Fusang

Or, The discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century

Charles G. Leland

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429874321
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book, first published in 1875 and reissued in 1973, analyses the limited evidence from the works of early Chinese historians that explorers from China had discovered a country they called Fusang – possibly western America, and in all probability Mexico. The original document on which Chinese historians based their accounts of Fusang was the report of a Buddhist monk called Hoei-shin, who, in the year 499 AD, returned from a long journey to the east.

CHAPTER I.

KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES AMONG THE CHINESE.

“To retain laws and customs according to the traditionary manner, and to extend these laws and customs to other lands,” was the precept of the founders of the Celestial Empire, as well as of other civilised nations. “But this extension,” they added, “is not to be effected by the oratorical powers of single messengers, nor through the force of armed hordes. This renovation, as in every other sound organic growth which forces itself from within, can only take place when the Outer Barbarians, irresistibly compelled by the virtue and majesty of the Son of Heaven, blush for their barbarism, voluntarily obey the image of the Heavenly Father, and become men.”

It will be readily understood that a race holding such opinions would undertake no voyage of discovery, and attempt no conquests. Not a single instance occurs during the entire four thousand years of the history of Eastern Asia, of an individual who had travelled in foreign lands for the purpose of adding to his own information or that of others. The journey of Lao-tse—the founder of the religion of the Taosse—to the West appears to be a tale deliberately invented for the purpose of connecting his doctrine of the Primitive and Infinite Wisdom with that of “The Western Mountain of the Gods,” or with Buddhism. The campaigns beyond those limits which Nature has assigned to the Chinese Empire, were undertaken merely through the impulse of self-preservation. Men were compelled, in Central as in Eastern Asia, in Thibet as well as on the banks of the Irawaddy, to anticipate the dangers and invasions which, at a later period, threatened the freedom of the Central Empire, and were frequently obliged to send ambassadors or spies into different Asiatic or European countries to obtain information relating to their situation and nature, as well as the condition of their inhabitants, which could guide them in their subsequent warlike or diplomatic relations with the enemies of the Empire.

This land, so blessed by Nature, attracted not only the barbarian desirous of plunder, but also the merchant, since certain productions, such as silk, tea, and true rhubarb, were found only there. The Chinese Government as well as people, influenced by the precepts of their wise men, received strangers graciously so long as they implicitly obeyed, or in any manner evinced fear and submission, and returned the presents which were offered according to Oriental custom with others of still greater value. All the discoveries and experiences, all the knowledge and information which they thus obtained in their peaceful or warlike relations with foreign nations, were generally recorded in the last division of the “Year-Books” of their own chronicles, forming, in an historical point of view, an inestimable treasure.

In the first century of our reckoning, the pride and vanity induced by the Chinese social system were partly broken by the gradual progress of Buddhism over all Eastern Asia. He who believed in the divine mission of the son of the King of Kapilapura, must recognise every man as his brother and equal by birth; yes, must strive—for the old Buddhistic faith has this in common with the Christian religion—to extend the joyful mission of salvation to all nations on earth, and, to attain this end, must suffer, like the type of the God incarnate, all earthly pain and persecution. So we find that a number of Buddhist monks and preachers have at distant times wandered to all known and unknown parts of the world, either to obtain information with regard to their distant co-religionists, or to preach the doctrine of their Holy Trinity to unbelievers. The official accounts which these missionaries rendered of their travels, and of which we possess several entire, considered as sources of information with regard to different lands and nations, belong to the most instructive and important part of Chinese literature. From these sources we have derived in a great degree that information which we possess regarding Northeastern Asia and the Western Coasts of America, during centuries which have been hitherto veiled in the deepest obscurity.

CHINESE KNOWLEDGE OF LANDS AND NATIONS.

Pride and vanity form the basis upon which the Chinese built their peculiar system of information regarding other lands and people. Around “the Flower of the Centre,” as their sages teach, dwell rude uncivilised races, which are in reality animals, although they have externally human forms. To these rough brutes they apply all manner of abusive epithets, assigning to them the names of dogs, swine, devils, and savages, according to the four points of the compass whence they came. The occasional inquirers and writers of history among the Europeans who have thought it worth their while to cast a glance upon the as yet fallow fields of Eastern and Central Asiatic history, have blindly followed this limited system, which rests upon the narrowest geographic limits, so that races originally without connection were melted into one and the same people; as, for instance, the numerous tribes of the Tartar family.

