Le Japon, contrée du Penglai? - Note sur le mercure - article ; n°1 ; vol.8, pg 439-452

Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie - Année 1995 - Volume 8 - Numéro 1 - Pages 439-452
Is Japan a paradise inhabited by Taoist immortals originally coming from China? It seems that the materiality of the prestigious commerce of Japanese mercury during the Tang and the Song influenced Chinese imagination, as shown in literary documents eulogizing Japan as the fortunate islands of the Penglai and of the Fusang. The assimilation of Japan to Penglai may be deconstructed through several ways. Two of them are presented here.
A connection of Japan with Penglai appears in the legend of Xu Fu, presented as a Taoist magician (proto-alchemist?), sent by Qin Shi Huangdi to the Eastern Ocean in search of immortality drugs. After this legend became known in Japan, numerous seaside places, all over Honshū and Kyūshū, have been related to Xu Fu and a few mountains have been called Penglai (Hōraisan), with Fusang (Fuse) becoming a designation for Japan. A recent topographical discovery in Shandong leads historians of Chinese-Japanese relations to look with fresh eyes on an eventual historical character of the Xu Fu legend.
A second connection is the prestige of Japanese mercury, in high demand in China, especially for alchemy. Many places in Japan have produced mercury in its grilled cinnabar (shusa) form or in its more refined liquid (suigin) form. Its cost was comparatively low (less than shironamari and much less than gold and silver), its quality was better than mercury produced in China and its quantity was comparatively abundant as it was less in demand in Japan than in China. Japanese pharmacopeia, although referring to the elixir of gold and mercury (kin'ekitan), used mostly herbal and vegetal medicine, leaving mercury to a luxurious use: the gilding of artifacts for palaces or monasteries. The most notorious case is the gilding (752) and re-gilding (1189) of the Great Buddha of Nara. The Japanese could thus keep much of their mercury for their international relations: commerce, exchanges or gifts. The Heian court sent as much as 80 kgs of mercury to the Song court after the reception in 1073 of a message from Emperor Shenzong sent through the offices of the monk Jōjin. The Tang and Song periods were the golden age of alchemy. In that context of seeking immortality, the fascination exerted by the pure mercury of Japan must have played a role in the assimilation by the Chinese of Japan to Penglai. The Japanese themselves, Abe no Nakamaro, in the mid-eighth century, to whom Chinese poems referring to Penglai were dedicated, and a Japanese emissary reaching Fuzhou in 804 must have been rather pleased by that assimilation. The emissary seems even to have been eager to encourage it.
14 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.