Fusang refers to several different entities in ancient Chinese literature, often either a mythological tree or a mysterious land to the East. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas and several contemporary texts, the term refers to a mythological tree of life, alternately identified as a mulberry or hibiscus, allegedly growing far to the east of China, and perhaps to various more concrete territories east of the mainland. A country named Fusang was described by the native Buddhist missionary Hui Shen in 499 AD, as a place 20,000 Chinese li east of Da-han, and also east of China. Hui Shen went by ship to Fusang, and upon his return reported his findings to the Chinese Emperor. His descriptions are recorded in the 7th-century text Book of Liang by Yao Silian, and describe a Bronze Age civilization inhabiting the Fusang country. The Fusang described by Shen has been variously posited to be the Americas, Sakhalin island, the Kamchatka Peninsula or the Kuril Islands. The American hypothesis was the most hotly debated one in the late 19th and early 20th century after the 18th-century writings of Joseph de Guignes were revived and disseminated by Charles Godfrey Leland in 1875. Sinologists, including Emil Bretschneider, Berthold Laufer, and Henri Cordier, refuted this hypothesis, however, and according to Needham, the American hypothesis was all but refuted by the time of the First World War. Later Chinese accounts used the name Fusang for other, even less well identified places.
Mythological accounts
An earlier account claims that in 219 BC, emperor Shi Huang sent an expedition of some 3,000 convicts to a place lying far off to the east, across the ocean, called Fusang, to be a sacrifice to a volcano god who held the elixir of life. There were, apparently, two expeditions under Xu Fu, the court sorcerer, to seek the elixir of life. The first expedition returned c. 210 BC when Xu Fu claimed a giant sea creature was blocking their path. Archers were then sent to deal with this monster when the expedition set out a second time, but it was never heard from again. However, "... asides in the Record of the Historian imply that its leader Xu Fu had returned to China long ago and was lurking somewhere near Langya, frittering away the expedition's impressive budget."
Interpretations of the Shen account
Eastern Japan
was one interpretation of the term Fusang. However, Hui Shen's report differentiates Fusang from the ancient Japanese kingdom of Wo, which has been tentatively located in Kinki, Kyūshū, or the Ryukyu Islands. In Chinese mythology, Fusang refers to a divine tree and island in the East, from where the sun rises. A similar tree, known as Ruomu exists in the west, and each morning the sun was said to rise from Fusang and fall on Ruomu. Chinese legend has ten birds living in the tree, and as nine rested, the tenth would carry the sun on its journey. This legend has similarities with the Chinese tale of the fictional hero Houyi, sometimes referred to as the Archer, who is credited with saving the world by shooting down nine of the suns when one day all ten took to the air simultaneously. Some scholars have identified the bronze trees found at the archaeological site Sanxingdui with these Fusang trees. The term Fusang would later designate 'Japan' in Chinese poetry. Since Japanese Nihon or Chinese Riben was a name of Japan, some Tang dynasty poets believed Fusang "lay between the mainland and Japan." For instance, Wang Wei wrote a 753 farewell poem when Abe no Nakamaro returned to Japan, "The trees of your home are beyond Fu-sang." Fusang is pronounced Fusō in the Japanese language, and is one of the names to designate ancient Japan. Several warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy were named Fusō. Several companies, such as Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, also bear the name. Gustaaf Schlegel thought Fusang was most probably "the long island of Karafuto or Sakhalin". Joseph Needham added that "if Kamchatka and the Kuriles may also be considered there is no better means of identifying it at the present day." Note that there was an ancient province of Japan called Fusa-no kuni in eastern Honshū, encompassing all of modern Chiba Prefecture as well as the southwestern part of modern Ibaraki Prefecture.
The Americas
According to some historians such as Charles Godfrey Leland and Joseph de Guignes, the distances given by Hui Shen would locate Fusang on the west coast of the American continent, when taking the ancient Han-period definition of the Chinese li. Some 18th-century European maps locate Fusang north of California, in the area of British Columbia. An American location does not match the claim for horses or the domestication and milking of deer.
Descriptions of Fusang
According to the report of Hui Shen to the Chinese during his visit to China, described in the Liang Shu: On the organization of the country: On the social practices: The Liang Shu also describes the conversion of Fusang to the Buddhist faith by five Buddhist monks from Gandhara:
