Did ancient people really have lifespans longer than 200 years?

It isn’t only biblical figures who lived to well-seasoned ages of 900 years or more. Ancient texts from many cultures have listed life spans most modern people find simply and literally unbelievable. Some say it’s due to misunderstandings in the translation process, or that the numbers have symbolic meaning—but against the many explanations are also counterarguments that leave the historian wondering whether the human lifespan has actually decreased so significantly over thousands of years.

For example, one explanation is that the ancient Near East understanding of a year could be different than our concept of a year today. Perhaps a year meant an orbit of the moon (a month) instead of an orbit of the sun (12 months).

But if we make the changes accordingly, while it brings the age of the biblical figure Adam down from 930 to a more reasonable 77 at the time of his death, it also means he would have fathered his son Enoch at the age of 11. And Enoch would have only been 5 years old when he fathered Methuselah.

Similar inconsistencies arise when we adjust the year figures to represent seasons instead of solar orbits, noted Carol A. Hill in her article “Making Sense of the Numbers of Genesis,” published in the journal “Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith” in December 2003.

Similar problems have arisen when adjusting ages in ancient texts with the assumption that authors used a certain pattern for skewing the actual ages (such as multiplying them by a given number).

“Numbers [in Genesis] could have both real (numerical) and sacred (numerological or symbolic) meaning,” Hill wrote.

Mathematical Patterns?

In both Genesis and in the 4,000-year-old Sumerian King List—which lists the reigns of single kings in Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) as exceeding 30,000 years in some cases—analysts have noted the use of square numbers.

Much like the Bible, the King List shows a steady decline in lifespans. The list differentiates between pre-flood and post-flood reigns. The pre-flood reigns are significantly longer than the post-flood, though even post-flood lifespans are shown to be several hundred years or more than 1,000 years. In the Bible, we see a progressive decline over the generations from Adam’s 930-year life, to Noah’s 500 years, to Abraham’s 175.

Dwight Young of Brandeis University wrote of the post-flood lifespans in the Sumerian King List: “It is not merely because of their largeness that some of these numbers appear artificial. Etana’s 1560 years, to cite the longest, is but the sum of the two preceding reigns. … Certain spans seem simply to have arisen as multiples of 60. Other large numbers may be recognized as squares: 900, the square of 30; 625, the square of 25; 400, the square of 20 … even among smaller figures, the square of six appears more frequently than one might expect.” Young’s article, titled “A Mathematical Approach to Certain Dynastic Spans in the Sumerian King List,” was published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies in 1988. Paul Y. Hoskisson, director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies wrote along a similar vein of the patriarch ages in the Bible in a short article for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

On the other hand, looking at patterns, co-founder of the Church of God in South Texas Arthur Mendez thinks the rate of decline in longevity from pre-flood times as recorded in ancient texts to today matches the rate of decay observed in organisms when they are exposed to radiation or toxins.

Accounts in Many Cultures, Including Chinese and Persian

In ancient China, super-centenarians were also commonplace, according to many texts. Joseph P. Hou, Ph.D., acupuncturist, wrote in his book “Healthy Longevity Techniques”: “According to Chinese medical records, a doctor named Cuie Wenze of the Qin dynasty lived to be 300 years old. Gee Yule of the later Han dynasty lived to be 280 years old. A high ranking Taoist master monk, Hui Zhao, lived to be 290 years old and Lo Zichange lived to be 180 years old. As recorded in the The Chinese Encyclopedia of Materia Medica, He Nengci of the Tang dynasty lived to be 168 years old. A Taoist master, Li Qingyuan, lived to be 250 years old. In modern times, a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, Lo Mingshan of Sichuan province, lived to be 124 years old.”

Dr. Hou said the Eastern key to longevity is “nourishing life,” including not only physical nourishment, but also mental and spiritual nourishment.

The Shahnameh or Shahnama (“The Book of Kings”) is a Persian epic poem written by Ferdowsi around the end of the 10th century A.D. It tells of kings reigning 1,000 years, several hundred years, down to 150 years, and so on.

Modern Claims of Longevity

Even today, people report lifespans of some 150 or more years. These reports often come from rural areas, however, where documentation is scant. Documentation was probably even less valued in rural communities more than a century ago, making it harder to prove such claims. 

One example is that of Bir Narayan Chaudhary in Nepal.

In 1996, Vijay Jung Thapa visited Chaudhary in Tharu village of Aamjhoki in the Tarai region. Chaudhary told him he was 141 years old,  Thapa wrote in an article for India Today. If this claim was true, Chaudhary trumped the Guinness World Record holder for the longest life ever recorded by almost 20 years.

But Chaudhary didn’t have the papers to prove it. He did, however, have collective village memory.

“Almost all the elders around remember their youth when Chaudhary (already an elder) would talk about working in the first Nepal survey of 1888,” Thapa wrote. “Village logic goes that he must have been more than 21 then, since the survey was a responsible job. Chaudhary claims to have been 33 and still a stubborn bachelor.”

Many people in the Caucasus region of Russia similarly claim ages reaching even over 170 years without the documentation to back their claims. 

