[6] After his death, Yang Sen wrote a report about him, A Factual Account of the 250 Year-Old Good-Luck Man (一个250岁长寿老人的真实记载), in which he described Ching-Yuen's appearance: "He has good eyesight and a brisk stride; Li stands seven feet tall, has very long fingernails, and a ruddy complexion.

[10] At age 78, he retired from his military career after fighting in a battle at Golden River and returned to a life of gathering herbs on Snow Mountain in Sichuan province.

Due to his military service in the army of General Yue Zhongqi, the imperial government sent a document congratulating Li on his 100th year of life, as was subsequently done on his 150th and 200th birthdays.

[10] In 1920, General Xiong Yanghe interviewed Ching-Yuen (both men were from the village of Chenjiachang of Wan County in Sichuan province), publishing an article about it in the Nanjing University paper that same year.

[10] In 1928, Dean Wu Chung-Chien of the Department of Education at Min Kuo University discovered the imperial documents showing these birthday wishes to Ching-Yuen.

Da Liu reports that his master said that his longevity "is due to the fact that he performed the exercises every day – regularly, correctly, and with sincerity – for 120 years.

"[13] The article "Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog", from the 15 May 1933 issue of Time reports on his history, and includes Li's answer to the secret of a long life:[11] Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog.An article in the Evening Independent claims that Li's longevity is due to his experimentation with medicinal herbs in his capacity as a druggist, his discovery in the Yunnan mountains of herbs which "prevent the ravages of old age" and which he continued to use throughout his life.