Xu Fu (徐福), courtesy name Junfang, was born in the State of Qi during the Warring States period, and was one of the famous alchemists in history, a well-known figure in Taoism, and also served as the imperial physician of Qin Shi Huang. In 219 BC (the twenty-eighth year of Qin Shi Huang), he took the opportunity to put forward the idea of immortal medicine on the sea under the pretext of Qin Shi Huang viewing a mirage, and was twice sent by the Immortal Emperor to find the immortal medicine, thus beginning his legendary life.
Qin Shi Huang viewed the mirage in Langya
However, just when he went to the sea for the second time to find the immortal medicine, Xu Fu led 3,000 boys, girls and craftsmen and soldiers to disappear into the vast sea and never returned, which has since become a permanent mystery in the history books and attracted many opinions from generations of scholars. So where did Xu Fu lead these people, was it swallowed up by the sea, or was there another place? To solve this problem, we must first start from why Xu Fu wants to go to sea and not return, and then go a little deeper.
Xu Fu never returned to sea for the second time
First, why Xu Fu went to sea and did not return
First of all, Xu Fu had been out of the sea twice in total. According to historical records, when he first went to sea, Xu Fu took Langya, Shandong As his starting point, crossed the Bohai Sea port to reach the vicinity of Laotieshan in Liaodong, and then sailed all the way along the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Kitakyushu, Okinawa and other places. This time it took a total of nine years to go to sea, Xu Fu did not find any so-called immortals and divine medicines, but after his return, the Qin Dynasty was in the famous "book burning pit Confucianism" incident in history. Xu Fu originally belonged to the list of alchemists who were killed by the pit, plus he did not find the immortal medicine, and it was very likely that he would be executed by the angry Qin Shi Huang, so at this time, in order to save his life, Xu Fu carefully said that "Penglai medicine is available, but it is often suffering from mackerel" (meaning that the immortal medicine can be found, but on the way because he is often troubled by big fish and cannot obtain the immortal medicine), he strives for the second opportunity to go to sea to escape to the first emperor, and it is this time that Xu Fu will never come back. It can be seen that Xu Fu went to sea and did not return mainly to save his own life, because he was in the range of "pit Confucianism", and in addition to not fulfilling his promise to the First Emperor, under such a dual role, if he stayed, it was difficult to have a chance to survive, so it was better to leave Great Qin. However, the historical records about Xu Fu's second voyage to the sea are very vague, and some historical materials show that Xu Fu still set out from Langya, but there is not much mention about whether the route he took was consistent with the first voyage he traveled, so where did Xu Fu go in the end? There are many different opinions among scholars in history, so let's look at what the sayings are.
When the Qin Dynasty burned books to pit Confucianism, Xu Fu happened to belong to the alchemist who was pitted
Second, Dongdu Japan said
Some Japanese scholars believe that Xu Fu's second route coincided with the first, and finally reached Japan and spent his old age in Japan. The Fact that Xu Fu here finally stayed in Japan does not mean that Xu Fu, who was rumored on the Internet, was the ancestor of the Japanese people, because since Xu Fu arrived in Japan, there have been indigenous people living there, and the Yayoi culture has been derived. There are two main points in the evidence of this part of the scholars.
1. Official recognition in ancient Japan
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (around the tenth century AD), Emperor Uta of Japan presided over the first ceremony of Xu Fu in Japanese history, and after that, the emperors of successive dynasties will sacrifice Xu Fu more than 80 times in history (until the Meiji Restoration of Japan, the west was not stopped). Why did they sacrifice Xu Fu here? Remember the equipment that Xu Fu brought with him on his second trip to sea? Xu Fu led 3,000 boys and girls, as well as a number of craftsmen, soldiers, grain and seeds. In ancient Japan, officials or folk believed that Xu Fu landed on Mount Waka in Japan, and taught the local indigenous people farming and some medicine and metallurgical techniques, etc., which made the Japanese natives at that time have a leap forward in culture and science and technology. Moreover, current archaeological research has also concluded that the sudden development of Japan's Yayoi period has a great relationship with foreign civilizations. Therefore, to this day, the Japanese folk also respect Xu Fu as the god of farming and the god of sericulture and medicine.
2. Records in the classics
It is clearly recorded in the classic "Outline of the History of Japan" that Xu Fu led the people to the Japanese archipelago to seek immortal medicine, and when he saw no medicine, he settled down here. There is also a record of Xu Fu in the ancient Japanese book "Fuji Documents", which records some of The deeds of Xu Fu after his second arrival in Japan, such as teaching the locals to cultivate and weave. In addition, in 1339, the Japanese official Kitahata wrote a book "The Orthodox Record of the Divine Emperor", which recorded that Xu Fudongdu came to Japan and settled in Japan to enjoy his old age. A Mr. Yoshitaka Miyashita in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, has a copy of the Miyashita Fuji Ancient Texts, which records The Family Lineage of Xu Fu after living in Japan. Among them, many of the locations mentioned in the book also have the famous Tomb of Xu Fu for Japanese locals to worship.
