Xu Fu (Hsu Fu; ) was a Chinese

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim ...

and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

. He was born in 255 BC in Qi, an ancient Chinese state, and disappeared at sea in 210 BC. He served as a court sorcerer in Qin Dynasty China. Later, he was sent by

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of " king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Empero ...

to the eastern seas twice to look for the

elixir of life The elixir of life, also known as elixir of immortality, is a potion that supposedly grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth. This elixir was also said to cure all diseases. Alchemists in various ages and cultures sought the mean ...

.Lee, Khoon Choy Lee. Choy, Lee K. 995(1995). Japan--between Myth and Reality: Between Myth and Reality. World Scientific publishing. , . His two journeys occurred between 219 BC and 210 BC. It was believed that the fleet included 60

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

s with soldiers, ship crewmen, and 3,000 boys and 3,000 girls, and craftsmen of different fields. After he embarked on a second mission in 210 BC, he never returned.Liu, Hong. The Chinese Overseas: Routledge Library of Modern China. Published by Taylor & Francis,

006 Alec Trevelyan (006) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1995 James Bond film '' GoldenEye'', the first film to feature actor Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Trevelyan is portrayed by actor Sean Bean. The likeness of Bean as Ale ...

(2006). , 9780415338592.

Voyage

La expedición de Xu Fu, por Utagawa Kuniyoshi

The ruler of Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang, feared death and sought a way to live forever. He entrusted Xu Fu with the task of finding the secret elixir of

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immorta ...

. In 219 BC, Xu Fu was sent with three thousand virgin boys and girls to retrieve the

from the immortals on the

Mount Penglai Penglai () is a legendary land of Chinese mythology. It is known in Japanese mythology as Hōrai. McCullough, Helen. ''Classical Japanese Prose'', p. 570. Stanford Univ. Press, 1990. . Location According to the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas ...

, including Anqi Sheng, who was purportedly a magician who was already a thousand years old. Xu sailed for several years without finding the mountain. In 210 BC, when Qin Shi Huang questioned him, Xu Fu claimed there was a giant sea creature blocking the path, and asked for archers to kill the creature. Qin Shi Huang agreed, and sent archers to kill a giant fish. Xu then set sail again, but he never returned from this trip. The ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'' says he came to a place with "flat plains and wide swamps" (平原廣澤) and proclaimed himself king, never to return. Later historical texts were also unclear on the location of Xu's final destination. ''

Records of the Three Kingdoms The ''Records or History of the Three Kingdoms'', also known by its Chinese name as the Sanguo Zhi, is a Chinese historical text which covers the history of the late Eastern Han dynasty (c. 184–220 AD) and the Three Kingdoms period (220� ...

'' and ''

Book of the Later Han The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Lat ...

'', and ''Guadi Zhi'' all state that he landed in "Danzhou" (亶州), but the whereabouts of Danzhou are unknown. Finally, more than 1,100 years after Xu Fu's final voyage, monk Yichu wrote during the

Later Zhou Zhou, known as the Later Zhou (; ) in historiography, was a short-lived Chinese imperial dynasty and the last of the Five Dynasties that controlled most of northern China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Founded by Guo Wei ( ...

(AD 951–960) of the

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...

that Xu Fu landed in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, and also said Xu Fu named

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest ...

as Penglai. This is the "Legend of Xu Fu" in Japan as evidenced by the many memorials to him there.

Legacy

Xu is said to have brought new farming techniques and knowledge that improved the quality of life of the ancient Japanese people and Xu Fu is said to have introduced many new plants and techniques to ancient Japan, although the texts are written much later. The local worship of Xu Fu as the "god of farming", "god of medicine" and "god of silk" by the Japanese is attributed to these achievements. Numerous temples and memorials of Xu can be found around Japan. In

Xuzhou Xuzhou (徐州), also known as Pengcheng (彭城) in ancient times, is a major city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. The city, with a recorded population of 9,083,790 at the 2020 census (3,135,660 of which lived in the built-up area ma ...

