Xu Fu

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Xu Fu

Xu Fu (Chinese: 徐福), also named Xu Shi (徐市), was a court sorcerer in Qin Dynasty China of Qi origin. The ruler of Qin, Qin Shihuang feared death and sought a way to live forever. He tasked Xu Fu with finding the secret to immortality. In 219 BC, Xu Fu was sent with three thousand virgin boys and girls to retrieve the elixir of life from the immortals that lived on the Penglai Mountain in the sea to the east. Xu sailed for several years without finding the mountain. In 210 BC, when Qin Shihuang questioned him, Xu Fu claims there was a giant sea creature blocking the path, and asked for archers to kill the creatures. Qin Shihuang 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 says he came to a place with "flat plains and wide swamps" (平原廣澤) and proclaimed himself to be king, never to return.

Later historical texts were unclear with where Xu Fu actually ended up. Sanguo Zhi, Book of Later Han, and Guadi Zhi all state that he landed in "Zhizhou" (直洲), but the whereabouts of Zhizhou are unknown. Finally in the Later Zhou Dynasty of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, the monk Yichu clearly wrote that Xu Fu landed in Japan, and also said Xu Fu named Mount Fuji as Penglai. This theory is what formed the "Legend of Xu Fu", which later spread to Japan, as evidenced by the many memorials of him there. Note that there is no real evidence of Xu Fu actually reaching Japan, and the claim was made a thousand years after Xu Fu's voyage.

Other places Xu Fu could have landed include an island somewhere between Japan and Korea, the Ryūkyū Islands, an island in the Bohai Bay, or he may have never landed at all.