Chapter 2 Chapter 1 The Legend of Xu Fu——The Contribution of Ancient Chinese Immigrants

The history of cultural exchanges between China and Japan can be traced back to distant times.According to research by geologists and archaeologists, in ancient times, the Japanese archipelago was connected to the Asian continent.The paleontological fossils and Paleolithic cultures discovered in Japan have many similarities with the Paleolithic cultures in North China, which shows that the primitive ancestors have been in contact for a long time.Until about 10,000 years ago, due to the end of the glacial period, sea level rise and crustal changes, the Japanese archipelago finally completely separated from the mainland.However, immigrants from mainland China and the Korean peninsula continued to cross the sea to Japan by taking advantage of currents and monsoons.They brought with them advanced production tools and technology, which promoted the development of Japanese society. The legend about Xu Fu's journey to the east, which was widely circulated in China and Japan, just reflected the historical fact that Chinese people immigrated to Japan in ancient times.

In Shingu City, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, in a grove of camphor trees with the mountains behind and the sea facing the sea, there is a stone tablet engraved with the words "Tomb of Qin Xufu". People often come to pay homage and offer a bouquet of flowers.The local people also hold a grand "Xu Fu Sacrifice" every September to commemorate this legendary Chinese envoy of friendship who came to Japan more than 2,000 years ago.Who is Xu Fu?Why did he travel east?Did you really arrive in Japan?There have been different opinions for a long time, and it has always been an interesting and worthwhile question in the history of cultural exchanges between China and Japan in ancient times.

The earliest mention of Xu Fu in Chinese historical records is Sima Qian's "Historical Records".He recorded that Qin Shihuang was seeking the medicine of immortality. Xu Fu, an alchemist from Shandong (the original text of "Historical Records" is Xu City, [市音fu Fu]) wrote a letter saying: In the East China Sea, there are "three sacred mountains", named Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou. , there are immortals and grass jelly on the island.Qin Shihuang was overjoyed when he heard the news, so he sent Xu Fu to lead thousands of boys and girls to "go to the sea to seek immortals". ("Historical Records·The Original Notes of Qin Shihuang") Sima Qian also described that Xu Fu came back from the sea for the first time. He claimed to Qin Shihuang that he had seen the sea god in Penglai and asked for "life-prolonging medicine".Qin Shihuang sent him to the sea with three thousand boys and girls, hundreds of craftsmen, weapons, and grain seeds.Unexpectedly, Xu Fu never returned this time, found a "plain and vast lake", and made himself king. ("Historical Records Biography of Hengshan King in Huainan") Later, there are records in "Han Shu", "Hou Han Shu", "Three Kingdoms" and other historical books about Xu Fu leading boys and girls to the sea to seek immortality, and some say that he went to Yizhou, Chanzhou.The poems of Tang Dynasty poets Li Bai and Bai Juyi also mentioned Xu Fu going to sea.However, none of these historical records and poems confirm that Xu Fu arrived in Japan.

It is the book "Six Tie" written by the monk Yi Chu during the Five Dynasties period who clearly affirmed Xu Fu's eastward journey to Japan.He not only said that Xu Fu had arrived in Japan, but also said that there was a Mount Fuji there, "also known as Penglai" (Volume 21 of "Six Tie of Yi Chu"), which was connected with the "Three God Mountains" mentioned by Sima Qian.Since then, Xu Fu has been regarded as the pioneer of cultural exchanges between China and Japan in many poems and articles written by literati in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1376, Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, summoned the Japanese monk Juekai Nakatsu, and the two wrote poems and sang with the theme of Xu Fu's journey to the east.Zhu Yuanzhang wrote: "Xu Fu asked for the fairy medicine back then, and he has never returned until now." ("Imperial Rewards") Huang Zunxian, the first counselor stationed in Japan in the Qing Dynasty, also wrote poems to accompany Xu Fu after arriving in Japan: Thousands, there is another day in Pengying overseas." ("Japanese Miscellaneous Poems") There are many legends about Xu Fu in Chinese folk, especially in Rongcheng, Zhucheng, and Jimo counties in Shandong, and Lianyungang and Ganyu in Jiangsu.Others have verified that Xufu Village in Ganyu County in northern Jiangsu or Xu Township in Huangxian County in Shandong was the hometown of Xu Fu in the Qin Dynasty.There is Xu Fu Island off the coast of Jimo, Shandong. According to local legend, it is the place where Xu Fu's boats sheltered from the wind and entered the water when he crossed to the east.

The legend of Xu Fu also spread to Japan.The Japanese folk even made the legend of Xu Fu's journey to Japan concrete and visualized.There are so-called relics and stories of Xu Fu in many places.For example, Imari Port in Saga County, Kyushu is said to be the place where Xu Fu's fleet landed in Japan.It is said that Xu Fu once lived in Kinate Mountain in Saga City, so the local residents built Kinari Shrine to worship Xu Fu.Saga Prefecture holds a grand "Xufu Grand Festival" every 50 years, and the most recent one was in 1980.There are also local legends about Xu Fudeng Jinlishan looking west to miss his hometown and Xu Fu's love story with Achen, the daughter of an indigenous chief.

