Review
In ancient times, everyone envied the Son of Heaven, a king and general who had reached the peak of his power and had the absolute right to govern the country.
But if you stand in the emperor's point of view, this position is not so easy to do, civil and military officials, the people of the world, sometimes have to deal with foreign invasions, the emperor is also a person, how do they have so much energy to weigh the cause and effect around them?
In addition, there was a significant backwardness in the medical level in ancient times, and many diseases could not be diagnosed and treated due to lack of technology, and eventually only led to worsening of the condition and death.
This makes few emperors in the past dynasties long-lived, and some emperors even died suddenly in their early 30s at the golden age of men, in their position, longevity is a luxury that cannot be expected, otherwise there would not be so many emperors who want to live forever every day.
But in the history of the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi and Qianlong are the few long-lived emperors in China's dynasties, Kangxi lived to die at the age of 68, Qianlong lived to die at the age of 89, just because they never touched the same "hobbies", which other emperors really can't do.
Successive emperors favored Xiu Xian
In the 5,000-year history of China, a total of nearly 400 proud sons of heaven have been born, which is what we commonly call the emperor. As emperors theoretically, they could enjoy the highest treatment, with all the resources within their jurisdiction, and this unique condition should not allow them to live a long life?
But we found out after counting that only 30 of these 400 ancient kings lived to the age of 60.
It is incomprehensible that other emperors were either ousted from power due to war or died young and young.
In addition to the female emperor Wu Zetian, who we are familiar with, there are not many emperors in Chinese history who can live long, and the last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, has a pair of children and grandchildren, who are Kangxi and Qianlong. Why did Kangxi and Qianlong achieve the longevity that the kings envied?
Only because they had abandoned a hobby that other kings were eager to do—xiu xian.
Xiu Xian can even be said to be a curse for the ancient kings, whether it is the emperor of the ages who worked hard to rule when he was young and stepped on the eight wildernesses, he could not escape the curse of Xiu Xian in his old age. For example, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the ancient world, ascended the throne at the age of 21 and completed the historical cause of unifying China at the age of 39, trampling other dynasties under his feet and establishing the first unified state in Chinese history.
Such a feat was not something a foolish emperor could do, but Qin Shi Huang still became confused in his later years. He asked Xu Fu to go to Penglai Immortal Mountain and pray that the immortals would grant him the law of immortality and refine the elixir of immortality in order to realize the rule of the Qin Dynasty for thousands of generations. But in the end, we also know that the elixir of immortality was eaten, and the result was that people were still finished, and the throne was stolen by the thieves of the chaotic courtiers, in the end, this was all the trouble caused by Xiu Xian!
There is also the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Jiajing can be said to be a rare clever emperor in the history of the Ming Dynasty, although he did not go to the early dynasty for 20 years, he could use the king's technique to firmly hold the hundred officials in his hands, whether it was a eunuch group or a cabinet minister, he could never escape the palm of his hand.
But Jiajing was a master who was keen on cultivating the Immortal Dao, and it was precisely because of his preference that yan Song used this to control the government for more than twenty years, although there was not much threat to him, but the people below were really miserable!
Restrain the wildness of the heart
The examples of the Ming dynasty's ancients were there, and every king wanted to cultivate immortals, but they all died in the end. However, the kings of later generations still have the psychology of luck, believing that the refining technology of the ancient immortal elixir is immature, the cultivation of immortals is wrong, and anyway, under the blessing of the powerful, no one wants to miss the opportunity for eternal life.
Some emperors tried to cultivate immortals when they were young, probably in his cognition, the ancient kings failed to cultivate immortals because of age problems, the older they were, the less yang qi they had, the smaller the probability of success of cultivating immortals.
But in fact, any immortal elixir contains a large number of metal elements, the emperor after taking too much elixir in the body metal content will be seriously exceeded, eventually leading to rapid decline in physical fitness, young age died young; originally these emperors regarded the elixir as a life-saving straw, but did not expect that they are the best catalyst for death.
However, Kangxi and Qianlong resisted the temptation of Xiu Xian, and during their reign, kangxi made two foreign expeditions to repel Russia's vision of invading China, as well as the civil unrest in the southern San Francisco, the Mongolian Dzungardan, the Xinjiang scale, and Zhuo, which were all assessed by Kangxi during his reign.
Seeing that the country was so busy, perhaps Kangxi himself did not have time to enjoy the "benefits" brought by the elixir.
Although Qianlong was born in the Taiping Dynasty, he himself attaches great importance to the medical art, Qianlong in strict accordance with the imperial court etiquette every day to get up at about 3 o'clock, at the latest 9 o'clock late to sleep, it has never been interrupted in more than 60 years, this is the real health. Compared with those illusory immortal cultivation methods, what is good and what is bad as an emperor should have the most basic ability to distinguish.
In addition, a large number of officials in the Qianlong dynasty were addicted to smoke and soil, even in the early years of Qianlong. However, he then discovered that smoking had huge side effects on the body, so he quit the habit and never touched it again in decades. Being able to restrain the desire in your heart is probably the secret of the two emperors' true longevity.
epilogue
The longevity of Kangxi and Qianlong is enviable, of course, objectively speaking, in the era in which they lived, Chinese medical technology has made great progress, including the introduction of Western medicine to China, and medical methods such as surgery can solve many major problems that are difficult for Chinese medicine to solve.
Kangxi once suffered from a serious illness, and the imperial doctors at that time were all helpless, but two foreign doctors easily solved Kangxi's problem.
The regularity of life and rest, the restraint of inner desires, coupled with the advancement of medical technology, the time and place and the people have been achieved, which is the secret of the longevity of the two emperors.