Can Humans Really Live to 100? Why Are Modern People Dying Young? — Doctor Ni Haixia on the Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun of the Huang Di Nei Jing

Patient search terms: what is the normal human lifespan / why do modern people live shorter lives / the Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun / how should I read the Huang Di Nei Jing / how to learn Chinese medicine / what are the five pathogenic influences / what does supplementing the mother when vacuous mean / what to do about anger injuring the liver / brooding conquers fear / walking is the best exercise / at what age do children change their teeth

Corresponding medical names: the Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun · tian gui (the heavenly essence that ripens at puberty) · kidney qi (shen qi) · the five pathogenic influences (proper, deficient, minor, thief, excess) · supplement the mother when vacuous · the mother can make the child empty · to treat the liver, first fortify the spleen · emotional cultivation · the female seven-year cycle

Opening: before teaching the Huang Di Nei Jing, how to read it

Doctor Ni Haixia opens his Ren Ji (Human Records) series on the Huang Di Nei Jing with the very first chapter of the classic, the Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun. But before diving into the text, he addresses two preliminary questions: how to read this book, and which road to take in studying Chinese medicine.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The Huang Di Nei Jing contains a great deal of pathophysiology, and we will skim over it the way one would skim the Lun Yu (Analects), the Meng Zi (Mencius), the Da Xue (Great Learning) and the Zhong Yong (Doctrine of the Mean); but the key dialogues I will analyze for you in great, great detail. The purpose of teaching the Nei Jing is to explain, as thoroughly as I possibly can, everything the Yellow Emperor has to say about the human body, so that you can understand it completely.

How long should a person live? The answer may surprise you

The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun opens by defining what a “human being” is — and that definition runs directly against the way we live now.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Chinese medicine defines the human lifespan as one hundred years. The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun is precisely about people who live to one hundred. Why do people today not live as long as the ancients? One reason is the change in environment; the other is the change in diet.

Take the environment first: air conditioning is everywhere now. In the old days, if you traveled from Hsinchu to Taipei, you walked, and your sweat was fully released; today you sit in a car the whole way, in air conditioning, and you do not break a sweat at all — and when sweat is not released, the body’s metabolism goes wrong. Civilization is convenience, but convenience is not always good for the body.

Then diet — and here Doctor Ni Haixia is blunt:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: With billions of people to feed, food had to be genetically modified to achieve mass production. The original crops were large and unmodified; after modification they became smaller. Look at American corn — you cannot even eat it. To save on pesticides, they spliced the spider’s genes into the corn, so that when locusts come, they see a spider and flee. So what are you eating — corn or spider? It all goes into your stomach.

He also issues a very earnest warning about sugar:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: In the past we ate cane sugar. Cane sugar has large molecules, so you naturally do not eat much of it. Now we have switched to artificial sugar and refined sugar, which is very small, so you eat more and more, more and more, and it is addictive — just like heroin or morphine. Because the molecules are so small, you overeat without noticing. You must be careful about this.

Modern people are actually losing years

After environment and diet, Doctor Ni Haixia delivers one more cut — straight at the official statistics.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The statistics published by the government all say lifespans are increasing — the government has to let the people know it is doing things for you. But in reality? Many young people die very young — if not in a car accident, then they catch an illness and they are gone. The current mortality rate is no longer the true mortality rate. People are constantly losing years.

He also contrasts the ancient way of life:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Life used to be very simple. There was no electricity; you worked at sunrise and rested at sunset. There were no ambitions, no famous brands to pursue — desire and greed were reduced to the minimum. All of this is what makes people live long.

The Dao follows yin and yang: the dead hand and the living hand, distinguishable at a glance

The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun says: “The Dao follows yin and yang, and is harmonized with the arts and numbers.” Chinese medicine is called the art of Qi Huang — the dialogues between the Yellow Emperor and Qi Bo — and it begins with the Nei Jing. So what is the Dao? Doctor Ni Haixia explains it with a pair of hands.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: I hold out my hand. You see my palm, my skin, the color of my hand, the blood vessels, how many fingers — what you see is the form. But there is one thing you cannot see, yet it exists — how much strength is in this hand? It may be five pounds, ten pounds, twenty pounds, forty pounds. That strength is yang; it is the spirit.

Form is what you look at on the outside; spirit is what you look for in strength, vitality, the meridians, the color of the skin, the lines of the palm. A dead hand and a living hand placed side by side are always different — the dead hand has only form and no spirit, no strength; its muscles, vessels and color are all gone.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Only when form and spirit dwell together can you live out your natural span. So it is not merely a matter of longevity — you must also attend to form and to spirit. And spirit is not only strength; it is vitality. What does vitality mean? It means having few desires and staying cheerful in ordinary life. The long-lived people of the world are cheerful people; the short-lived are unhappy people. Look at comedians — they tend to live long; tragic actors tend to die young. So keep a cheerful heart; there are many things in life you simply do not need to fight over.

