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Text: Yanyan
Edited by Yeon-yeon
Preface
Xu Fu, the ancient Chinese sorcerer, is said to have led 500 boys and girls across the sea in search of the elixir of life. What is their fate? There is a widely circulated theory that they became part of the ancestors of Japan.
However, the development of modern technology has given us the opportunity to unravel this ancient mystery. Through DNA testing, scientists are trying to find evidence of a blood link between China and Japan. The results were unexpected.
What kind of truth is hidden behind this legend that spans thousands of years? Did Xu Fu's expedition really affect Japanese ancestry?
The emperor's expectations will eventually become a legend
In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified China and ruled the world. But his fear of death and his desire for immortality burned in his heart like a fire that would never be extinguished.
So, he ordered the heroes and heroes of the world to find the elixir of immortality for him. In that era when superstition was prevalent, Xu Fu gave Qin Shi Huang guidance to Qin Shi Huang with his superb medical skills and his status as a skilled alchemist.
He told Emperor Qin that there were three sacred mountains on the sea far away in the east: Penglai, Abbot, and Yingzhou, and legend has it that there lived immortals and mastered the secret of immortality.
As long as you can drink the elixir on the mountain, you can stay in the world forever, and you no longer need to fear the call of death. Qin Shi Huang was overjoyed when he heard this, and he was willing to pay any price to believe this seemingly fantastical statement.
He immediately instructed Xu Fu to lead 500 boys and girls to make full preparations in three years, and go to the east to visit the fairy island of the sacred mountain. Xu Fu's voyage officially kicked off. History has also left a legend because of this expedition.
Xu Fu crossed to the east twice, but found nothing
Xu Fu was well prepared, in addition to bringing a large amount of fresh water, grain and grass, he also carried various utensils and seeds. They left the Central Plains on a tall building ship and embarked on the road to the sea with no end in sight.
On their first voyage eastward, they sailed for several months, encountered many obstacles, and finally returned with nothing. Xu Fu explained to Emperor Qin that it was because there were huge and ferocious sharks in the sea that were haunting him, and he could not continue to move forward.
Emperor Qin was skeptical of this explanation, but he was so eager for immortality that he had no choice but to prepare a large number of equipment and personnel again, dispatch more than 3,000 people, and resend Xu Fu to sea.
This time, boys and girls, craftsmen, technicians, seeds, etc., from all over the Central Plains, were assembled on the ship, and they crossed all the way east along the Yellow Sea, and finally disappeared into the clouds and mist of the vast sea.
Since then, there has been no news from Xu Fu, as if the world has evaporated. Later generations left all kinds of speculations: it is said that he obtained the immortal medicine and became an immortal and ascended; It is also said that he discovered a new land as beautiful as a fairyland, where he settled down and branched out.
It is also said that his voyage failed to sail out of the Bohai Sea from the beginning, and the ship was eventually destroyed and people died... All these speculations reflect the bizarre and mysterious nature of this expeditionary feat.
Ransom or conspiracy, the truth is enlightening
Decades later, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to consolidate the frontier, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty tried every means to win over the powerful Xiongnu people. So in the fourth year of Yuanzhen, he ransomed 500 boys and girls from the Xiongnu with heavy money and materials, in an attempt to break the internal unity of the Xiongnu.
As soon as the news spread, the border spies took the lead and secretly peeked into the movements of the Huns. Unexpectedly, except for the 500 people who were originally ransomed, the other Huns all left their homeland and left away from the border of the Han Dynasty.
Emperor Wu of Han was so disappointed and furious that he had to send a large army to fight the Xiongnu directly to deter and subdue this powerful nomadic people.
The cause of the war was that the Xiongnu Ninghao faction wanted to test the strength of the Han army. They wrote a letter to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, asking each to send 100 men to fight each other to see which side had the most force.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty saw that the opportunity could not be lost and readily agreed. But in the end, the Xiongnu actually captured dozens of people such as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the elite general Zhang Cigong in the battle. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had to reiterate in his captivity that he only wanted to redeem 500 Han Chinese, and had no other intentions.
