Sima Qian's "Records of History" in the volume "Qin Shi Huang Benji" says: In the twenty-eighth year after Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne, Xu Shi, a Qi man, led thousands of virgins, boys, and girls into the sea to seek immortals. Later history books also repeatedly mention this historical event, but Write Xu Shi as Xu Fu. It is said that XuShi was supposed to be Xu Fu. The pronunciation of "芾" is the same as that of "Fu". Sima Qian wrote Xu Shi and lost a cursive character, and posterity was afraid of being confused with the "city" of the "market", so it was changed to Xu Fu. Later history books not only changed Xu Shi to Xu Fu, but also said that Xu Fu did not find the immortals and did not dare to return, so he crossed the sea and fled to Dan Zhou. This continent was examined by geographers as the later Japan. It is said that the thousands of boys and girls brought by Xu Fu grew up to marry each other, have children, and took root in the local area and became Japanese. Some Japanese folklore even says that Xu Fu was later elected king by the Japanese, that is, Emperor Shenmu of Japan. He was buried in Japan after his death, leaving behind a large mausoleum.
During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, an official who had sent a foreign mission mentioned in his "Diary of an Envoy" that when Li Shuchang was serving as a minister in Japan, he had searched for Xu Fu's tomb in various parts of Japan, and it turned out that there was really a Xu Fu tomb in Shingu City, Wakayama Prefecture. The tomb is not too big, it is three or four meters high, and there are two ancient trees next to the tomb. According to local fathers and elders, the place where Xu Fu first landed in Japan was on the beach about 3.5 kilometers away from Xingu City, so the place was called Qinsu, "Qin" refers to the Qin Dynasty in China, and "Su" means to stay, referring to the Qin Dynasty's Xu Fu who landed there for a period of time. It is also said that Xu Fu's descendants in Japan are mostly surnamed Qin, and there are also those with the surname Xu and those with the surname Fukuoka. Even the local fishermen's method of whaling was taught by Xu Fu, so later when Japanese fishermen caught whales, they had to go to Xu Fu's tomb to pay tribute.
However, some people doubt the claim that Xu Fu once crossed east to Japan, saying that from the Spring and Autumn Warring States to the Qin and Han Dynasties, many people along the coast of China crossed the sea to Japan or passed through Korea to Japan in order to escape the chaos of war, but this did not include Xu Fu and the virgin boys and girls he led, on the grounds that Xu Fu took so many people to Japan, and there must be records in japan's ancient history books, but in fact, there are only folklore in Japan, and there is no historical record. In modern Japan, there is an authoritative scholar in modern Japan who specializes in the history of Japanese transportation, Kimiya Yasuhiko, in his book "History of Sino-Japanese Transportation", does not mention xu Fu's voyage to Japan. As for xu fu being Japan's Emperor Shenmu, it is even more bizarre. Because Emperor Shenmu was only a figure in the era of Japanese myths and legends, although the Japanese militarists bragged about him very much, serious Japanese historians did not recognize the existence of Emperor Shenmu at all. As for Xu Fu landing in Shingu City, there are descendants with the surname Qin, surname Xu, and fukuoka, and the method of whaling handed down are also folklore, not history of faith. Xu Fu's tomb may not be true either, but was built by later generations according to legends in order to expand the influence of Shingu City and increase its popularity.
Although some people suspect that Xu Fu has been to Japan, there are still many people who think that Xu Fu did come to Japan. Their reasoning was that Xu Fu did have his own person in history, and after scholars have examined him, he was a native of Xufu Village, Ganyu County, Jiangsu Province, which is now part of Lianyungang City, at the junction of Jiangsu and Shandong, which is consistent with the "History" saying that he was a "Qi person". The place where Xu Fu's voyage departed was in Mingzhou (present-day Ningbo, Zhejiang), according to the Nanlei Wenyue (Mingzhou Xiangshan Temple Chronicle), according to the "Southern LeiWen Covenant" of Huang Zongxi in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Not far east from Mingzhou to Japan, landing in Shingu City, Japan, will not encounter too many difficulties. Huang Zongxi is a very serious scholar, and he wrote this in the article, which must have been investigated and verified. In addition, the method of counter-evidence can also be used to prove that Xu Fu came to Japan, if Xu Fu set sail from Mingzhou with thousands of boys and girls and did not arrive in Japan, then there are several possibilities: First, the voyage encountered wind and waves, the ship sank, and thousands of people were all killed. However, such an important event must be recorded in the history books of China and Japan, but there is no word in this regard when looking through the history books of China and Japan. Second, they did not reach Japan, but landed on islands off the coast of China. But if this is the case, Qin Shi Huang will definitely send someone to hunt down and kill. Only in Japan, Qin Shi Huang's power could not reach, which enabled them to survive. As for these things, they are only folklore, and it can be said that although legends may not be completely reliable, as the saying goes, there is no wind and no waves. There is no basis for all the legends that are all made up blindly, but it is rarely heard, and basic facts are generally first established, and then continuously processed and enriched in word of mouth. Delete those branches and leaves that were added in the process of dissemination, and the basic facts should be credible. Since there are so many legends about Xu Fu in Japan, it is impossible that all of them are empty, and there must be a credible basic fact, that is, Xu Fu once came to Japan, and some of the thousands of boys and girls he brought died on the way, while most of them settled in Japan and gradually integrated into the Japanese.
Although there are many reasons to suspect that Xu Fudong has crossed to Japan, there are also many reasons to believe that Xu Fudong has indeed arrived in Japan. So whether Xu Fu has ever been to Japan, are those legends and relics true or false? If Xu Fu had never been to Japan, why would those legends be associated with him? This series of mysteries remains unsolved to this day.