According to Japanese legend, Xu Fu continued eastward from Kyushu to Honshu, passed through the Seto Inland Sea and reached the Kii Peninsula. Therefore, there are many relics and legends of Xu Fu in the Kinki area.For example, the Yaga Coast (Kumano Pu) in Kumano City, Mie Prefecture is considered to be the landing place of Xu Fu, and there are Xu Fu's Hill, Xu Fu's Tomb, and Xu Fu Palace nearby.In Xufu Town, Xingu City, Wakayama Prefecture, there used to be Xufu Shrine, and there are Xufu's tombstones. Nearby are the tombs of seven of his cronies, which are distributed around Xufu's tomb in the form of the Big Dipper.Residents of Xingong hold a grand "Xu Fu Sacrifice" in front of Xu Fu's tomb on the night of September 1 every year.A hill in Xingong City is called "Penglai Mountain". According to legend, Xu Fu once came to this mountain to take the elixir of life.There are even more bizarre stories circulating in the Mount Fuji area. It is said that Xu Fu and his party finally found the elixir of life at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan's "Penglai". production technology.After Xu Fu's death, he turned into a crane, often hovering over the field of Mount Fuji with attachment.There are also several Xufu temples at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Although legends are not equal to history, they often have reasons, reflect the history and society at that time, and idealize them, and entrust the people's nostalgia and wishes.Whether Xu Fu's voyage to Japan really arrived in Japan is still difficult to determine, but why can the legend of Xu Fu's voyage to Japan be widely circulated and enduring in China and Japan for a long time?In addition to the reliability of Xu Fu's voyage recorded in "Historical Records" and the possibility of traveling eastward to Japan under the conditions at that time, more importantly, it reflects an important historical fact of ancient Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges, that is, before and after Xu Fu's eastward journey in the Qin Dynasty. In the second and third centuries BC, there were indeed a large number of Chinese immigrants who passed through the Korean Peninsula or directly crossed the sea to Japan.In Japanese history, they are called "Watarai people".Most of these immigrants fled to foreign countries because of the turmoil of wars such as Zhou's destruction of Shang and Yin, the wars of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, and Qin's destruction of the Six Kingdoms, as well as domestic tyranny.Xu Fu and others borrowed the name of Haiqiuxian, brought personnel and materials, and carried out overseas immigration to escape Qin Shihuang's tyranny. It was very possible at that time.It is not impossible for them to sail along the Korean Peninsula to Kyushu, Japan, or to sail to the Kii Peninsula of Honshu through the Seto Inland Sea.Most of the Chinese immigrants to Japan are working people with production skills and a small number of intellectuals.They brought with them advanced culture, production tools and production technology from mainland China, especially the technology of growing food and using metal tools, which led to a sudden change in the development of social productivity in the Japanese archipelago around the 3rd century AD.From the Jomon period, which was dominated by gathering, hunting, and fishing production methods, to the Yayoi period, which was dominated by agricultural production methods such as planting rice.The unearthed cultural relics discovered by Japanese archaeologists also confirmed this change.Indentations of carbonized rice and rice grains have been found from the end-Jomon sites in Kyushu and western Honshu. Many scholars believe that rice planting techniques and grain seeds were passed from the Yangtze River Basin in mainland China.In the early Yayoi ruins in Kyushu and western Honshu, not only pottery, iron ware, and bronze ware (such as bronze swords, bronze spears, etc.) passed down from mainland China, but also human bones with characteristics of North China people were found.This is consistent with the records and legends that Xu Fu Dongdu brought boys and girls, water craftsmen, grain seeds, tools and weapons.According to Japanese folklore, after Xu Fu and his party settled in Kyushu or Kishu, they taught the local residents farming, textiles, smelting, whaling, medicine and other technologies.The Jinli Shrine in Saga County, Kyushu respects Xu Fu as the god of farming, sericulture, and medicine.The Asami Shrine in Yamanashi Prefecture, Honshu respects Xu Fu as the god of machine (god of textiles).Judging from the discovery of Japanese archaeological sites, in the second and third centuries BC, the influence of Chinese immigrants had gradually developed from Kyushu, which was closer to the mainland, to the east through the Seto Inland Sea to the Kinki region of Honshu, and by the middle of the Yayoi period , the most productive area on the Japanese archipelago has moved from Kitakyushu to Kinki.This also coincides with the Japanese legend that Xu Fu first arrived in Kyushu and then moved to Kinki.

In short, the legend of Xu Fu's journey to Japan is a concentrated reflection of an important historical fact that Chinese immigrants promoted the rapid development of ancient Japanese culture and productivity in the second and third centuries BC.In order to thank and remember the contributions of Chinese immigrants, the Japanese people commemorated and deified Xu Fu as a representative of ancient Chinese immigrants to Japan according to the record of Xu Fu's journey to the east in "Historical Records", and compiled many beautiful and moving legends.Therefore, regardless of whether Xu Fu arrived in Japan or not, whether the tombs of Xu Fu in Xingong and other places are real or not, Xu Fu has become a symbolic figure who spread Chinese advanced civilization to Japan through cultural exchanges between China and Japan in ancient times.