In The Records of the Grand Historian, also known by its Chinese name Shiji: The Benji of the Five Emperors", "Emperor Yao established Shun when Yao's seventy years old, and Yao died twenty-eight years later after he quit the throne." In other words, Yao had a total of 98 years from his ascension to retirement and death. Even if he took the throne at less than 20 years old, he lived more than 110 years old. Emperor Shun, who succeeded him, also lived a long time, just passing the age of 100.
The first volume of the opening chapter of "The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic · Pure Question" ("Huangdi Neijing")wrote that the Yellow Emperor asked Qi Bo, "I heard that the people of the ancients lived for a hundred years in the spring and autumn, and their actions did not show ageing; the people of the present day, those who are half a hundred years old, and their actions show ageing. The times are different, will the people lose it?" Huang Di said: I heard that people in ancient times can live to a hundred years old, and they are agile when they are old. People nowadays look old when they are only half a hundred years old. Is this caused by any changes in the world?
" Acturally, Fuxi is the ancient times, Wenwang is the middle ancient times, and Confucius is the next ancient times." The Fuxi family lived in the middle and late Paleolithic ages, about 10,000 to 7,000 years ago. According to the article, in ancient times, all our ancestors could live a hundred years old. At that time, people were old but not ageing, and people who were a hundred years old did not look like old people. If the records in the "Huangdi Neijing" are credible, then the life span of modern people is actually shorter than that in the ancient times.
Tolkien, a paleo-English scientist at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, described Aragon in The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn was 87 years old before he became king, and his reign lasted 122 years after he became king. So he didn't die until he was 210 years old. So why can he live so long? Because he is a member of the Dunedain, the Dunedin is a human race called the "Western". Moreover, the Dendans are descendants of the ancient Numanor people. Their life span is three times that of ordinary people now.
According to Buddhist scriptures, human beings on earth are produced, changed and developed in phases, just like the evolution of the universe itself. The human life span for each catastrophe begins at 84,000 years, gradually decreases, and finally decreases to a hundred years. Then, a new round of the cycle of rebirth was started. Our mankind is now in the final deadline. The original record in the "Dīrgha Āgama Long Discourses Volume No. 1" is as follows: "You shall know : When Buddha Vipassi was in the world, the life span of human beings was 80,000 years. When Buddha Sikhī was in the world, the life span of human beings was 70,000 years. When Buddha Vaishabha was in the world, the life span of human beings was 60,000 years. When Buddha Gulou Sun was in the world, the life span of human beings was forty thousand years. When Buddha Kunnahan was in the world, the life span of human beings was 30,000 years. When Buddha Kassapa was in the world, the life span of human beings was 20,000 years. I (Buddha Shakyamuni) is now in the human world. The life span of human beings is one hundred years old. Few people exceed one hundred years old, and more people live shorter than one hundred years old.
The reason for the decrease in human life span is that more and more lives are killed by human and wisdom of human is less and less. People are blessed according to their virtue. After the lifespan is reduced, everything is reduced, When virtue fades gradually, happiness will wear away gradually. Simply put, such as all the treasure will disapper gradually, grains will fail gradually, food and clothing will be gradually difficult, appearance turn gradually ugly, talents gradually faint, spirit gradually weakened, customs gradually become arrogant, six relatives gradually become discordant, taxation and labor gradually become heavy, and water and fire thieves gradually flourish, Buddhism gradually withered and abolished, good people gradually faded, true Confucianism gradually became scarce, people who slander Buddha gradually became admired, and the rich gradually became mean and mean.
During the Xia, Shang and Wednesday dynasties, gold and white jade were all used, and one hundred pairs of ten thousand yi (twenty taels) was used as a count. No silver was used. As for the Han Dynasty, silver was used occasionally (Sang Hongyang, a Han financial manager, used silver to make money). But there are Jade with luminous light and orbs with light on vehicles, which are available in small countries, not as rare as they are now. However, the low-quality silver used today is mostly mixed with red copper, which has insufficient composition, and then copper is made as currency, and now, we use paper for currency. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty said: “Hundred gold is the property of ten middle-class families.” Su Zi said: “The mobilization of the army costs one hundred thousand dollars a day. "
The 100 mu of land in the Zhou Dynasty was only equivalent to 22 mu today. The income of 22 mu can be used by the farmers for the food of nine people. However, the food intake of the ancients must be a bucket of rice. (During the Longwan period, someone built the Jianyan Temple in Kunshan, and found that the wheat ears bundles were stuffed between the tiles, something from the Tang Dynasty. The wheat ears were more than one foot long. Today's wheat ears is less than four inches).
In addition, according to the "The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom", human beings at the age of 80,000 in the beginning of the world were metamorphosed, rather than viviparous like us.