, there is a Xu Fu Research Institute attached to Xuzhou Teachers College. The Japanese historian Ino Okifu identifies

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the '' Nihon Shoki'' and ''Kojiki''. His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōm ...

started around the time of his supposed arrival. The fictional character Xu Fu, who appears in comics published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

, is based on him. Frank Zhang, one of the central characters of

Rick Riordan Richard Russell Riordan Junior (; born June 5, 1964) is an American author, best known for writing the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million co ...

's '' The Heroes of Olympus series'', is mentioned as being a descendant of Xu Fu. Jofuku Park in Shingu, Wakayama Prefecture is dedicated to him.

Legacy in Japan

According to the tradition of Saga City,

Saga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of 809,248 (1 August 2020) and has a geographic area of 2,440 km2 (942 sq mi). Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagas ...

, when Xu Fu came to the

Ariake Sea The is a body of salt water surrounded by Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto Prefectures, all of which lie on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. It is the largest bay in Kyūshū. Its deepest point is only about 50 meters (165 ft) deep, and ext ...

, he decided to float a cup in the water and go ashore where it made landfall. As such, the place where he is said to have landed is known as "Bubai", which literally means "floating cup". Xu Fu is said to have reached the top of Mount Kinryu, where he met a hermit and obtained the elixir of immortal life. The elixir is said to have been made from a plant called furofuki, which still grows on Mount Kinryu today. The name "furofuki" is said to come from the word "furofushi", which means "not grow old, not die" in Japanese. In October 2008, the Saga Xu Fu International Symposium was held in the city of Saga. Many researchers from Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, and South Korea participated and made presentations. A lecture was also given on the relationship with the

Yoshinogari site is the name of a large and complex Yayoi archaeological site in Yoshinogari and Kanzaki in Saga Prefecture, Kyūshū, Japan. According to the Yayoi chronology established by pottery seriations in the 20th century, Yoshinogari dates to between ...

Historicity

Some modern scholars consider the legend of Xu Fu's settlement in Japan a historical possibility, while other scholars say the account has numerous inconsistencies and a lack of compelling evidence. Genetic research shows the

Japanese people The are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago."人類学上は，旧石器時代あるいは縄文時代以来，現在の北海道〜沖縄諸島（南西諸島）に住んだ集団を祖先にもつ人々。" () Ja ...

are an admixture of the indigenous

Jōmon people is the generic name of several peoples who lived in the Japanese archipelago during the Jōmon period (). The Jōmon people may have consisted of multiple groups, which arrived and merged at different times in the Japanese archipelago, using mul ...

and later migrants. The Jōmon originated from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

and migrated to the

Japanese archipelago The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chin ...

around 14000 BCE during

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

. The

Yayoi people The were an ancient ethnicity that migrated to the Japanese archipelago from Korea and China during the Yayoi period (300 BCE–300 CE). Although highly controversial, a single study that utilized radiometric dating techniques inconclusivel ...

migrated from North

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

to Japan around 1000 BCE. The

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...

was established in 220 BCE, so the voyage of Xu Fu was after the Jōmon and Yayoi settled in Japan. The population increased by 4 million people in Japan between the Jomon and

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōm ...

Rice cultivation The history of rice cultivation is an interdisciplinary subject that studies archaeological and documentary evidence to explain how rice was first domesticated and cultivated by humans, the spread of cultivation to different regions of the planet, ...

was already introduced with an agricultural society. Xu Fu's entourage of 3,000 children would be too small and inexperienced to influence nor dominate the millions of Yayoi and Jomon people. If Xu Fu had settled in Japan then Japanese would presumably speak a Chinese dialect. However, the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

has no genetic relationship with Chinese and it belongs to a different language family called

Japonic languages Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan, sometimes also Japanic, is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and ...

. The native Japanese religion

Ko-Shintō refers to the animistic religion of Jōmon period Japan, which is the alleged basis of modern Shinto. The search for traces of Koshintō began with the "Restoration Shinto" in the Edo period, which goal was to remove any foreign ideas and worl ...

was a diverse

animism Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather syst ...

of the

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

which predates Xu Fu. Furthermore, there are no records of where Xu Fu ended up, or if he even survived. The ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

'' and '' Nihon Shoki'' lack specific records of Xu Fu. The written stories about Xu Fu came at least 100 years after his disappearance.

References

External links