About the Work
Visa Aesop Ya is a work of historical-geographical investigation by Henriette Mertz, signed June 1953, which argues that two ancient Chinese expeditions reached the American continent long before European contact. The book is presented as a scholarly study drawing on Chinese classical documents, archaeological evidence, and geographical analysis. Mertz states in her preface that one story has waited four thousand years to be told, another fifteen hundred, and that both are Chinese documents translated into English and preserved in Chinese archives. She asserts that both documents still exist and that her writing aims to demonstrate the truth of their contexts—the earliest having been assumed mythological and the later false, simply because they were never properly understood.
The work is organized around two principal Chinese sources. The first is the account of Hwui Shan, a Buddhist priest who in 499 A.D. reported to the Chinese Court his journey to a country called “Fu-sang,” located far to the east. The second is the “Classic of Mountains and Seas” (Shan Hai King), compiled by Yu, Minister of Public Works under Emperor Shun, around 2250 B.C., which describes mountains and rivers across the “Great Eastern Sea.” Mertz examines both documents in detail, cross-referencing their descriptions with geographical features, archaeological sites, and cultural practices in North and Central America.
The book includes acknowledgments listing Stanford University Press, Alfred A. Knopf, Dr. H. G. Creel, Virginia Prewett, Gordon Ekholm, the National Geographic Society, Henry B. Syverud, and unnamed archeologists. It also features a poem by Tu Fu (726 A.D.), translated by Florence Ayscouth, lamenting the failure to explore Fu Sang. The author explicitly states that no new scientific material is presented; rather, archaeology and geography supply corroborative evidence for the ancient Chinese records. She acknowledges possible errors in her work, including the possibility of choosing wrong mountain peaks in her geographical identifications.
Context
The book emerges from a mid-twentieth-century scholarly environment in which questions of pre-Columbian transoceanic contact were actively debated. Mertz notes that Fu-sang was examined by more than fifty European scholars between 1761 and 1885, with nothing proved or disproved. The controversy began in 1761 when de Guignes, a French sinologist, published “Investigation of the Navigation of the Chinese to the Coast of America…” in Paris, arguing that Fu-sang was Mexico. His thesis was conceded for seventy years until 1831, when Klaproth, a Prussian sinologist, refuted it, criticizing both de Guignes and the Chinese, concluding that the Chinese did not know east from south and could not count. Klaproth’s refutation held sway for 120 years.
Mertz writes against this backdrop of scholarly skepticism, noting that the Classics of 500 A.D. were disproved in 1831 regarding Mexico. She observes that recent excavations in Arizona and New Mexico confirm details of Hwui Shan’s account, and that the Mexican Government and North American institutions began excavations around thirty years before her writing, building a time sequence for Mesoamerican civilizations. She notes the sudden appearance of corbelled roofs in northwestern Yucatan in 475 A.D., with the calendar appearing simultaneously, and the rise of cities like Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Artifacts from this period resembled those of Buddhist Java, Cambodia, and China.
The author also situates her work within broader debates about the peopling of the Americas. She notes that dating of Indian arrival had shifted dramatically: after the Christian era, then 3,000 years, then Folsom Man (10,000 B.C.), Sandia Man (20,000 B.C.), and by her time of writing, 100,000 B.C. with 400,000 B.C. considered possible. She observes that Asiatics crossed the Bering Strait at a remote time, and that climatic changes allowed redwood and ferns on the Aleutians a million years ago. The book also engages with the work of contemporary scholars, including Dr. H. G. Creel’s The Birth of China, which showed Shang bronzes (1765–1123 B.C.) were genuine, and Dr. Brinton’s arguments about the independence of the Maya calendar.
Structure of the Book
The book is organized into eleven chapters plus a preface, following a logical progression from introducing the central documents to tracing Hwui Shan’s route and then examining the earlier Chinese classic.
The preface establishes the author’s purpose and acknowledges her sources. Chapter I, “Geographical Myths,” introduces the two Chinese expeditions and surveys the history of scholarly debate about Fu-sang. Chapter II, “Fu-sang,” details the controversy begun by de Guignes in 1761 and the refutation by Klaproth in 1831. Chapter III, “Chinese Whimsy?,” presents Hwui Shan’s account of Fu-sang and the Kingdom of Women, along with the supplementary account of Yu-Kie from the Liang-Sse-Kong-Ki. Chapter IV, “Kuen 327 and the Liang-Sse-Kong Ki,” tests the classical descriptions against known geographical and archaeological features of the southwestern United States and Mexico, identifying specific locations such as Point Hueneme, the Mogollon culture area, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and the La Brea Tar Pits.
The middle chapters examine cultural and religious parallels. Chapter VII (continuing from earlier material) compares the Maya-Azteca calendar with the Chinese-Hindu lunar system, discusses the cochineal insect, and analyzes the effigies near Sacaton, Arizona. Chapter VIII, “The Buddhists,” presents the life of Gautama Buddha and the sacred symbols of Buddhism—Sun, Tree, Serpent—and their sudden appearance in Mexican sculptured objects in the late fifth century. Chapter X, “Hwui Shan, Traveller par Excellence,” presents Hwui Shan as an explorer and missionary who was revered as a god under the names Quetzalcoatl, Kukulcan, and Wixipecocha, tracing his route through place names from Point Hueneme through Arizona and Mexico to Yucatan and Guatemala. Chapter XI, “Early China,” turns to the earlier Chinese explorations, examining evidence of Chinese writing, bronze work, and cultural practices that predate Hwui Shan.
The book concludes with an annotated translation of the “Classic of the Eastern Mountains,” in which the editor provides modern geographical identifications for each ancient Chinese description, tracing mountains from Wyoming through New Mexico, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa, and then from Alaska down the Pacific coast to Santa Barbara, where the FU-SANG tree is identified as visible to the east, within thirty miles of Hwui Shan’s landing point at Point Hueneme.
Detailed Section-by-Section Summary
The Preface: Two Ancient Documents
The author opens by stating that one story has waited four thousand years to be told, and another fifteen hundred. Both are Chinese documents, translated into English and preserved in Chinese archives, and both still exist. The writing aims to show that the context of both is true; the earliest has been assumed mythological, and the later false, because they were never understood. The puzzle of early Chinese expeditions to America remains unsolved; these are not the first actual journeys but the first geographical descriptions recorded and preserved. The writer acknowledges possible errors, including choosing wrong mountain peaks, and notes that archaeology and geography supply corroborative evidence, with no new scientific material presented. The writer believes that re-studying the Chinese Classics with faith in their veracity may reveal unsuspected truth. The preface includes acknowledgments to Stanford University Press, Alfred A. Knopf, Dr. H. G. Creel, Virginia Prewett, Gordon Ekholm, the National Geographic Society, Henry B. Syverud, and unnamed archeologists, and is signed Henriette Mertz, June 1953. A poem by Tu Fu (726 A.D.), translated by Florence Ayscouth, laments not exploring Fu Sang.
