Preface:
In ancient times, due to the backwardness of medical technology, people's lifespan was generally very short at that time, and the average lifespan was basically thirty or forty years. For the common people, the length of life is destined by God, they cannot change it, and they have nothing to lose. The situation is completely different for the emperor. They always want to seek a way to live longer and hope to be emperors for a longer period of time. For example, the Qin Shihuang of that year often sent people out to find prescriptions for immortality.
Unfortunately, many emperors are very short-lived and die very early. But there are some special cases, such as Kangxi and Qianlong, whose lifespan is longer than that of other emperors. So how did these two emperors achieve longevity? Today we will analyze the reasons behind them.
Two long-lived emperors
In fact, in ancient my country, a person's lifespan could exceed 40 years old, which was actually considered long-lived. The emperor enjoyed the best food and had the best doctors to treat them, and their average life expectancy was only 45 years. However, what is strange is that by the period of the Qing Dynasty, the lifespan of the monarch suddenly began to extend, especially the two emperors, Kangxi and Qianlong. It has been recorded in historical books that Emperor Kangxi lived to be 68 years old, which is not long-lived compared to today, but it was already very powerful at that time. And his grandson Emperor Qianlong lived to be 89 years old, which was a very high record at that time.
Let’s take Qin Shihuang as an example and compare with these two emperors. Qin Shihuang sent people to find a prescription for immortality every day, but in the end he only lived to be 50 years old and died. If he could live to 89 years old, he would probably not have the chance to appear in Liu Bang and Xiang Yu , and the Qin Empire would have further development. Unfortunately, he did not live that long, and the Qin Empire did not last long and was soon destroyed.
How did these two emperors live long?
When it comes to this, people will definitely be curious. One emperor lived to be 89 years old and the other lived to be 68 years old. Why do they live longer than the previous emperors? Is it because they ate something? Or is it because of what maintenance they have done? After research, historians found that they did not do anything, but just quit a bad hobby, which was to take pills.
We all know that Chinese elixirs have a long history and appeared during the reign of Qin Shihuang. At that time, Qin Shihuang wanted to live forever, so he found a lot of Taoist priests , hoping that they could make elixirs for themselves. Because there is no scientific guidance, these sorcerers dare to use any materials casually when making elixirs, which has led to these elixirs affecting their physical health.
Although these emperors did not find the elixir for immortality, they always believed in their hearts that this elixir exists. Although Qin Shihuang suffered a loss, the emperor later did not give up and was still looking for immortal pills that could live forever. For example, , Emperor Taizong of Tang , in order to continue his life, he also ate a lot of immortal pills. What is the
elixir?
Speaking of this, everyone will also be curious about what these elixirs are? How did they make it? After investigation, we found that the materials used to refine immortal pills are very precious, and gold and silver will be used. Some even use the flammable gunpowder . Why use this material? Because in the sacred book " Baopuzi " of Taoist , it was once written: The so-called immortality means that people are immortal, and gold and silver, the precious metal of , , has such characteristics.
From these records, we can see that the elixirs taken by the emperors are actually chemically refined into elixirs and finally refined into elixirs for taking.A Western scholar once wrote a book about science and technology history related to China. In it, it mentioned that China's alchemy technique is actually the originator of modern chemistry. However, the alchemy technique has not promoted the development of Chinese science and technology. Although they have learned to refine metals through high temperatures, what they finally practiced is the so-called "golden elixir" and do not think it is a useful chemical substance.
The most terrifying thing is that the book records that when refining alchemy, these trees use not only gold and silver, but also some heavy metals with relatively high harm, such as mercury, which is what we often call mercury , which has very high toxicity. They mainly use two methods, one is distillation and purification, and the second is redox. The entire refining process also uses sulfur and carbon, which sounds like refining gunpowder. The refining process is also very dangerous and may even explode.
So what the emperor at that time was not a elixir that could last forever, but was constantly eating some heavy metals, and some heavy metals also contained highly toxic. Taking this kind of thing regularly will definitely damage people's bodies. It's no wonder that many emperors can no longer hold on when they live to the age of forties or fifties. Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong were different. At that time, they realized the terrible nature of alchemy, which would not help them extend their lifespan, but would affect their health. Therefore, they refused to take these elixirs to survive for a long time.
has been recorded in some unofficial history. Because Emperor Kangxi's father was encouraged by monks, he chose to become a monk, which left a very deep shadow on Emperor Kangxi's heart. He hated these religions very much and believed that the so-called reincarnation was completely fake, so he refused to take elixirs. Emperor Qianlong also followed the teachings of his ancestors and did not eat these heavy metals that are not good for the body, which made them very healthy. In addition, the emperor ate better every day, so he could live for so long.
In fact, current medicine has long proved that as long as people exercise regularly and maintain a healthy state, their normal physiology can be maintained for more than 110 years. The reason why many emperors died at the age of 40 or 50 is because they have some bad living habits. To achieve longevity, you do not need to rely on taking tonics to maintain your life, but to strengthen your body through continuous exercise.
It is obvious that ancient emperors failed to understand this principle, so they took so many pills, and finally filled their bodies with toxins, which affected their physical and mental health. We must also learn from it and don’t think about using some special methods to extend our lifespan.
