Professor Zheng Ji, Who Lived to 111, on Anti-Aging

In 1984, Professor Zheng Ji of the Biochemistry Teaching and Research Section at Nanjing University, then 85, published a thin book titled Aging and Anti-Aging; at the time, 85 was already considered a long life. No one imagined Professor Zheng Ji would live another 26 years, dying in 2010 at 111. He is now the world's second-longest-living scholar and writer, second only to Mr. Zhou Youguang, who lived to 112.

The book has been out of print for years; I paid 24 yuan on Taobao for a well-preserved used copy and was overjoyed. Professor Zheng Ji was one of the founders of biochemistry and nutrition in China and chief editor of the General Biochemistry textbook used in Chinese universities.

I originally wanted also to buy the General Biochemistry he edited, as a memento of this long-lived scholar. But I already have the latest edition of Biochemistry, which overlaps his book, and after thinking it over I passed. I now practice minimalism: I spend no money I can avoid, and barely spend at all. Spending nothing means worrying about nothing; lowering my need for money lets me take work as it comes, never bowing to please others, making life far easier. This is itself a way of preserving health.

Professor Zheng Ji was born May 6, 1900, and died July 29, 2010. He graduated from the Biology Department of the former Central University (predecessor of Nanjing University) in 1928, went to the United States in 1930, studied biochemistry at Ohio State University, also studied at Yale and Indiana University, and received his doctorate in 1936. After returning to China he served as researcher at the China Science Society Institute, professor at the Central University Medical School and professor and head of biochemistry, professor at the East China Military Medical College and the Fourth Military Medical University, and professor at the Nanjing University Medical School and Biology Department, as well as director of the biochemistry teaching and research section. He taught long at the Nanjing University Medical School and Biology Department. Professor Zheng remained clear-headed, sharp, and prolific until shortly before his death; past 100 he was still writing the History of Chinese Biochemistry.

Born in war-torn China, Zheng Ji was the son of a poor farming family in Nanxi, Sichuan. He did not enter the county senior primary school until age 14 and graduated first in his class at 17. In 1945 he founded the biochemistry research institute at the Central University Medical School to train biochemistry graduate students—the first formal institution in Chinese education history to train graduate students in biochemistry. Professor Zheng nurtured scholars across the land. After reaching seventy, he opened research into the biochemical mechanisms of aging and proposed the metabolic-disorder theory of aging, laying the foundation for gerontological biochemistry in China. He helped found the Chinese Nutrition Society and the Chinese Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and served as chairman of the Central University Professors' Conference and first president of the Chinese Nutrition Society.

Professor Zheng was not one of those people with longevity genes who rarely fall ill; his long life is itself a refutation of genetic and biological determinism. As Zhou Youguang put it, it was medical progress and their own knowledge that let them live long. Raised in poverty, frail and sickly from childhood, Zheng Ji was plagued by tuberculosis, stomach problems, and other diseases. Past sixty he underwent three laparotomies and was hospitalized for nearly a year and a half; in 1997 he lost over 1000 ml of blood and spent 80 days in hospital; in 2001 he broke his hip; in 2004 he was hospitalized again for over four months with stomach problems. His longevity rested on his deep professional knowledge of health and nutrition and his strict self-discipline.

Many people write health books yet die young. Professor Zheng truly united knowledge and action, living nearly out his natural span. Only such a person speaks with true insight.

In Aging and Anti-Aging, Professor Zheng collected data on long-lived elders and, based on their experience, summed up ten "secrets of longevity": 1. Open-minded, optimistic, positive, and emotionally stable—this is the most crucial. 2. A regular life. 3. Persistent physical labor and exercise. 4. Attention to rest and sleep. 5. Attention to dietary hygiene; strictly avoid binge eating. 6. Strictly stop smoking; drink little. 7. Moderation in sexual desire and bad habits. 8. Do not neglect minor illnesses. 9. Attention to environmental hygiene; get more sun and fresh air. 10. Attention to labor protection and prevention of accidental injury.

An old Chinese saying goes "the benevolent enjoy long life," and Professor Zheng proved it. In his later years he sold his house and donated the proceeds to the school and society, establishing scholarships for needy students and academic funds. Throughout his life he was positive, diligent, and eager to learn, yet indifferent to fame and open-hearted.