Chapter I: Geographical Myths
The book tells of two Chinese expeditions to America: one in the fifth century A.D. by Hwui Shan, a Buddhist priest who told China’s Court of going east to “Fu-sang,” and another in the twenty-third century B.C. involving the “Classic of Mountains and Seas,” compiled by Yu at Emperor Shun’s request, supposedly in 2250 B.C., describing mountains and rivers across the “Great Eastern Sea.” Fu-sang was examined by over fifty European scholars from 1761 to 1885, with nothing proved or disproved. Recent finds in Arizona and New Mexico confirm details of Hwui Shan’s account, suggesting Fu-sang is real and that his visit changed its history, creating a brilliant civilization. The Shan Hai King has never been fully translated into English, and the author believes it the most astounding geographical document ever written. Asiatics crossed the Bering Strait at a remote time, and climatic changes allowed redwood and ferns on the Aleutians a million years ago. Dating of Indian arrival has shifted dramatically, from after the Christian era to 100,000 B.C., with 400,000 B.C. possible. Spaniards likened Mexican Indians to Chinese. Around thirty years ago, the Mexican Government and North American institutions began excavations, building a time sequence. Corbelled roofs appeared suddenly in northwestern Yucatan in 475 A.D., with the calendar appearing simultaneously, and cities like Chichen Itza and Uxmal rose. Artifacts resembled those of Buddhist Java, Cambodia, and China. The Tuxtla Statuette (162 A.D.), El Baul monument (29 A.D.), Tres Zapotes monument (21 B.C.), and Leyden jade piece (320 A.D.) were found. Pottery and corn cultivation arose before Buddha, so Buddhists couldn’t have taught them. Questions are raised about independent development, external influence, Chinese emigration, Egyptians, and the absence of Chinese “bones.” Chinese and Japanese records tell of boatloads of young people sailing east, never returning; a Chinese boatload sailed about 219 B.C., and the Japanese three hundred years later. De Guignes, a French scholar two hundred years ago, connected Chinese Buddhists of 500 A.D. with Fu-sang as Mexico; seventy years later another scholar disagreed, and his opinion has held for 120 years. The Classics of 500 A.D. were disproved in 1831 regarding Mexico. The account of Hwui Shan will be re-examined first, then Yu’s record, the Shan Hai King, begun under Emperor Shun (2250 B.C.) and completed after Yu became emperor (about 2205 B.C.). Scholars consider it pure travesty. Poets wrote of the “Great Luminous Canyon” and “the place where the sun was born”; a T’ang dynasty poet (618 A.D.) regretted Confucius went west, not east. The book was required reading for Chinese examinations. About the third century B.C., doubts arose; scholars failed to find Yu’s mountains in China, concluding they didn’t exist. Originally 32 books, only 18 remain, and no complete English translation exists. The fragmentary portion was titled “Across the Great Eastern Sea,” and no one had looked across that sea. The author will follow directions exactly—east means east, 266 miles means 266 miles. Tradition fades, but Yu’s record remained.
Chapter II: Fu-sang
Yu’s document is set aside to explore the fifth-century Fu-sang controversy. The controversy began in 1761 with de Guignes, a French sinologist, discovering that Fu-sang was Mexico. De Guignes found the story retold by Ma Twan-lin in “Antiquarian Researches” (1321), of Hwui Shan, a Buddhist priest who reported going east. De Guignes published “Investigation of the Navigation of the Chinese to the Coast of America…” in Paris in 1761, creating a shock, and his thesis was conceded for 70 years. In 1831, Klaproth, a Prussian sinologist, refuted it, criticizing de Guignes and the Chinese, concluding that the Chinese didn’t know east from south and couldn’t count. Klaproth’s major hypothesis rested on a “grape” or “grapevine” and a “horse” being found in Fu-sang; he stated that vines in Fu-sang proved it couldn’t be America, ignoring that Norsemen called the country “Vinland.”
Chapter III: Chinese Whimsy?
