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LÎ CHÉNG YÙ: Life and death of a centenary daoist

A few days ago, while resting in the afternoon, I started to think of this old woman. A bit later Zhang arrived and just started to talk about her as well, as an example of oldness and dignity in death. It was surprising such a coincidence in thoughts because we had not talked about her for a long time, maybe one or two years. I was surprised also by the fact of her death, although at her age it was something expectable. Zhang learned of her passing away in February 2003 in the last July issue of the Wudang journal.

When we visited China in the summer and autumn of 2002 we had the opportunity to be received by her, just half a year before her death. I remember that in that visit, while the other people were in other matters, she sometimes gave me a glance, briefly, while smiling... this shocked me a bit. In occasions her mind was apparently a bit away, like most old people do, although I had the doubt whether it was just the result of being for so long in this world, as if the external things did not deserve attention. In any case, in those moments she was among us, she gave me the impression of being a woman very sensible, wise and remarkable. She shocked me deeply. Below I have translated part of a Chinese article about her that appeared in the issue #7 of the Wudang journal in 2004.

HER ORIGINS

Li Cheng Yu was born in Hubei, in 1885. When she was three years old she was sent to a village to be grown up in the house of her future husband. Her future husband was only two years older than her... both were just two innocent kids. When she was 11, in autumn, one day she got lost when escaping from a bandit who was bothering the peasants. She hid behind some bushes and, full of fear, stayed in the place for two days and one night, extremely nervous. After that event, her father decided to take her back home, but as she had been already given to the family of her future husband, it was not well accepted that she returned to her parents’ place. For that reason she was taken into a charity house until she got 17, and then she got married.

HER VOCATION

However, after getting married, Li Cheng Yu got tuberculosis. As there was no way to get cured, she went to the Wudang mountains to pray to heaven. There, the abbot, who belonged to the 23rd generation of the Complete Truth Sect, cured her. The monastery environment fascinated her. To repay the abbot, she decided to ask her husband to take another wife and let her follow a monastic life in Wudang. Almost no one understood her: her husband, the husband’s family, her own family and people around, all were against her idea. But none of then, including her closest friends, nor anything else were able to change her mind. She knew that to become a nun her husband was a key piece: for that reason, on one side she worked for him, while for the other she was searching a girlfriend for him. Eventually her husband realized she was very determined and he had to give up.

She finally entered the monastery. That place was named Pure Happiness and was located in town, occupying a vast extension. There Li Cheng Yu devoted her time to read sacred books, meditate and do the common tasks in a monastery, showing a regular behavior and getting the approval of many daoists. She used her free time for begging, to explain the sacred books to people, and to give good advice, specially to young women not married yet and also to those married. In three years she won everybody’s confidence, being well known for her availability for chatting.

TIMES OF PHYSICAL DEPRIVAL

In 1935 the valley they were inhabiting flooded, and after that 2 years of severe draught and epidemics followed, all together decimating the population severely. One after the other, many daoist priests were obliged to leave the temples to survive, becoming laymen and returning to peasant life or begging. Li Chen Yu was one of those rather old daoists that, to reduce the cost of living in town, went to live in huts out of town, as a sort of convent. Two or three days could pass with nothing to eat. Frequently they depended on wild herbs and bark to keep one going. In occasions, in the worst times, they even ate the ashes remaining after burning incense because nothing else was available. However, such a harsh life did not intimidate the remaining daoists: they always kept incense burning in the altars and helped beggars and vagabonds.

Once all these calamities passed away, this handful of daoists from the temple, Li Cheng Yu among them, received high respect from the inhabitants of the area.

TIMES OF PSYCHICAL PRESSURES

In the 50s, some politicians from the area did not like the status of the daoists living in temples, and decided to oblige them to quit monastic life and live a peasant life, with family and work. Many people made laugh of this new situation for priests; other people, however, did not like this change and the subject was an issue of intensive debate. Li Cheng Yu was afraid to walk in the streets, because boys shout at the few daoist nuns that “the buddhist priests should take the daoist nuns as wifes”. She had to stand insults and pressures. The situation was so dramatic that in one occasion she sealed her mouth with some medicinal cream to avoid answering the insidious questions raised by the local commanders. She spent three days with her mouth sealed: no food, no drink, no talking. The local commanders, after seeing her determination to follow the daoist way, gave up and acknowledged her as a daoist nun, and provided her with a little monthly pay. She ended up being one of the famous 24 daoist monks of Wudang in the period after the Chinese cultural Revolution.

HER DAOIST PRACTICE

Some of her usual exercises were:

Meditate
Her way was that the five centers (yong-quan on foot soles, lao-gong in hand palms and heart) faced heaven.

Tooth chattering
It involves chattering the teeth, like when chewing. This makes one salivate. This saliva, swallowed, it is said that prolongs life. She thought of saliva as such important as blood. She practiced this exercise all day long when possible, since the morning, after waking up, until going to bed. After the meals se washed her mouth with a bit of water, that was also ingested.

To use the force of thinking
As she had learnt qi-gong when young, she knew how to use the force of thinking to concentrate it wherever needed in the body, to move the bad qi and let the good one arrive, to free her from discomfort.

To turn the ring chain
She always carried on her wrists, as a sort of bracelet, a pair of wooden rings stringed together, that she constantly made turn in many directions. While moving, they made a nice sound to the ears. These exercises, besides to comfort and cheer her, were a sort of workout for her body.

To use the longevity stick
The second of her treasures was the shou zhang or long life stick, that she threw to the air and take it back, exercising her coordination.

The practice of wen taiji
For several decades she continually practiced this exercise that, despite not being apparently too difficult, to perform it as it really should is not that easy. It requires a lot of smoothness and softness, and completely leaving aside any strength. With this exercise she was actually practicing the jing, qi and shen (respectively essence, qi and spirit. Practicing this exercise turn her body into something exceptional: her teeth were white and strong; her hair, for periods of time, turned from white to black; and even already an elderly woman (people say she was 106 years old) menstruation returned to her for three days apparently normal. Her eyes were good to thread a needle without trouble. Her heart beat at 72 beats per minute.

SHE

She was a woman of great eloquence. She was able to talk on any subject: daoist cultivation, common life affaires, to cheer up or to provide comfort to people, to talk about life an death… She used to give always good advice, independently of the position of who requested it (the poor or the rich, cultivated people or uneducated). Anybody who wished to listen to her could benefit from her wisdom.

Due to her skills in the xiu lian, she had more than 5000 disciples, encompassing people from 36 countries.

HER PASSING AWAY

At four in the morning on the 14th of February 2003, Li Cheng Yu woke up the daoist monk taking care of her and also the rest of people around. She said she wanted to be dressed with her best dress and left alone. They did so, and when they returned to her room after their tasks, they found her body in meditation posture, straight, with the five centers facing heaven. Her soul was gone... Passing away in the meditation posture, the body straight, had not been achieved by anybody in Wudang in the last 50 years.

(Translation to english: Enric Saiz)