Regarding the time experienced by mankind, we can find the narrative about the age of mankind by consulting the Indian scriptures. The Indian scriptures view time from the perspective of chronological cycles. The historical cycle we are now experiencing is regarded as one of the many stages of the eternal cycle. From one era to another, and then start again. Each human cycle includes four ages. They are the Satya age (The length is 1.78 million years), the Terita age (1.296 million years), and Duwapa Er period (864,000 years), Kali period (length of 432,000 years). We are now in the Kali period, and more than five thousand years have passed from the begning of Kali period. After the end of the Kali period, mankind will enter a new human cycle. The Indian scriptures also record that as the length of the age gradually decreases from the Satya period to the Kali period, the piety and other virtues of people will also decrease by the same amount.
After the Great Flood 5,000 years ago, it can be seen from the Bible that people’s life expectancy has really been decreasing, from 1,000 years to less than 100 years now. The history recorded in the "Buddhist Sutra" is longer than the history recorded in the Western "Bible", and the human history recorded in the Western "Bible" should be the begining of the "Kali era" mentioned in the "Buddhist Sutra". The "Buddhist Sutra" does not say that people with a life span of tens of thousands of years live on the earth. Perhaps humans in the past lived in other places.
(May everyone get close to good knowledge, do more good deeds, improve their personality and roots of goodness, and cultivate into Bodhi and achieve Buddhahood through efforts and insight. Amitabha)
THE TADPOLE'S GRATTITUTE
Zhang Zouzhi was a county official in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. One day he went out on a tour of inspection. He was passing through some rice paddies， when suddenly thousands and thousands of tadpoles rushed to the side of the road. They wriggled and squirmed. They lifted their heads to look at Zhang.
"How odd！ It seems like they're pleading for something，" Zhang said to his secretary.
"Yes， you can practically hear them weeping and wailing."
Zhang decided to investigate. He got out of his sedan chair. The tadpoles got excited， and started swimming in a certain direction，stopping every few feet to look back，just like a dog trying to lead a person on！
"Stranger and stranger，" Zhang thought as he splashed through the paddy after them. Then he stopped with a gasp. Three corpses were lying in the water in the center of the field！
Zhang pulled out his sword. There was nobody in sight but his retinue. He looked at the corpses.
"Look， sir！" cried his secretary， "One of them is still alive！"
Zhang was a powerful man. Without waiting for help， he pulled away the two corpses and dragged the third man to the side of the field. He was still breathing，and his heart was beating weakly.
"We got here just in time. Much later， and he'd be dead."
Zhang immediately called for some warm water for the man. Before long，the man revived. He thanked Zhang profusely， but Zhang was more interested in finding out what had happened.
"I run a little store，" the victim told him. "I was on my way back from collecting a bill. I saw two men in front of me heading for the market： these two guys here. I asked them what they had to sell， and they said they had fresh tadpoles. Some people like to eat those，as Your Honor knows.
"But， Your Honor， I'm a Buddhist， and I don't believe in killing animals to eat. I always like to set animals free. I had just collected a bunch of money. So I made a deal with those guys. I asked them to sell me their tadpoles and I would set the tadpoles free.
"They said， 'Okay， but the water here is shallow. If you let them go here， somebody else'll just catch them again. There's a pond over there in that grove，let's go set them free there.'
"But we didn't realize that two bandits had seen me collect the money， and they were following me. Before we could get to the pond， the bandits attacked us with hatchets， and that's the last thing I know， Your Honor."
Zhang said， "They must have killed the other two men so there wouldn't be any witnesses. When did this happen？"
"Not long ago， Your Honor."
"Then they can't be far！" Zhang sent out his men， and in a short time， the bandits were caught. Zhang returned the money to the businessman， and the bandits were charged with robbery and murder.
Zhang never forgot that even a tadpole loves its life and can show gratitude！
Decrease one year every 100 years. The average life expectancy of human beings is now 80 years, which will reduce to 10 years within 7,000 years. After 7000 years from now, the average human life expectancy is 10 years. Then it gradually grows, one year longer every 100 years. Until the average life expectancy is 80,000 years. The current world is in a negative coordinate system.
When desire ends, worries will extinguish. End desire, extinguish worries.
The harm of persistence. Whenever there is persistence, there is selfish desire, and whenever there is selfish desire, there will be trouble and pain. To love someone deeply is persistence, to be good and never forgive a bad is persistence, and to be pure but feel that others are impure is persistence. Everyone knows that what is evil is evil, few people know that sometimes what is good is evil too. When a good is a persistence that is evil. Therefore, good and evil all originate from persistence, and if you give up persistence, and feel good and evil as they naturally are, trouble and pain will extinguish.