The chapter opens by introducing Hwui Shan, a mendicant Buddhist priest (a Pi-k’iu, or Sanskrit Bhikshu), who was in China in 499 A.D. and told a story at Court of visiting a far country 20,000 LI east of the Great Han Country (itself 20,000 LI east of China). The account omits how he traveled, returned, his duration away, or his origin; the chapter confines itself to his words. Hwui Shan’s account describes a people 40,000 LI (13,000 miles) east with civilization: writing, woven clothing, paper, and a valuable plant with pear-shaped reddish edible fruit that preserves without spoiling, resembling bamboo shoots—the country’s namesake. They had houses but unwalled cities, no weapons, no fighting, law and order with established criminal punishment, a ruler called “Chief of the Multitudes,” lesser nobles “Tui-lu,” and the ruler changed garment color every second year. Cattle were domesticated, koumiss made from milk, grapes cultivated; gold, silver, copper present, but no iron. Formal marriage and burial customs existed. In 458 A.D., five Buddhist priests from Kabul taught them religion. The Kingdom of Women, approximately 350 miles east of Fu-sang, was inhabited by light-colored, clean people with long hair. Women became pregnant in the second month, gave birth at sixth or seventh month, nursed from hair at the back of the mother’s neck; babies walked in three months, became adult at three or four years. Women respected husbands, ate fragrant salt plant and little beans. Women resembled Chinese; men had human bodies but dog heads and made dog sounds. Houses were circular adobe with burrow-like entrances. In 507 A.D., men from Tsin-ngan were blown across the sea there and could not understand the language. Other Classics sections elaborate on Fu-sang or the Kingdom of Women; earlier Chinese literature and poetry also reference Fu-sang. In 499 A.D., China was in civil war; the Ts’i Dynasty fell, and by 502 A.D. the Liang Dynasty under Emperor Wu-ti emerged. Buddhism, banished under Ts’i, was revived by Wu-ti, a devout follower who had retired to a monastery. Under this protection, Hwui Shan found a sympathetic ear at Court. When Wu-ti ascended, four Princes came to pay tribute; one, Yu-Kie, was charged to question Hwui Shan and write down answers. This writing, preserved, is the Liang-Sse-Kong-Ki (memoirs of the Four Lords of the Liang Dynasty). Yu-Kie, a wit, inserted extravagancies of his own, spinning yarns for courtiers, yet his account adds to and corroborates the preceding information. From Yu-Kie’s account: Fu-sang was at the extreme east; about 10,000 LI (3,000 miles) northwest was the Kingdom of Women. Women took serpents for husbands, lived in holes, had no books, believed in prayers, were moral, and straying women were instantly punished. Yu-Kie wrote of a smoking mountain (Yen-kuen) to the south whose inhabitants ate locusts, crabs, and hairy serpents to preserve from heat; fire rats (weasels or squirrels) on the summit produced incombustible material cleansed by fire. To the north was a Black Gorge, beyond which were heaven-reaching, snow-covered mountains where the sun never showed; there the Luminous Dragon resided. To the west was a wine-tasting fountain, a Sea of Varnish (waves dyeing feathers and furs black), and another milk-colored sea. The territory was fertile, with dogs, ducks, great-height horses, and birds producing human beings—males died, daughters were raised by fathers who carried them with beaks or wings; daughters became self-sufficient when walking, were beautiful, hospitable, but died before thirty. Rabbits were white and horse-sized with foot-long hair; sables were wolf-sized with thick black hair. The Marquis d’Hervey de Saint-Denys, whose translation is followed, translates that court attendants laughed, clapped, and said better stories had never been told. Minister Wang-Yun objected banteringly that official accounts of the “Kingdom of Women” (west of Tsan-yai, south of the Kingdom of Dogs) mention only barbarians with a female sovereign, no serpent husbands. Yu-Kie responded with pleasantry and new extravagances, with true ideas burlesqued. The Marquis commented that the Chinese of the Sixth Century were not credulous, knew how to distinguish true from improbable, and laughed at their storytellers’ extravagancies without diminishing respect for writers. The chapter concedes Hwui Shan’s account is distressingly short; early Chinese writings are clipped to essentials, and the Annals were condensed twice, eliminating much. Yu-Kie’s account includes details absent from Hwui Shan’s own report (smoking mountain, Black Gorge, snow-capped peaks, sweet fountain, Sea of Varnish, milk-colored sea), set down as answers to questions. Hwui Shan’s recording placed the Kingdom of Women 350 miles inland east from the coast; Yu-Kie placed it 3,000 miles northwest of Fu-sang. Hwui Shan said the Kingdom of Women had no writing, while Fu-sang had writing; Yu-Kie said no books. The author reasons that if Fu-sang could read and write and the Kingdom could not, they must be distant; 3,000 miles apart makes the difference understandable. Dog-headed males appear in one account, serpents in the other.
