Xu Fu, also known as Xu Shi, the character Junfang, was a Qi person in the Warring States period and a famous alchemist in history. Xu Fu is most famous for crossing Yingzhou to seek the elixir of immortality. There are many legends about Xu Fu, some saying that he crossed the East China Sea with three thousand boys and girls prepared by Qin Shi Huang to Japan and multiplied there; some say that he was shipwrecked and died on the East Sea; some say that he finally found the Immortal Mountain in the East China Sea and finally became an immortal. If in history Xu Fu did have someone, he really went to sea with a group of alchemists with three thousand boys and girls, then where could he have been?
Sima Qian's Xu Fu
Xu Fu's profession is fangshi, the alchemist of the Warring States era, there are more in the area of the Yan kingdom of Qi, and they take immortality as the selling point and attract a large number of fans. From Qin Shi Huang down to ordinary people, they will be attracted by the mysterious means of the alchemist. Sima Qian's "History of the First Emperor of Qin" records:
"Having said, Qi ren Xu Shi and others have written that there are three sacred mountains in the sea of words, known as Penglai, abbot, Yingzhou, and immortals. Fast and ask for it with the virgins. So he sent thousands of boys and girls to the sea to seek immortals. ”
Xu Shi here is Xu Fu, who and a group of alchemists wrote to Qin Shi Huang, saying that there were three immortal mountains inhabited by immortals in the East China Sea, namely Penglai, Abbot, and Yingzhou. Taoism has the saying of three islands and ten continents, which is also mentioned in the first introduction of Huaguoshan in Journey to the West. The three islands are Penglai, Abbot and Kunlun, and the ten continents are Yingzhou, Xuanzhou, Changzhou, Liuzhou, Yuanzhou, Shengzhou, Zuzhou, Yanzhou, Fenglinzhou, and Juguzhou. It can be seen that the Ten Continents and Three Islands of Taoism also evolved from the original legends of various alchemists.
Xu Fu said to ask for immortals, which may be his personal belief, while Qin Shi Huang wanted to live forever because his power had reached its peak. Xu Fu's age has been a long time away from the age of Sima Qian's life, so it is not surprising that some legendary records appear in Sima Qian's book. Whether Xu Fu is really a person or just a legend, we don't know. We can take Sima Qian's account as a fact, so what is the final result of Xu Fu's going to sea? The answer to this can also be found in other ancient texts.
Qizhou
In the commentary on the Records of History, the tang Dynasty's records of Xu Fu are quoted as follows:
"In the East China Sea, Qin Shi Huang asked Xu Fu to send virgins and boys into the sea to seek immortals, and stopped in this state, with a total of tens of thousands of families. So far, there are people on the continent who have changed to the city of Huiji. Wu people foreign Tuyun Qizhou went to Lang evil miles. ”
Here is a place called Qizhou, where the virgin boys and girls led by Xu Fu settled down. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, tens of thousands of families were already living in Bozhou. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, there were also Xu Fu descendants of Qizhou who came to Huiji to do trade. At that time, the people of Wudi said that Qizhou was about ten thousand miles away from Langya. One mile in the Tang Dynasty was 531 meters, so ten thousand miles was about 5310 kilometers. Langya is located in the southeast coast of today's Shandong, so where will it be about 5300 kilometers away from Langya? Xu Fu should have started from the southeast coast of Shandong, and it was not controlled which direction the ship would go after departure. If you go all the way east, you may reach Korea or Japan; if the wind direction is not right, you may also go southeast, and even to Southeast Asia.
End
Jian Zhen and the monk crossed to Japan in the east, and several times they were carried by the wind and finally landed in the Hainan area. Although the book records that it was from Qizhou to Langya, this should be a rough statement. If Xu Fu and the others had not been killed at sea, it would not be a small possibility that they would have reached Southeast Asia. After all, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago are too close to China, and how to walk from Shandong will not be more than 5,000 kilometers to the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago, and perhaps Qizhou is one of the many islands in Southeast Asia.