Using wine as syrup: why modern people decline before fifty

The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun says: “People of today are not like this; they use wine as syrup, take recklessness as the norm, and enter the bedchamber drunk.” Doctor Ni Haixia unpacks it sentence by sentence:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: People today drink a great deal, entertain delusions and cravings, and do these things as a matter of habit; and when drunk, they have sex — all of these actions dissipate our true origin (zhen yuan). In the view of Chinese medicine, a person should “hold fullness” (chi man) — keep oneself perpetually full, rather than looking for ways to drain oneself. That is the secret of longevity.

If you do not know how to hold fullness, only how to consume; if you do not know how to govern the spirit (yu shen — settling the emotions and keeping the mind calm and content), then you “drain your essence with desire and scatter your true nature with dissipation” — with irregular living, you decline before fifty.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: People who begin to age rapidly after fifty are those who do not know moderation. Chinese medicine holds exactly the same view — without moderation, you age quickly.

The most important passage in the whole chapter: the theory of the five pathogenic influences, with the heart as the example

The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun contains the line: “Avoid the deficient pathogenic influence and the thief wind, each at its proper time.” Doctor Ni Haixia stops right here and delivers a complete account of the most central theory in Chinese medicine — the five pathogenic influences (wu xie). This is the part of the whole chapter most worth remembering.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: We divide the deficient influence and the thief wind into the five pathogenic influences, using the heart as the main example — fire is the heart, wood is the liver, earth is the spleen, water is the kidneys. In the generating cycle of the five elements: wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, water generates wood. In the controlling cycle: wood controls earth, fire controls metal, earth controls water, water controls fire, metal controls wood.

The five influences, classified with the heart as the example:

• The proper influence (zheng xie): the heart itself falls ill — the organ’s own disease.
• The deficient influence (xu xie): mother-organ illness passes to the child — the liver (wood) becomes ill and harms the heart (fire), leaving the heart in a vacuous state.
• The minor influence (wei xie): child-organ illness passes back to the mother — the lungs (metal) become ill and affect the heart (fire). Normally fire controls metal (the heart’s strength goes to the lungs); now the lungs are ill and affect the heart in return, but the force is mild.
• The thief influence (zei xie): that which overcomes me falls ill — the kidneys (water) become ill and affect the heart (fire). Normally the kidneys keep the fire from blazing too high; when the kidneys are ill, the force brought to bear on the heart is great.
• The excess influence (shi xie): that which I overcome falls ill — the spleen (earth) becomes ill and affects the heart (fire).

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Once the five influences are clearly distinguished, the treatment principles follow. The treatment rules laid down in acupuncture and everything the Huang Di Nei Jing teaches later all follow this principle.

The secret of prescribing: supplement the mother when vacuous; the child can make the mother full; the mother can make the child empty

Having finished the five influences, Doctor Ni Haixia lays out the deep mechanism behind the vacuity-excess treatment principles — and he emphasizes that very few people know this part.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: In treating disease, besides “supplement the mother when vacuous,” there is also “the child can make the mother full, and the mother can make the child empty.” For example: liver disease with excess (something growing inside the liver — cirrhosis). We find a way to turn the excess into vacuity — the mother can make the child empty, so we supplement the kidneys. Because the liver is already quite full, when you supplement kidney water, water generates wood, and the wood (liver) must shed things; water also controls fire, so the heart fire descends, and the body rescues itself — at that point the liver sends down a great deal of wood to build the fire up a little larger. Very few people know this. So if you routinely supplement the kidneys when you are well, the liver stays fine. As for “to treat the liver, first fortify the spleen” (wood controls earth) — that is also correct.

Two roads for studying Chinese medicine: why some people only get more confused

Having established the Nei Jing as the source, Doctor Ni Haixia turns back to the method of study — which concerns everyone who wants to learn Chinese medicine.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Everything that follows the Huang Di Nei Jing — the Shen Nong Ben Cao (Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica), the Shang Han Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage), the Jin Gui Yao Lue (Essentials from the Golden Cabinet) — all of it comes from the Huang Di Nei Jing. So you must have a very clear grasp of the concepts of the Nei Jing; then when you write a prescription, you will not make mistakes.

