How Did Professor Zheng Ji Live to 110 Despite a Life Plagued by Illness?
He was born on May 6, 1900, and died on July 29, 2010, at the age of 110. Yet it is incredible to recall that he had once suffered from tuberculosis; after turning sixty, he underwent three laparotomies and was hospitalized for nearly a year and a half; in 1997 he lost more than 1,000 ml of blood and was hospitalized for 80 days; in 2001 he broke his hip; and in 2004 he was again hospitalized for over four months due to stomach disease.
He is Professor Zheng Ji, the world's longest-living professor and the oldest living author.
Until shortly before his death, Professor Zheng Ji remained clear-headed, quick-thinking, and indefatigable in writing. Past the age of one hundred, he was still at work writing the "History of Chinese Biochemistry." He was a founder of Chinese nutrition science and one of the pioneers of Chinese biochemistry. Professor Zheng Ji graduated in 1928 from the biology department of the former Central University (predecessor of Nanjing University). In 1930 he went to the United States to study, entering Ohio State University to specialize in biochemistry, and also studied at Yale University and Indiana University, earning his doctorate in 1936. After returning to China he successively served as a researcher at the Science Society of China Research Institute, professor of the Medical School of Central University, professor and chair of the biochemistry section, professor at the East China Military Medical College and the Fourth Military Medical University, and professor at the Medical School and Biology Department of Nanjing University as well as director of the biochemistry teaching and research office. He taught for a long time at the Medical School and Biology Department of Nanjing University.
Professor Zheng Ji was born in war-torn China, a poor farm boy from Nanxi, Sichuan. His family was impoverished from childhood; he was frail and often ill, and was plagued throughout his life by tuberculosis, stomach disease, and other ailments. He only entered the county senior primary school at age fourteen and graduated at the top of his class at seventeen. In 1945 he founded the biochemistry research institute at the Medical School of Central University to train biochemistry graduate students — the first formal institution in Chinese educational history to train graduate students in biochemistry. He taught students all over the world. After entering his seventies, he opened up research on the biochemical mechanisms of aging and proposed the metabolic-dysregulation theory of aging, laying the foundation for Chinese biogerontology.
Professor Zheng Ji participated in founding the Chinese Nutrition Society and the Chinese Biochemical Society. He served as chairman of the professors' council of Central University and as the first president of the Chinese Nutrition Society. In 2004, the International Biographical Centre of Cambridge, UK, awarded him the "21st Century Award for Achievement."
Professor Zheng Ji spoke many times about his "secret of longevity," which he summarized in ten points: 1. Be open-minded, optimistic and positive, and emotionally stable. 2. Live a regular life. 3. Persist in physical labor and exercise. 4. Pay attention to rest and sleep. 5. Observe dietary hygiene and strictly avoid binge eating and drinking. 6. Strictly quit smoking and drink little alcohol. 7. Exercise restraint in sexual desire and bad habits. 8. Do not neglect minor illnesses. 9. Pay attention to environmental hygiene and get out in sunlight and fresh air. 10. Pay attention to occupational protection and prevent accidental injury.
There is an old Chinese saying, "The virtuous live long," and this was borne out in Professor Zheng Ji. In his later years he sold off his house and donated the proceeds to the school and to society, establishing scholarships for poor students and academic funds.
Professor Zheng Ji's diet was both regular and simple: breakfast was a glass of milk, two boiled quail eggs, a preparation stewed with five red dates (Hongzao), three longans (Longyan), and 15–20 goji berries (Gouqizi), plus a small piece of bread; lunch was a bowl of congee with stir-fried chive flowers and eggs; dinner was a bowl of lotus-root starch and a red-bean bun. Aunt Lu said the bread was sometimes replaced by cake or egg-yolk pie; buns, lotus-root starch, noodles, wontons, and congee were what the old man often ate. Milk, congee, and lotus-root starch were never absent from his three daily meals. In addition, the old man spent about 30–40 cents a day on vitamins: one vitamin A pill; vitamin B1, 10–20 mg (10 mg per pill, two pills); vitamin B2, 5–10 mg (5 mg per pill, two pills); vitamin B6, 5–10 mg (5 mg per pill, two pills); vitamin C, 300–600 mg; and vitamin E, 50–100 mg, taken in two divided doses morning and evening. The professor explicitly stated: "I do not advocate taking many tonics, and I am skeptical of the various nutritional liquids on the market; I believe many tonics are profit-making deceptions."
Professor Zheng Ji's daily routine was also extremely regular: he rose at 5 a.m.; went to bed for a noon nap at 12:45; and got up between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. In nutrition, he emphasized balanced nutrition, a mixed diet of meat and vegetables with a predominance of plant foods. He ate plenty of vegetables, avoided animal fats and fatty meat, used only vegetable oils, and ate less fried, pickled, and overly spicy, salty, or sweet food. Meals were eaten at fixed times, each meal only to eight or nine-tenths full, chewed slowly and thoroughly. He always kept regular daily routines, and especially in old age ate with restraint, following the principles of three lows (low fat, low energy, low sugar), two sufficiencies (sufficient vitamins and dietary fiber), and easy digestibility. The professor insisted that none of these rules be changed arbitrarily and enforced them strictly. He was using himself as the experimental subject, conducting an experiment according to his own scientific design. To carry out a routine that never wavered, day after day, in a programmatic way, is hard for ordinary people. But Professor Zheng Ji pursued this health and longevity research project with the attitude of a scientist.
Professor Zheng Ji had a comprehensive set of calisthenics he had stuck with for years: (1) brisk walking 200–400 steps. (2) horse-riding half-squats. (3) cloud-hand movements. (4) rowing, hoisting a sail, casting a net. (5) phoenix spreading its wings. (6) leg presses. (7) knee-together rotations. (8) shaking the head and swaying the tail. (9) swimming motions. (10) left-right bending. (11) drawing a bow left and right. (12) pounding the lower back and rubbing the abdomen. (13) raising one hand. (14) chest-slapping breathing. (15) head movements. (16) jumping and marching in place. (17) standing at attention in quiet contemplation.
It was these habits of living and resting — simple in appearance yet hard to sustain — that kept Professor Zheng Ji vigorous past the age of one hundred, and allowed him, despite lacking a constitutionally robust body, to live to the age of 110.