Xu Fu: The Elixir Mission May Have Been a Migration Hidden by an Emperor's Order
Xu Fu asked for ships, young people, craftsmen, and supplies to find an elixir, then disappeared at sea. The expedition's size, seeds, and the timing of the Yayoi transition make it look like a migration carried out under an emperor's order.
Read in Vietnamese →Xu Fu was an alchemist who lived under Qin Shi Huang, the emperor who unified China in 221 BCE. Sima Qian's *Records of the Grand Historian* says that Qin Shi Huang sent Xu Fu to sea to search for immortal islands and an elixir of life. The expedition carried many young men and women, craftsmen, and supplies. Xu Fu left and never returned to the Qin court.
Many places in Japan still tell a different ending. Local traditions say that Xu Fu came ashore and passed on useful skills. These stories are often linked to the Yayoi period, when wet-rice farming, metalworking, and migrants from the mainland changed Japanese society.
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