The Three Islands of Shen Xian

[Mt. Peng Lai / the legend of Xu Fu and Japan]

There is this indescribably large valley to the far east of Bo Hai, into which the rivers of the earth and heaven all flow. The mountains are enormous and splendid.
The surrounding foothills cover 120,000 km and the peaks are 36,000 km wide.
The Sien Xian of the highest rank resides in the palace made of gold and marble. Birds singing and animals playing there are pure white. Nuts and fruits grown there are incredibly delicious, and they are the elixir of immortality.
("Chon Xu Zhi De Zhen Jing Si Jie")

During the Qin Dynasty, a Taoist master Xu Fu, set sail for Peng Lai, with six hundred innocent children, in search of the immortality medicine.
Some people say that they ended up in Japan and passed on their civilization and agriculture there, and that is why there are many historical sites related to this legend of Xu Fu in the regions of Kyushu, Kii, and Tokai.

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