender
can remain a leading prince. Leading princes are unsuccessful pretenders
to royalty. A pretender should rise to royalty, as a long life
ought to come up to a hundred years. Unable to become a king,
he retires and continues a leading prince, and thus he who cannot
attain to a hundred years resigns himself to a premature death.

A king and a pretender do the same, but are given different
names, the one an honourable, the other a contemptible one. A
long and a short life are caused, as it were, by the same fluid, but
they are of different duration, either long or short. How do we
know that he who does not live a hundred years, and dies an
untimely death, possesses a fate of a hundred years all the same?
Because his bodily frame is as big and as tall as that of others.
A body that has lived a hundred years does not differ from another
of fifty years. The bodies not being different, the vital fluids cannot
differ either. Birds and animals have other bodies than man, hence
the length of their lives must differ from the human.

How can we prove that human life, if it be long, lasts a
hundred years? There are such cases in the world, and the Literati
say that during the time of universal peace people used to be very
tall, and live about a hundred years, which was the effect of the
harmonious fluid. In the Canon of Yao, Yao syas, "I have been
seventy years on the throne."[6] He wished to abdicate, and found
Shun. Shun was tried and had occupied the throne thirty years,[7]
when Yao retired owing to his old age. Eight years afterwards he
expired. Ninety-eight years had elapsed until his decease.[8] But he

must already have lived, before he ascended the throne. Counting
all these numbers together we arrive at an aggregate sum of over
a hundred years.

It is further stated that "Shun was thirty years old, that he
was tried thirty years, and that he was on the throne fifty years,
when he went on high and died,"[9] which makes just one hundred
years.[10]

Wên Wang said to Wu Wang, "I am a hundred years, and
you are ninety. I will give you three years of mine." Wêng Wang
was ninety-seven years old, when he died, and Wu Wang ninetythree,
when he departed.[11]

The Duke of Chou was a younger brother of Wu Wang. Between
brothers there is generally no greater difference than ten years.
After the death of Wu Wang, Chou Kung became regent. Seven years
later he returned the government, and retired owing to old age.
That would make about a hundred years. The Duke of Shao was
an elder brother of the Duke of Chou. At the time of King K`ang[12]
he was still Senior Tutor, which would make more than a hundred
years.

Sages are endued with the harmonious fluid, therefore the
years of their destiny have the proper number. The harmonious
fluid is conducive to a tranquil government. Therefore during the
age of universal peace the number of tall and long-lived persons
was particularly great. One hundred years is the proper number
of years of a long human life, as autumn is the proper time for
the fate of plants, since plants live until autumn, when they die.

Plants perishing before or after autumn are similar to men
whose life either exceeds or falls short of a hundred years. The
time before or after autumn corresponds to more or less than a
hundred years. Some plants fade already after they have pierced
the earth, as men may die soon after their birth. Other plants may
pass the autumn without withering just like men whose years may
eventually be from one hundred to three hundred.

It is on record that Lao Tse lived over two hundred years.[13]
The Duke of Shao became one hundred and eighty years old. Kao
Tsung[14] reigned one hundred years, and King Mu of the Chou dynasty
likewise one hundred.[15] Including the time before his ascension,
there must have been upwards of one hundred and thirty-four years
altogether.