Professor Zheng Ji's diet was regular and simple: breakfast, a glass of milk, two boiled quail eggs, a bowl of porridge cooked with five red dates, three longans, and 15–20 goji berries, plus a small piece of bread; lunch, a bowl of congee with stir-fried eggs and flowering Chinese chives; dinner, a bowl of lotus-root starch and a bean-paste bun. According to Aunt Lu, who cared for him, his breakfast bread was sometimes replaced by cake or egg yolk pie; he daily loved buns, lotus-root starch, noodles, wontons, and congee.

He also supplemented vitamins: one vitamin A pill; vitamin B1 10–20 mg (10 mg/pill); vitamin B2 5–10 mg (5 mg/pill); vitamin B6 5–10 mg (5 mg/pill); vitamin C 300–600 mg; vitamin E 50–100 mg. Taken in two divided doses morning and evening, every day without fail.

Vitamins are trace organic substances that humans and animals must obtain from food to maintain normal physiological function, and they play an important role in growth, metabolism, and development. Although vitamins neither build body cells nor provide energy, they are essential. Most people lack vitamins due to an unbalanced diet and need supplementation.

Professor Zheng explicitly said: "I do not advocate taking many tonics, and I am skeptical of today's various nutritional supplements; I believe many tonics are scams designed to make money." He himself bought the cheapest vitamins at the pharmacy.

I have followed this regimen of Professor Zheng's for years, taking all the vitamins except vitamin C (I once had kidney stones, and extra vitamin C can trigger recurrence), and have benefited greatly. Long-standing skin problems, athlete's foot, and mouth ulcers no longer recur; my sleep is excellent, and I fall asleep within minutes of lying down.

Professor Zheng Ji's daily schedule was also extremely regular: up at 5:00 a.m.; nap at 12:45 p.m.; rise at 2:30–3:00 p.m. In nutrition he emphasized balanced intake, mixed meat and vegetables, and a primarily vegetarian diet. Eat more vegetables; no animal fat or fatty pork; only vegetable oil; eat less fried, pickled, and overly spicy, salty, or sweet food. Meals on time; stop at 80–90% full; chew slowly. He always kept regular hours, especially in old age, with dietary principles of three lows (low fat, low energy, low sugar), two sufficiencies (enough vitamins and dietary fiber), and easy digestibility.

As a scientist, he used himself as the experimental subject, following his own research design. For decades, unswervingly, he lived a programmatic life—hard for ordinary people. He also kept up a comprehensive calisthenics routine he had followed for years: (1) brisk walking 200–400 steps; (2) horse-riding half-squats; (3) cloud hands; (4) rowing, pulling a sail, casting a net; (5) phoenix spreading its wings; (6) leg presses; (7) knees together and twisting; (8) shaking the head and wagging the tail; (9) swimming; (10) bending left and right; (11) drawing the bow left and right; (12) pounding the lower back and rubbing the abdomen; (13) raising one hand overhead; (14) chest patting and breathing; (15) head movements; (16) jumping and marching in place; (17) standing at attention in quiet contemplation.

These seemingly simple but hard-to-keep habits let Professor Zheng pass 100 without decline; despite a constitution not built for longevity, he still reached 111.

His Aging and Anti-Aging differs from the superficial web posts written by many wellness gurus. In it, Professor Zheng displays the rigorous reasoning of a science and engineering professor, discussing the biology of aging from many angles. He collected a great deal of research on aging, organized it into rigorous essays, and wrote persuasively.

He listed then-current theories—toxicity, injury, immunological, endocrine decline, free-radical, cross-linking, cell-structure change and protein denaturation, genetic—and summarized the causes of human aging and the anti-aging patterns of long-lived elders.

Of course, from 1984 to today, biology and medicine have made many advances in aging research, especially through evolutionary medicine. But Professor Zheng's book is not outdated; his views remain correct, though now, in hindsight, not complete.

After reading his work, I myself felt the urge to write an anti-aging paper, but such a paper would be long and require consulting much literature, so there is no rush.