In the end, the Xiongnu let Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and others return to the dynasty, but deliberately left a list of the 430 ransoms as confirmation and commemoration. Later generations found that this list was properly preserved and circulated until the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Crossing to Fuso in the east to uncover the mystery of a hundred years
So, where did the 500 people redeemed by Xu Fu and Emperor Wu of Han go in the end? Did they set foot on the legendary "Fuso", the Japanese archipelago, and laid the great foundation stone for Japanese civilization?
We have found some clues from ancient historical documents. The two most authoritative historical books, "Historical Records" and "Book of Han", both have records of Xu Fu's eastward trip to Japan.
The later Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms explicitly mention that Xu Fu had arrived at an island in the southeast sea of China called "Shuzhou", which was the location of the "Wa Kingdom" (Japan) at that time.
On the Japanese side, there is more direct evidence. For example, Shingu City has clear relics of Xu Fu such as "Xu Fu Mound" and "Xu Fu Temple", and the local area continues the traditional annual festival of worshiping Xu Fuku.
In addition, there are a large number of place names and monuments throughout Japan that echo the legend of the Toyo Ferry Journey. An archaeological discovery in the last century also provided strong evidence for Xu Fu's eastward crossing.
The researchers found that the skull features of the Japanese were highly similar to those of the people living along the southeast coast of China, and it is highly likely that the populations of the two places began to migrate to each other at a very early age.
During the Yayoi culture period in Japan, the sudden and widespread emergence of rice agriculture, brocade silk reeling, iron smelting and steelmaking and other technologies were highly consistent with the Central Plains culture, which made people suspect that these advanced production technologies were all imported from the southeast coast of China.
DNA repairs broken historical chains
In order to completely solve this thousand-year-old mystery, modern scientists have used advanced DNA sequencing technology to make judgments on the relationship between Xu Fu's team and the Japanese nation. Experts selected DNA samples from three contemporaries of Xu Fu from an ancient tomb in China.
Surprisingly, after testing and comparison, two of these three ancient people had a very high degree of similarity in DNA type to modern Japanese, and were believed to be direct descendants of the 430 ransoms redeemed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in the fourth year of Yuanjiao.
This discovery further confirms the document's claim that the descendants of Xu Fu and Ransom did indeed land in Japan, where they took root and lived there, blended with the local population, and eventually became one of the important ancestral sources of the Japanese nation.
This DNA evidence is like a key that has finally been inserted into the hole, opening the door of history that has been locked for a long time.
Xu Fu's eastward crossing opened the prelude to the integration of civilizations
Throughout history, although Xu Fu's journey to the east failed to find the legendary elixir of immortality, it wrote an important stroke in the history of exchanges between Eastern and Western civilizations.
They brought advanced technology and cultural knowledge such as agriculture and handicrafts from the Central Plains to Japan, giving a generous gift to the process of Japanese civilization and starting the process of Japan's transformation from nomadic herding to agricultural settlement.
More importantly, the integration of Xu Fu's team with the indigenous people of Japan has injected a strong Chinese color into the Japanese ethnic lineage, marking the formal establishment of the blood relationship between the two peoples.
This process marks the convergence and integration of Eastern and Western cultures in this hot land, and it will surely bear heavy fruits. Today, Xu Fuku's name is a household name in Japan, and he is revered as the "God of Abundance", "God of Sericulture", "God of Medicine", etc., which shows his profound influence on Japanese civilization.
A large number of monuments and festivals named after him are scattered throughout Japan, and this is the best way to commemorate this immortal pioneer. Xu Fu Dongdu not only opened the door to cultural exchanges and mutual learning between the two countries, but also integrated the roots of the two peoples, becoming an eternal bond of friendship between the two peoples.
Now, more than 2,000 years later, we have finally found the key to the truth, so that the flower of friendship will always bloom.
epilogue
A mysterious journey to the east opens the door to the integration of Chinese and Japanese civilizations. After thousands of years of baptism, today we have finally used the power of science to remove the fog and restore the truth.
The story of Xu Fu is not only a historical legend, but also an eternal bond of friendship between the two peoples. May this flower of friendship always bloom with the fragrance of peace.