Chapter IV: Kuen 327 and the Liang-Sse-Kong Ki
The chapter opens by referencing a translation of Kuen 327 (the Fu-sang and Kingdom of Women story) and the Liang-Sse-Kong-Ki, the report of the Four Lords of the Liang Dynasty, which told of Yu-Kie’s interrogation of Hwui Shan. The author’s goal is to determine whether fragments from the Classics match known features of the southwestern United States or Mexico. The inquiry begins with a question: From 450–500 A.D., would Hwui Shan have found people on the California coast or in the 350-mile stretch inland to the Kingdom of Women? The author believes Hwui Shan landed at Point Hueneme, north of Los Angeles, where California records show an ancient Indian holy site and place of sacrifice. Moving inland, the author finds sites from coast to Rockies predating the Spanish Conquest. The Cochise, a nomadic people, roamed Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, and Chihuahua, present as early as 3,000 B.C. Basket Maker cultures I, II, and III followed, more sedentary with developed crafts. In the specific 350-mile inland area (eastern Arizona, western New Mexico), from roughly 1 A.D. to 1000 A.D., lived the Mogollon, a highly cultured race. Excavations (notably 1949–1951) revealed wickerwork sandals of yucca, cotton textiles, fur and feather blankets, cloth bags, cigarette butts, cradles, whistles, flutes, spear-throwers, wooden spoons, digging sticks, rush mats, snares, and some 38,000 corn cobs. A hearth’s charcoal, carbon-14 dated, was approximately 4,500 years old, confirming culture there by 2500 B.C. The Mogollon area extended farther than first supposed, possibly tying into cultures from Oregon to Mexico. Answering the question: Science confirms Hwui Shan would have found inhabitants with high culture 350 miles inland just before 500 A.D. Testing Yu-Kie’s natural marvels: Starting from Mogollon Mesa (350 miles east of Los Angeles), travelling north about 300 miles brings one to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in western Colorado, a National Park, with Gunnison Peak and Snowmass Mountain snow-capped to the north. Southward, two smoking mountains exist—Popocatepetl and the Volcan de Colima; the latter, near the coast, is likely the one described, and crabs are a principal food source there. Westward, springs exist (Warner Hot Springs or Palm Springs); the “Sea of Varnish” is identified with the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles—dark, viscous, dyeing fur or feathers black. A “sea the color of milk” is harder to pin down; dry lakes of salt and borax in the Mojave Desert shimmer white. The author quotes John R. Spears (1892) describing the region’s white soda, salt, and borax beds. The Salton Sea, Searles and Owens Lakes fit this category. On the houses: Hwui Shan said people “beat down the earth and made adobe for the walls of their houses, the shape of which was circular and the doors or entrances resembled burrows.” The author cites the University of Arizona Bulletin (October 1947), “An Early Pit House of the Mogollon Culture” by Emil Haury and E. B. Sayles, describing 21 excavated houses in central Arizona—mostly circular, 13–35 feet in diameter, 12 inches to 4 feet deep, with tunnel-shaped covered entrances about 3 feet wide and 4–5 feet long, made of sandy clay plaster, dated around 300–350 A.D. This matches the Classics precisely. On the dog-headed males: The Classics give varied descriptions—dragon/serpent, deer with horns, bird, cow. The author argues these were katchina ceremonial masks, worn in Indian religious rites, reproducing animal heads (cows, eagles, deer, snakes, antelopes, dogs) in feathers, fur, skin, or woodcarving. Such masks have been excavated from Alaska to Florida. The account’s brevity—failing to state the purpose of the heads—is blamed on condensation and editing. On the Kingdom of Women: The author considers a matriarchal system. Citing Viola E. Garfield (American Antiquity, January 1953) on matrilineal features in Athabascan culture, and Erna Fergusson on the Hopi—where houses pass from mother to daughter, children are born into the mother’s clan, named by the mother’s sister, and her brothers are more important than the father. Shungopavy, north of Mogollon Mesa, is the oldest Hopi site, tracing back to at least 1 A.D. On serpents as husbands: The author recounts the Hopi Snake Clan origin legend, as related by J. W. Fewkes. A Chief’s son built a boat at the Grand Canyon, met the Spider Woman (who hid behind his ear), came to a Kiva where people dressed in snake skins turned into snakes. He caught a girl turned into a yellow rattler, married her; she bore snake children, then human children. The male children were blood brothers of the snakes—hence the Snake Clan. The author concludes Hwui Shan’s report was accurate: a matrilineal system and Snake Clan existed in that area. The Kingdom of Women can be established within a 50-mile radius of Mogollon Mesa, possibly Shungopavy.