There is a record of Xu Fu in the Orthodox Records of the Divine Emperor
3. Data support
In 1950, Wei Tingsheng, a famous scholar in Taiwan, once put forward the idea that "Xu Fu is the legendary Emperor Shenwu of Japan" (in his book "Xu Fu Entered the Examination of the Founding of Japan", which triggered the thinking of the Japanese academic community, so the Japanese government took the lead in measuring the skulls of young students in Japanese universities. The project took five years, and finally the relevant Japanese authorities concluded that the skull index of modern Japanese people is completely consistent with the skull index of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang generations along the Coast of China. It is clear that this can indeed serve as a strong piece of evidence for Xu Fudong's voyage to Japan.
Emperor Shenmu suspected Xu Fu, but xu Fu left too many footprints in Japan anyway
Therefore, it can be seen from this that there is still a lot of evidence for Xu Fudong's crossing of Japan. Both the classics and some traces of Xu Fuzai have sufficient records, especially the ancient Japanese official recognition of Xu Fudongdu, which makes this statement more authoritative and recognized by most people, but there are still a small number of scholars who disagree with this and argue about Xu Fudong's Japanese statement, and they give a completely different statement.
Third, the east crossing the Pacific Ocean said
This is a novel idea compared to Xu Fu's eastward crossing to Japan, namely that Xu Fu's fleet drifted along the Pacific Current and along the westerly wind belt to the coast of the Americas. This view was mainly born on the basis of questioning the theory of the East Crossing japan, which is based on the following points.
1. Doubts about Xu Fudong's route
In fact, there have been exchanges between China and the Japanese archipelago since ancient times, first of all, the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" records the island countries outside the Bohai Sea, called "Wuguo", and in the Western Zhou Dynasty, there is also a record of "Yue Pei clan offering pheasants, Wuren Gongchangcao", which refers to the Uighurs - the earliest Japanese, which recorded that it was a vassal state of the Yan people, and often had Yan people go. Therefore, in the Spring and Autumn Period, there were already two routes to Japan, one of which was near Langya, Shandong, through the Korean Peninsula to Japan (Xufu is this route), and the second was from the Tsushima Strait to Kyushu, Japan. It can be seen from this that in fact, since the Western Zhou Dynasty, Huaxia has known something about Japan, so if Xu Fu went to Japan to look for immortal medicine, how could Qin Shi Huang not know what Japan was like at that time? Even if he didn't know, then the doctoral officials around him would know. The people who say this believe that Xu Fu did not go to Japan for the second time, because it was within the range that Qin Bing could still reach, and he should have taken people to a farther place.
Schematic diagram of the Warm Current in the Pacific Ocean
2. The texts record doubts
The "Later Han Shu Dongyi Biography" records that Xu Fu "went to the plain Guangze, stopping the king from coming", that is, Xu Fu finally came to a place with a wide plain, saying that the king did not return. The plain Guangze here refers to Bozhou, and the Later Han Shu Dongyi Biography also records the geographical fact that "Qizhou is thousands of miles away from Langya". Proponents of this argument argue that first of all, the distance of ten thousand miles does not refer to Japan, which is close, then it will be farther away - the American continent. Among them, the "Book of History and Sealing Zen" also records three sea immortal mountains: "Its objects and animals are white, and the gold is the official que..." And Japan at the same time was still in the Yayoi culture period, which was not enough to see such a spectacular scene, and it is very likely that it is a Chinese interpretation of the American city-states of the same period. Previous excavations along the Mexican coast have also unearthed some scattered cultural relics such as seal carvings and arrows from the Qin Dynasty period, which seem to support this theory.
A Mayan city-state on the coast
It can be seen that although Xu Fudong's crossing of the Pacific Ocean is only the view of a small number of scholars, there is some strong evidence, such as the seal inscription on the mexican coast and so on. However, this is still far from enough compared with the mainstream Xu Fudongdu Japan, which lacks a large number of classic supports, but also lacks practical and strong evidence.
Fourth, near the Danshan Islands said
Compared with the above two theories, there is also a very few scholars who proposed that Xu Fudong crossed to the vicinity of the Danshan Islands. The basis for this statement is very simple, first of all, for Xu Fudong's crossing of the Pacific Ocean, they believe that if they do not consider the storms and storms during the voyage and the terrifying waves at sea, with the technology of the time, a fleet of ships can barely sail eastward with the warm currents and constant wind direction of the Pacific Ocean. The real world is ever-changing, and unless you are extremely lucky, you will have already destroyed the ship and died. Even with large-scale people to the east to japan is very difficult, so they believe that with the navigation technology of the Qin Dynasty, Xu Fu should be stationed on the Danshan Islands or Taiwan's Penghu Islands, so as to enjoy his old age.
Danshan Islands
To sum up several theories, the evidence for Xu Fudong's crossing to Japan is relatively sufficient, and the other two statements are more of a reasoning on paper, which is not so convincing, but I believe that with the progress of archaeology, these will become clearer and clearer. So where do you prefer Xu Fu to go?