Dr. Hou wrote: “These exceptionally long-lived people have invariably lived humble lives, doing hard physical work or exercise, often outdoors, from youth well into old age. Their diet is simple, as is their social life involving families. One example is Shisali Mislinlow who lived to be 170 years old and gardened in the Azerbaijan region in Russia. Mislinlow’s life was never hurried. He said, ‘I am never in a hurry, so don’t be in a hurry to live, this is the main idea. I have been doing physical labor for 150 years.'”

A Matter of Faith?

The issue of longevity in ancient times has long been connected to Taoist practices of internal alchemy, or mind-body cultivation, in China. Here, longevity was connected with virtue. Likewise it is intertwined with Western spiritual beliefs as part of the Bible. 

[theepochtimes]

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White Tigress Sexual Teachings

The origin of the White Tigress teachings appear to have been derived from instructions given to the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti, circa 2500 B.C.E.) through three female attendants of the Western Royal Mother, who in Chinese mythical history is supposedly the matriarch of Chinese civilization. Her three female attendants—Plain Girl, Multihued Girl, and Mysterious Girl—each provided sexual instructions to the Yellow Emperor so that he might regain his health and attain immortality. The Western Royal Mother herself reportedly attained immortality through gathering and absorbing the sexual essences of twelve hundred males. From the White Tigress Manual there is the following descriptive quote of the Western Royal Mother as given by Mysterious Girl to the Yellow Emperor: 

Western Royal Mother obtained immortality through restoring her feminine energy. Her energy became so strong that when she lured a man’s Jade Stem [penis] near her mouth, with even one union he would fall exhausted, while her face glowed radiantly with his essence upon it. She no longer had need for any type of cosmetics. She could absorb the essence of a hundred men without causing herself any exhaustion, as her body was like that of a young girl full of vitality and stamina. Loving men the way they wished to be loved and knowing the secret of yin convergence [the secret of immortality] made her an immortals.

The White Tigress would orally seduce men of her choosing wherever and whenever possible in order to ensure her acquiring large quantities of semen, increase her production of saliva, make the oral activity more intense and passionate, and enhance her experiences for absorption of male sexual energy.

Within the White Tigress Manual, and in Japanese Geisha documents as well, it says:

With each act of intensely performing oral sex and congealing of semen she increases her life span by seven days. With those experiences where she enters deep contemplation of absorbing male sexual energy, she increases her life span by twenty-eight days. With each act of engaging in sexual intercourse her life span is decreased by seven days.

From the teachings of the Western Royal Mother there then developed numerous sexual arts that found their way into the culture of consorts, concubines, and Taoism. Many of these original teachings, however, came to just pay attention on the male achievement of immortality, per the instructions given to the Yellow Emperor. As China developed into a very patriarchal society, men attempted to shield the practices of the Western Royal Mother from falling into women’s hands.

Master Ch’ung Ho said: “It’s not only male sexual energy that can be cultivated, the female can cultivate hers as well. Western Royal Mother is a female who obtained immortality by replenishing her yin forces with the yang. Every time she engaged in sex with a man, he fell ill [the scare tactic], but her own face would be so smooth and glowing that she had no use for facial powders or rouge. She nourished herself on milk and played the five-stringed lute [allusions to semen and the five parts of the penis], and while she did so her heart was harmonious, her thoughts composed, and she was without extraneous desires. Western Royal Mother enjoyed having sex with men of all ages. Her secrets, however, must not be revealed, lest other women want to imitate her methods."

Because of this male perspective, the teachings of the Western Royal Mother were never popularly disseminated in China, especially during the Chou dynasty (1122 B.C.E—255 B.C.E)

There is a very well balanced protocol and demeanor within a White Tigress’s life. Great attention is paid not only to sexuality, but dietary, herbal usage, hygiene, exercise, appearance, and behavior. Outwardly, she may appear submissive, but inwardly she is focused and self- controlled. Interestingly enough, White Tigresses learned long ago to use their full femininity to empower themselves, rather than attempting to discard it. Curiously, it is odd that in such male dominated societies of China and Japan it was the consorts and geishas who held such incredible power and influence over men. Indeed, for men to even climb the social and power ladders of those societies they relied heavily upon the expert advice of these women, for they knew men better than men knew themselves.

As the moralist Confucians dominated social culture and philosophy. The teachings given to the Yellow Emperor from the Plain Girl were, however, widespread as they contained arts that enhanced a man’s health and progress toward immortality. The teachings that benefited women were maintained and transmitted primarily in secrecy through small clusters of consorts and female Taoists who maintained the sexual practices for purposes of achieving restoration of youthfulness and immortality.

The most popular Taoist sect that helped preserve the teachings of the White Tigress is credited to the Cheng-I Chen Jen (Right Unity of Realized Persons), formed (Yuan dynasty, circa 1200 C.E.) from the resurgence of the older Celestial Masters of Dragon and Tiger Mountain sect created by the earlier Han dynasty Taoist priest Chang Tao Ling (died 178 C.E., considered the first Taoist pope of sorts). From records within the White Tigress lineage, there appears to have been a great deal of support of their practices from the Cheng-I Chen Jen sect headquartered at the Heavenly Vault Monastery near Taihu Lake and Soochow Province, especially during the Ch’ing dynasty (1644 C.E. up to the time of Mao Tse Tung’s communist takeover of China).


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