There are two ways to enter the study of Chinese medicine. One is from the shallow to the deep — start with very simple books, read gradually toward the core, and only then enter the Shang Han Lun, the Huang Di Nei Jing, and the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. This is not easy to master, because you will spend enormous time reading many books you do not need.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The second way is the one I take you through — from the deep to the shallow. I teach the outlines of the classical texts so that you hold the central ideas, the whole framework, in your head; then when you read books, you will not be confused by them. Many people write very thick books, and when you open one, only a single formula is useful. Those who do not understand are led astray by the books — if they cannot find one particular herb, they insist that nothing else will do. Their thinking is rigid.

He also takes a swipe at the disorder in the world of Chinese medicine:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica) could not be fully excerpted in three years — and it even uses human excrement as medicine; I would never take that! Chinese medicine is a tradition of several thousand years, and we must discard the coarse and keep the essential. What makes Chinese medicine hard to learn is precisely the proliferation of schools — “I am of the earth-supplementing school,” “I am of the yin-nourishing school” — after all this factionalism, people end up thoroughly confused.

To read the Nei Jing, you should read diagrams — and also read the histories:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Studying the Huang Di Nei Jing and studying Chinese medicine absolutely cannot mean merely reading Chinese medicine books, stiffly and mechanically. Read the Twenty-Four Histories, the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji), the Strategies of the Warring States (Zhan Guo Ce), the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu Zuo Zhuan). You will find a book that puts you to sleep the moment you open it — that is your sleeping pill. From then on, treat it as your sleeping pill; but never actually take real sleeping pills. The more broadly you read, the more flexible and lively your thinking becomes.

Tranquil and desireless: a good mood, fewer illnesses

The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun says: “In tranquility and desirelessness, genuine qi follows; when the spirit is guarded within, how can illness arise?” Doctor Ni Haixia translates this into plain, everyday language:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: When the wind is strong, do not stand in the draft. In summer, point the electric fan at the wall and let the air rebound — never blow it directly on your body. Keep your mood tranquil and cheerful; do not let other people disturb you.

He describes the vicious circle of anger injuring the liver very vividly:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Flying into rages constantly — anger injures the liver. Conversely, drinking heavily also injures the liver — and once the liver is injured, you become even quicker to anger. The angrier you are, the more the liver is injured; the more the liver is injured, the more you drink; the more you drink, the more the liver is injured and the easier it is to lose your temper. Then you have no choice but to let the Chinese medicine doctors earn their money.

Brooding conquers fear (si sheng kong) — the finest touch in this passage:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Of the five elements, only earth can control water, so earth can govern water: brooding can conquer fear. Suppose a person has lost their spouse and keeps fearing “I am next.” If instead you commemorate your partner’s lifelong contributions, you will not be afraid — what is there to fear?

The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun lays down three principles of longevity:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Be self-content and few in desires — do not want too much; let the heart be at peace and without fear — settle your heart and do not be afraid; be diligent in labor and never weary — keep doing things, keep working, like moving things or practicing martial arts. Master these three principles and you have the causes of longevity. Short-lived people think all day about how to play, fear getting fat, and refuse to do any physical labor.

There is also: “Enjoy your food, wear your clothes as they come, delight in your customs, and do not envy those above or below you.” People in high and low stations should not envy one another. Take care of yourself, live as simply as you can, and be happy. When you see someone very poor, you naturally want to help them — this is the same in Chinese medicine and in Western medicine.

Bonus: why walking is the best exercise

Having finished the principles of health preservation, Doctor Ni Haixia offers a piece of advice everyone can use — and the entire Huang Di Nei Jing speaks of it from beginning to end.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: From beginning to end, the entire Huang Di Nei Jing says that walking is the best exercise. I often tell my patients: do not do other exercises; walking is best — just walk slowly. Humans have two legs; God designed your two legs for walking. If He had given you four legs, they would be for running. Look at cats, dogs and tigers — they all run fast. Humans should not run; just walk. Many athletes who take up long-distance running end up with joint problems and many illnesses — because it is excessive.

Closing: women cycle by seven; the teeth change at seven

The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun closes with the growth cycles of the human body — women are governed by cycles of seven, men by cycles of eight. This is the starting point of every age-related discussion that follows.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Qi Bo said: girls at seven, boys at eight — defined by the numbers seven and eight. At seven, a girl’s kidney qi flourishes (shen qi sheng) — Chinese medicine holds that the kidney governs the bones, and the teeth are the surplus of the bones (chi wei gu zhi yu). See the beauty of the Chinese language: the teeth are the surplus of the bones; where the bone has surplus, that is the tooth — no other word can replace this. So at seven the milk teeth are shed and the hair begins to grow.

Compiled from Doctor Ni Haixia’s first lecture of the Ren Ji series on the Huang Di Nei Jing, presented by Doctor Luo Dalun.