Péngzǔ 彭祖 = a very old man (older than other old men)
King Yīn 殷王 = a seeker after longevity
Péngzǔ 彭祖, or “ancestor Péng,” lived 800 years, which was a very long time.
Péngzǔ was the great, great grandson (zēngsūn de xuánsūn 曾孙的玄孙) of the Yellow Emperor (Huángdì 黄帝). His mother was pregnant for three years. She kept growing bigger and bigger, but no-one knew what to do. Finally they made a slit below her left armpit and out came three children, and then they made a slit below her right armpit and out came three more. Péngzǔ was one of these children.
Now Péngzǔ was born in the era of mythical emperors Yáo 尧 (reign 01a-8) and Shùn 舜 (reign 01a-9) (traditionally put at about 2200s BC), but he lived 800 years, till the beginning of the Zhōu 周 dynasty (period 04) (about 1100s BC), and naturally everyone wanted to know how he had been able to live so long.
Some thought it was because, like the Yellow Emperor, he was a descendant of the Celestial Emperor (Tiāndì 天帝). But other descendants of the Celestial Emperor did not have such longevity.
When Péngzǔ was about 760 or so, he didn’t look old at all. King Yīn 殷王, decided that he too would like great longevity, so he repeatedly sent for Péngzǔ, asking him to come to the palace and explain his secret. Péngzǔ repeatedly declined to do so.
At length, King Yīn sent a palace maid in an elegant carriage to Péngzǔ’s home to worm the secret from him. But all he could tell her was that he had had a difficult life. Orphaned early, he had experienced war and disorder and wandered homeless for a century. He had had 49 wives and 54 children, all now dead. And he had always been sickly. What secret could this possibly reveal about how to live a long life? Having told the palace maid all this, he walked off, tired and alone.
Some still say that the secret of his longevity was that he ate a drug made from cinnamon and sesame (guìzhī 桂芝). Others say it must have been secret breathing exercises.
In fact, Péngzǔ used to cook chicken soup. Although chicken soup can be very comforting and can help to cure many ills, its main effect on Péngzǔ was indirect: Once he had offered the chicken soup to none other than the Celestial Emperor himself. The chicken soup was so delicious and made the Celestial Emperor so happy, that Péngzǔ was granted a life-span of 800 years as a reward.
When the 800 years came to an end, and Péngzǔ lay on his death bed, he was very sad, for he felt he still had not lived a full life, and was not ready for it to end.