page_title: Fusang
section_title: Descriptions of Fusang
hierarchical_section_title: Fusang / Descriptions of Fusang
caption_attribution_description: 1792 French World Map With Fusang
context_page_description: 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, alternatively 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.
context_section_description: According to the report of Hui Shen to the Chinese during his visit to China, described in the Liang Shu:
  "Fusang is 20,000 li to the East of the country of Dàhàn (lit. 'Great Han'), and located to the east of China (lit. 'Middle Kingdom')."
  "On that land, there are many Fusang plants (perhaps red mulberry) that produce oval-shaped leaves similar to paulownia and edible purplish-red fruits like pears. The place was rich in copper and traces of gold and silver but no iron. The native tribes in Fusang were civilized, living in well-organized communities. They produced paper from the bark of the Fusang plants for writing and produced cloth from the fibers of the bark, which they used for robes or wadding. Their houses or cabins were constructed with red mulberry wood. The fruits and young shoots of the plants were one of their food sources. They raised deer for meat and milk, just as the Chinese raised cattle at home, and produced cheese with deer milk. They traveled on horseback and transported their goods with carts or sledges pulled by horses, buffalo, or deer."
  On the organization of the country:
  "An emperor, or a main chief, with the help of several officials, governed the country. The majority of people were law-abiding citizens. The country had no army or military defense but two jails, one in the north and the other in the south of the country. Those who had committed serious crimes were sent to the north and they stayed there for their entire lives. These inmates, however, could get married. If they got married and produced children, their sons became slaves and their daughters remained as maids."
  On the social practices:
  "The marriage arrangement was relatively simple. If a boy wanted to marry a girl, he had to build a cabin next to the home of the girl and stay there for a year. If the girl liked him they would get married; otherwise he would be asked to go away ... When a person died in the community his body would be cremated. The mourning period varied from seven days for the death of a parent to five days for a grandparent and three days for a brother or sister. During their mourning period they were not supposed to consume food, only water. They had no religion."
  The Liang Shu also describes the conversion of Fusang to the Buddhist faith by five Buddhist monks from Gandhara:
  "In former times, the people of Fusang knew nothing of the Buddhist religion, but in the second year of Da Ming of the Liu Song dynasty (485 AD), five monks from Kipin (Kabul region of Gandhara) travelled by ship to that country. They propagated Buddhist doctrine, circulated scriptures and drawings, and advised the people to relinquish worldly attachments. As a result, the customs of Fusang changed."
caption: Mention of Fusang ("Fousang des Chinois") on a 1792 French world map, in the area of modern British Columbia.
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