Xu Fu’s Voyage for the Elixir of Life
Also called: Xu Fu, Elixir of life expedition
Longing for immortality, the First Emperor sent the magician Xu Fu to fetch an elixir from the islands of the immortals in the eastern sea. Xu Fu sailed with thousands of boys and girls and never returned, leaving legends of his landing in Japan and on Jeju.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi · Public domain · Source
Having unified the realm, the First Emperor wished never to die and kept magicians (fangshi) who sought the elixir of life. In 219 BCE, when his eastern tour reached Langya, Xu Fu, a magician from Qi, told him that three islands of the immortals — Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou — lay in the sea, and asked to go in search of the elixir with several thousand boys and girls. The emperor sent him out to sea.
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Xu Fu spent great sums without finding the elixir; later he set out again with three thousand boys and girls, seeds of the five grains and many craftsmen, reached a land of broad plains and marshes, made himself king there and never came back. Where that land was is not recorded.
Stories later spread that he had reached Japan, where tombs and shrines to Xu Fu appeared in many places. Korea has its legends too: that the name Seogwipo on Jeju means “the harbour from which [Xu Fu] went back west”, and that an inscription on a rock on Geumsan in Namhae reads “Xu Fu passed here”. None of these is confirmed by historical records.
