25 Xu Fu

Qin Shi Huang’s envoy to Japan

Qin Shi Huang, after founding the empire, had desired keenly to become immortal, in spite of killing hundreds of thousands of people at random. Once a roaming-around Taoist named Xu Fu told Qin Shi Huang that there were three islands overseas, where stayed celestial beings, as well as a variety of celestial grass. Man who ate the grass would become immortal. Years later, when Qin Shi Huang made his inspecting tour to the east part of the country, he encountered to see the wonderful scene of mirage at the seashore of Hebei Province. (The place was named Qinhuang Island.) The sight convinced him the true existence of the celestial islands, so he ordered Xu Fu to go overseas to search the celestial grass. Then Xu Fu took his voyage together with three thousand boys and girls on his towered ships, but Qin Shi Huang had never seen his return.

In the Five & Ten States Period (around 950), a Buddhist monk named Yi Chu wrote in his book quoting a Japanese monk as saying, Xu Fu landed Japan with 500 boys and 500 girls, and became the ancestry of Japanese nationality. After that, there were discoveries of the relics of Xu Fu’s landing site and his tomb. But skeptics held that they should be the man-made forgeries.

Chinese and Japanese scientists had unceasingly probed into the truth of Xu Fu’s story. Until modern times, some Japanese anthropologists had found in their laboratories that the index of Japanese skulls were just the same of that of Chinese resided in coastal Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian and Anhui provinces. Scientific founding had made a positive conclusion on the history of Xu Fu’s early voyage.