Tai Chi: Will it make you live a long life?

It would be a difficult task to find the exact origins of Tai Chi as well as the dates of the lives of it's masters. However, for the purposes of food for thought; lets look at the chart above from Canada’s Christopher Majka and assume that most of the details are accurate.
What we want to look at today are the life spans of some of the masters who’s dates are documented here.

Chang San-feng 1391-1459 -- lived to be 68 years old.
Chen Chang-hsing 1771-1853 -- lived to be 82 years old.
Yang Lu-chan 1799-1872 -- lived to be 73 years old.
Wu Yu-Xiang 1812-1880 -- lived to be 68 years old.
Yang Pan-hou 1837-1892 -- lived to be 55 years old.
Yang Chein-hou 1842-1917 -- lived to be 75 years old.
Li l-yu 1833-1892 -- lived to be 59 years old.

More names from the Tai Chi Family Tree at Wikipedia.org:

Chen Wangting 1600-1680 -- lived to be 80 years old.
Chen Changxing 1771-1853-- lived to be 58 years old.
Chen Qingping 1795-1868 -- lived to be 73 years old.
Wu Yu-hsiang 1812-1880 -- lived to be 68 years old.
Wu Ch'uan-yü 1834-1902 -- lived to be 68 years old.
Yang Shao-hou 1862-1930 -- lived to be 68 years old.
Yang Ch'eng-fu 1883-1936 -- lived to be 53 years old.
Wu Chien-ch'üan 1870-1942 -- lived to be 72 years old.
Hao Wei-chen 1849-1920 -- lived to be 71 years old.
Wu Kung-i 1900-1970 -- lived to be 70 years old.
Sun Lu-t'ang 1861-1932 -- lived to be 71 years old.
Wu Ta-kuei 1923-1972 -- lived to be 49 years old.
Sun Hsing-i 1891-1929 -- lived to be 38 years old.

It seems odd that for a tradition and way of life that promotes health and longevity, that it’s masters and founders would live such short lives. In case you weren’t counting, the average lifespan of these men was 66 years old.
But, as the old gag from The Odd Couple went: Felix urges Oscar to quit his ways of smoking, drinking and eating. He tells Oscar how young his relative died who had similar habits and this sends Oscar into a panic. The reveal comes later when we find out that Felix’s relative died when a bus hit him!
So take it how you like it, I only thought it.


Tai Chi Master photos, Left to Right: Yang Pan-hou, Yang Chein-hou, Wu Chien-ch'üan, Yang Lu-chan, Sun Lu-t'ang, Chen Changxing, Yang Shao-hou, Yang Ch'eng-fu, Wu Kung-i.