CHAPTER II.

IDENTITY OF THE TARTARS AND NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS; OR, THE ROAD TO AMERICA, AND THE PEOPLE IN IT.

THE Tunguse, Mongolians, and a great part of the Turkish race, formed originally, according to all external organic tokens, as well as the elements of their languages, hut one people, closely allied with the Esquimaux, the Skräling, or dwarf of the Norsemen, and the races of the New World. This is the irrefutable result to which all the more recent inquiries in anatomy and physiology, as well as comparative philology and history, have conduced. All the aboriginal Americans have those distinctive tokens which forcibly recall their neighbours dwelling on the other side of Behring’s Straits. They have the four-cornered head, high cheek-bones, heavy jaws, large angular eye-cavities, and a retreating forehead. The skulls of the oldest Peruvian graves exhibit the same tokens as the heads of the nomadic tribes of Oregon and California. The different American languages, as has been already proved by Albert Gallatin in his minute researches, have such an identity, that we can, however varied the vocabulary, at once reduce them to one original source.¹ In fact, all researches as to the manner in which America was first populated lead to one inevitable conclusion. Since the earth has been inhabited, these rude tribes dwelt in their separate divisions of Asia and America. This rough mass has, however, during the course of centuries, been separated by different corporeal and mental formative influences into different nations, each with peculiar bodily distinctions, the natural consequence of higher mental influences; and various languages have been developed; yet all of these distinctions, whether of body or of language, of manner or custom, present internal evidence of an original unity. This unity manifests itself in their genealogies, the oldest historical system of all nations by which the identity of the Turks, Mongolians, and Tunguse is clearly proved. Among these Tartaric hordes we find absolutely the same relation as that which existed among the German nations. The Ostrogoths and Yisigoths, the West-phalians, the northern and southern nations, belonged originally, notwithstanding their different destinies and culture, to the internal being of one and the same German race.

TUNGUSE EASTERN BARBARIANS.

All the numerous Tartaric hordes dwelling about the north-east of the Central Empire were termed by the civilised natives of the South “Tonghu,” “Eastern Red Men,” or savages, from which appellation we derive our word Tunguse,¹ which has been subsequently applied to an extremely limited portion of the entire race. Among these Mongolian nations, many centuries before Zenghis Khan (Tschinggs Chakan), the Mongolians proper were distinguished by the differently-written name of Wog or Mog, and divided into seven hordes, dwelling in different places, extending from the Corean Peninsula to the distant north, over the river Amo to the eastern sea; that is to say, to the Gulf of Anadir or Behring’s Straits. The nomadic tribes dwelling more directly to the north they termed Peti, or Northern Savages, and many tribes were reckoned by them as belonging either to the Tunguse or Peti. During the course of many centuries the Chinese acquired a surprisingly accurate knowledge of the north-east coast of Asia, extending, as their records in astronomy and natural history prove, to the sixty-fifth degree of latitude, and even to the Arctic Ocean.² Among other accounts, they tell us of a land very far from the Central Kingdom, whose inhabitants, termed Kolihan or Chorran, sent during the latter part of the seventh century ambassadors to the Court at Singan. This land lay on the North Sea; and still further to the north, on the other side of that sea, the days were so long, and the nights in proportion so short, that the sun set and rose again “before one could roast a leg of mutton.” ¹

The Chinese were well acquainted with the customs of these tribes, and describe them to us as resembling the Tsohuktschi or Koljuschens² of the present day, and other tribes of North-eastern Asia and Northwestern America. They had neither oxen, sheep, nor other domestic animals, but there were tribes among them which employed deer, which were there very numerous. These deer of which they speak were undoubtedly reindeer. They knew nothing of agriculture, but lived by hunting and fishing, as well as on the root of a certain plant which grew there in abundance. Their dwellings were constructed of twigs and wood, their clothes were made of furs and feathers. They laid their dead in coffins, which they placed in trees in the mountains.³ They were ignorant of any subdivisions of the year. The Chinese were also as well acquainted with those dwelling more directly to the east, as with these inhabitants of the north.

