Among the ancient Taoist spells, there is a spell that is very famous, that is, the "Seven Star Lantern Continuation Technique", the reason why this spell is so famous is due to the fact that Zhuge Liang used this spell to continue life in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Although Zhuge Liang's final failure to continue his life, he left a deep impression on the world, and at the same time aroused the curiosity of countless people, whether this technique of continuing life and borrowing life existed, and did anyone in history successfully renew his life?
What is the "Seven Star Lamp"
After going through the historical texts, I did find another character who used the "Seven Star Lantern", and he successfully continued his life for 12 years, this person was Liu Bowen of the Ming Dynasty.
However, before talking about this history, we must understand what the "Seven Star Lantern" is in advance.
According to the Taoist classic Yunji Seven Notes and the Ministry of The Ordination of The Commandments of The Seven Notes of Yunji:
"The seven stars descend on the boy to defend his body."
That is to say, the seven rays of man correspond to the seven stars in the sky, when the qi of the seven stars converges to form a person, and the light of the seven stars will always exist above the head of the person, but when the light of the seven stars gradually disappears, it means that this person is also about to die.
Therefore, the spell of the "Seven Star Lantern" borrowing life was also born from this.
According to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, if this spell is successfully used to borrow life, the caster can increase the life expectancy of one century, that is, 12 years.
This "spell" was already popular during the Shang Dynasty, but due to the lack of historical data, we have not found any famous historical figures who used this spell. Of course, those nameless warlocks of folk cultivation are not in this category.
Until the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang accumulated labor and illness in order to support the Han Dynasty, and he was proficient in magic and wanted to use this technique to increase his life.
Why did Kong Ming fail?
He first found his own Honmei Star King through calculation, and lit his own Honmei Lamp, and then lit seven more lights around the Honmei Lamp according to the arrangement of the Big Dipper, and 49 small lamps were lit on the periphery. Within seven days, as long as the lamp of life is not extinguished, then the art of borrowing life is completed.
However, the end of the story is known to everyone, Zhuge Liang finally failed, and he did not complain about Wei Yan, who forcibly broke into the account, because he knew that he had done a lot of things that would damage his life expectancy for jiangshan Sheji, and Wei Yan's intrusion caused the lights to go out, I am afraid it was also a providential arrangement, who did he blame?
With endless regret, the physically and mentally possessed gentleman closed his eyes.
Although Kong Ming eventually failed, more than 1100 years later in the Ming Dynasty, the hero Liu Bowen successfully borrowed Shou Yiji with the help of this spell.
Liu Bowen's wisdom is not under Kong Ming, and because of this, folklore has always been that Liu Bowen is the reincarnation of Kong Ming, ending his unfulfilled long-cherished wish.
However, history was once again staged, and at the most critical moment of Zhu Yuanzhang's career, Liu Bowen was seriously ill and died shortly after. In order to fulfill his long-cherished wish, he "repeated his old skills" and wanted to borrow his life through the "Seven Star Lantern".
At the same familiar moment, Liu Bowen also first found his own life star jun, and then placed three layers of 57 lights inside and out.
Only this time Liu Bowen succeeded, he spent 7 days unharmed, and he did live an extra century (12 years) because of this.
Summary - Success or Failure
If you want to say why these two people succeeded and failed, the historical reasons for this are probably not something you or I can explain. However, if you use modern medicine to explain it, the two actually have an essential difference.
There is an idiom in "Xunzi Wang System" that "accumulated labor becomes a disease", and Zhuge Liang is exactly like this, the key is that Zhuge Liang is not only physically tired, but also the ideological pressure he bears is also very huge.
Through the records of Zhuge Liang's condition in the history books, he is likely to have a peptic ulcer caused by a long-term irregular diet, which is what we call a stomach ulcer. The final cause of Death of Zhuge Liang should be a perforation of stomach ulcers.
For example, in the 1980s, Chinese archaeologists found a corpse of a Western Han man who died of stomach ulcer perforation, which shows that the fatality rate of this disease in ancient times was extremely high.
Liu Bowen did not have this situation, he was taken under the command of Zhu Yuanzhang in 1360, and the time of his serious illness was 3 years later, so he did not have the theory of overwork.
However, history does not record in detail the causes and consequences of Liu Bowen's serious illness, so we cannot judge what disease he was suffering from at that time, and there is no way to compare it with the former here.
But in any case, these two people have made outstanding contributions to the development and advancement of Chinese history, especially Zhuge Liang, leaving aside the "protagonist aura" on his body, just a "master's table" that is full of anger and intestines is enough to make him famous in history.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, History of the Ming Dynasty, Xunzi Wangzhi, Yunji Seven Notes, Ordination of The Ministry