He devoted his whole life to the research and development of Chinese medicine in the motherland and made great achievements in Chinese medicine. He once wrote the book The Secret of Longevity, which spread all over the world. At the age of one hundred, he was awarded a special prize by Emperor Qianlong for his outstanding achievements in traditional Chinese medicine. At the age of 200 (the third year of Guangxu-A.D. 1877), he still often went to school to give lectures to thousands of students.
Li Qingyun led a hard life, and his parents died of illness when he was young. Therefore, he was determined to be a doctor from an early age, helping the world and saving mankind. He collects herbs for a living all the year round and has traveled all over the mountains and rivers of the motherland. In order to save lives and better understand the medicinal properties of each traditional Chinese medicine, he must personally taste each traditional Chinese medicine and understand its medicinal properties. It is said that during the Xianfeng period, an old man was found collecting herbs on the mountain. He looks like a saint, striding along. It was later confirmed that the old man was Li Qingyun, who was one hundred years old. During the Republic of China, Li Qingyun was highly valued by Yang Sen, who was born in Sichuan in February, 1884, and later served as the general of the Kuomintang Army and the commander of the 20th Army. He was deeply interested in martial arts fitness since he was a child, and later focused on longevity. Although he has been fighting all the year round, he is in good health. He had 12 wives and 43 children in his life. At the age of 86, his concubine in Taiwan Province Province, 17 years old, gave birth to a daughter for him, and he lived to be 96 years old. He pays great attention to his health. When he was stationed in Wanxian, Sichuan, he heard from his adjutant that there was a strange man, Li Qingyun, who was 250 years old. Upon hearing this, Yang Sen immediately ordered the adjutant to take Li Qingyun to Wanxian to attend the inauguration ceremony of the local "Wei Sen Bridge" (later changed to "Wan 'an Bridge"). When Li Qingyun arrived, Wanxian was crowded with people, scrambling to watch. He is wearing a blue robe, a pair of thick black socks and sandals. He looks fifty or sixty years old, with bright eyes and a voice like Hong Zhong. The most special thing about him is his left fingernail, which is seven or eight inches long and curled and overlapped. Obviously, it stayed for many days. Li Shenxian took out a small box from her pocket, which contained more than a dozen nails seven or eight inches or even a foot long. He said that all these nails fell from his fingers. Yang Sen invited Li Jingruo as a guest, worshipped him as a teacher and made a new suit for Li. He asked the photo studio to enlarge the photos and display them in the window, indicating "Li Qingyun, a 250-year-old man from Kaixian County". For a time, newspapers in the province rushed to report as anecdotes, which caused a sensation in Sichuan.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek made Nanjing his capital, and Yang Sen knew how to entertain himself. He spread the news of Li Qingyun to Nanking, and attached an eight-inch photo to Chiang Kai-shek as a gift with the theme of prosperous times. Chiang Kai-shek was very happy when he heard the news, and immediately asked Yang Sen to try to escort Li Shenxian to Beijing. "Let Chinese and foreign people have expectations for our people and know something about his cultivation."
In his later years, Li Qingyun was visited by many western scholars, which promoted the cause of Chinese medicine in the motherland. Li Qingyun lived to be 256 years old, and his way of longevity and health preservation attracted worldwide attention. Later, the secret of his longevity was discovered from his notes.
First, long-term vegetarian diet. Mainly cereals, wild vegetables and wild fruits, and he only eats two meals a day and never changes.
Second, the most important point is that at the age of 80, he tried thousands of Chinese medicines and finally decided to stick to three kinds of Chinese medicines every day: ginseng, astragalus and wolfberry.