The limits of the Chinese Empire extended, under the dynasty of Tschen, in the time of David and Solomon, to the Eastern Ocean. They knew and frequented the numerous groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean, for the sake of trade. The natives inhabiting these islands sent, on their part, messengers to the coast with presents, which are registered in the Chinese annals. It also frequently happened that China sent a portion of its discontented or superfluous population to these thinly-inhabited islands, as well as to Japan, Lieu-kuei, and Formosa, of which we have accurate historical proofs. The tribe of the Ainos, or Jebis, extending from Japan to Kamtschatka, over the Kurilean and Aleutian, or Fox Islands, to the distant north, where it touched upon the nearly-allied Esquimaux, must naturally have astonished the occasional colonists and merchants who found their way thither, by a singular distinctive bodily phenomenon, namely, an exceeding growth of hair on their bodies. Such was the case, and they were termed Mau-schin (or, according to the Japanese mode of pronouncing Chinese writing, Mosin)—i.e., Hairy People, and also, from the great number of sea-crabs found in their region, [??11]Hi-ai (in Japanese, Jeso), or Crab-Barbarians.¹ And as these barbarians, like the inhabitants of the southern islands, were in the habit of tattooing figures upon their skin, they were also termed by the Chinese Wen-schin, or Painted People. In the course of time other names were also added, but any one acquainted with the nature of that part of the world and its inhabitants, readily recognises, despite the varied appellations, the same race of men in the Ainos. We are indebted to the numerous embassies which in earlier times passed between China and Japan for the greater part of the information contained in their Year-Books, relating to the north and south-easterly islands and nations. These embassies brought back with them many traditionary accounts, which were strongly tinged with fable, and yet not entirely devoid of truth. For instance, when they speak of the land of Tschutschu, or dwarfs, very far to the south of Japan, whose inhabitants, black and ugly and naked, kill and devour all strangers, we readily recognise the natives of Papua or New Guinea.

The Ainos were first described, under the name of Hairy People, in “The Book of Mountains and Seas,” a Chinese work, written in the second or third century, and richly adorned with wonderful legends. They dwelt, according to this book, in the Eastern Sea, and were completely overgrown with hair.¹ Some of these people came, A.D. 659, in company with a Japanese embassy, to China; they are termed in the Year-Book of Tang, “Crab-Barbarians,”² after which this note follows :—“They had long beards, and dwelt in the north-east of Japan; they laid hows, arrows, and deerskins as presents before the throne. These were the inhabitants of Jeso, which island had, not long before, been subdued and rendered tributary by the Japanese.” The report of the Japanese embassy, in their own domestic returns, is, however, much more copious and satisfactory. The queries of the Heaven’s Son of Tang, and the replies of the Japanese ambassador, are there narrated as follows :—

The Ruler of Tang.—“Does the heavenly Autocrat find himself in constant tranquillity?”

The Ambassador.—“Heaven and earth unite their gifts, and constant tranquillity ensues.”

The Ruler of Tang.—“Are the Government officers well appointed?”

The Ambassador.—“They have the grace of the Heavenly Ruler, and are well.”

The Ruler of Tang.—“Is there internal peace?”

The Ambassador.—“The Government harmonises with heaven and earth—the people have no care.”

The Ruler of Tang.—“ Where lies the land—this Jeso ?”

The Ambassador—“To the north-east.”

The Ruler of Tang.—“How many divisions has it?”

The Ambassador—“Three; the most distant we call Tsgaru, the next Ara, and the nearest Niki. To the last belong these men here before us. They appear yearly with their tribute at the court of our king.”

The Ruler of Tang.—“Does this land produce corn?”

The Ambassador.—“No; its inhabitants live on flesh.”

The Ruler of Tang.—“Have they houses?”

The Ambassador.—“No; they live in the mountains, under trunks of trees.”

This extract is from the Nipponki, or Japanese Annals, from 661 until 696, which were collected in the year 720. They embrace thirty volumes oct...