Where was Buddhist-missionary China's mythical "Fu Sang"? The Americas

Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

To China it's Fusang. We call it the Pacific Coast of CAN, US, MX (ThaDrummer/DeviantArt).

This 1753 map by the French cartographer Philippe Buache locates Fusang (Fou-sang des Chinois, "Fusang of the Chinese") north of California, in the area of British Columbia.

.

Fusang (Chinese 扶桑 or Fú Sāng) refers to several different entities in ancient Chinese literature, often either a mysterious land to the East [Canada, the USA, and/or Mexico] or a mythical tree.

The term later became a poetic name of Japan, which is east of China. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas and several contemporary texts [Note 1], 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 [1, 2].

• VIDEO: I'm a Mexican Buddhist: How the Buddha's Dharma arrived from ancient Afghanistan (Gandhara) in 450 A.D.

A country named Fusang was described by the native Buddhist missionary Hui Shen (Chinese 慧深 or Huì Shēn) in 499 AD [3], as a place 20,000 Chinese li east of Da-han, and also east of China (according to Joseph Needham, Da-han corresponds to the Buriat region of Buddhist Siberia) [1].

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.

They describe a 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.

The Americas

Popular fiction: Journey to Fusang

This 1753 map by the French cartographer Philippe Buache locates Fusang ("Fou-sang des Chinois," 'Fusang of the Chinese') north of California, in the area of British Columbia.

According to some historians -- such as Charles Godfrey Leland and Joseph de Guignes (Le Fou-Sang des Chinois est-il l'Amérique? Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Tome 28, Paris, 1761) -- the distances given by Hui Shen (20,000 Chinese li) 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 (which did not exist in North or South America at that time) or the domestication and milking of deer [7].

• Journey to Fusang: In a world where European civilization has been left stunted by Mongol invasions, the New World, discovered and exploited by the Moors and Chinese, becomes the setting for the madcap adventures of an Irish con artist.
• See also: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

Descriptions of Fusang

Fusang on a 1792 French world map in B.C.

Mention of Fusang ("Fousang des Chinois") on a 1792 French world map, in the area of modern British Columbia.

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 [cactus pads?*] similar to paulownia and edible purplish-red fruits like [prickly] pears.

"The place was rich in copper deposits 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" [8].

Imagining Fusang: Exploring Chinese and Indigenous Encounters is a group exhibition that takes its title from the 7th century Chinese legend of Fusang, which describes the travels of Afghan Buddhist missionaries and a Chinese Buddhist monk named Hui shen by ship along the Chinese coast up and around to the Americas in the latter part of the 5th century (do250.com).

.

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" [8].

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" [8].

The Liang Shu also describes the conversion of Fusang to the Buddhist religion by five Buddhist monks from Gandhara [ancient Afghanistan, old Kapilavastu, the Buddha's homeland]:

"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 [or Kapilavastu = Kabul, Bamiyan, Mes Aynak, Afghanistan]) travelled by ship to that country.

They propagated the Buddhist doctrine, circulated sutras (scriptures) and drawings, and advised the people to relinquish worldly attachments. As a result, the customs of Fusang changed." More

*What is the mythical "tree" of Fusang?

Rubbing of a detail from the Wu Liang Shrines' stone relief carvings (mid-2nd century). The scene depicts the Fusang tree, Xihe, who is going to hitch the sun chariot to a dragon-horse, and archer Yi who takes aim at the sun-crows. [Could it be the nopal with its prickly pear fruit?]

.

Fusang tree as depicted in a rubbing from the Wu Liang Shrines' reliefs, mid-2nd century. Rubbing originally published in Chavannes, Édouard (1909). Mission archéologique dans la Chine septentrionale (Volume 3). Plate LI.

For an online version, see Chavannes, Édouard (1909). Mission archéologique dans la Chine septentrionale. Tokyo: Digital Silk Road, National Institute of Informatics. doi:10.20676/00000254. Reproduced in Major, John S. (1993). Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the Huainanzi. Albany: State University of New York Press, p.160.