Chapter VII: Calendar, Cochineal, and Effigies
The passage compares the Maya-Azteca calendar with the Chinese-Hindu lunar system, noting shared animal names: serpent, rabbit, dog, monkey, tiger, lizard, razor/sharp-edged, cane/reed, eagle/bird. The author finds it strange that flower names were absent in Mexico despite the culture’s love of flowers, and that so many names match another culture rather than using distinctive local animals like turkey. Dr. Brinton believed the Maya, Zapoteca, and Azteca calendar was “absolutely independent and American” in origin, disagreeing with Humboldt’s Asiatic-origin theory. Brinton found day-names identical in signification across Quiche-Cakchiquel, Tzental, Maya, Zapoteca, and Nahuatl; that Mayan names were archaic at the Conquest, derived from a common ancient stock, not borrowed; that they seemed mythical, not astronomical; and that they came from one source, “probably a lost culture.” At the Conquest, natives were uncertain of the calendar’s age or name meanings. Sahagun said it derived from the Devil; the people claimed divine revelation from Quetzalcoatl. Indians thought it was invented about 800 years before the Spanish landed at Vera Cruz (around 700 A.D.), but were unsure. The author defends Indian haziness, comparing it to college graduates’ ignorance of the Julian-to-Gregorian shift. The Maya five “unlucky” days at year’s end (late December): people despaired, destroyed household-god images, then rekindled fires and set up new gods. The Chinese similarly burned household gods at year’s end, replacing them with new ones to absorb the family’s sins for the year. The author notes both cultures still carry on this custom. Cochineal: plant lice of the nopal cactus yielding red dye; the finest grows around Cuilapan, State of Oaxaca. In southern Tibet, Lahore, Kabul, and Nepal, “early” cochineal insects appeared, thriving only on a Bengal cactus similar to the nopal, introduced there but found nowhere neighboring. The author notes “Nepal” is phonetically close to Mexican “nopalli,” and inhabitants call themselves “Nepalli,” suggesting possible reverse borrowing before the Conquest. Effigies near Sacaton, Arizona: a horse effigy 53 feet long, 43 feet 10 inches high. Yu-Kie’s record mentioned dogs, ducks, and horses of great height to the west; Hwui Shan told of the three-year-old adult Ha-ak and great-height horses near Sacaton. Dr. Setzler guessed the effigies postdate the Conquest, based on horses being unknown pre-Columbus and lichen not being ancient. The author cites the Kensington (Runic) Stone in Minnesota, of which Smithsonian has a copy, stating Norsemen had horses there before Columbus. The author would date the Blythe/Sacaton effigies before 500 A.D., based on Hwui Shan’s “horse of great height” and similar Peruvian markings in the Nasca area—shallow ridges best seen from the air, covering fifty miles, including animal/bird forms, a coiled serpent, and one configuration like an airplane. Peruvian authorities (as of 1947) said the date was unknown but definitely before 1000 A.D., likely Nasca period (beginning of Christian era). Both sites share desert climate (“Great American Desert” and Atacama Desert). The author concludes the effigies may date to the first century or earlier, despite the no-horses-before-Columbus presumption.
Chapter VIII: The Buddhists
Hwui Shan was a mendicant Buddhist priest; five Buddhist priests from Kabul went to a far country in 458 A.D. with books and images. Hwui Shan didn’t say if he was among the five. Gautama Buddha, born in Nepal about 560 B.C., son of Suddhodana, Prince of the Saka Clan; mother Maya conceived him after a dream. Called “Saka-muni,” holy man of the Sakas. At 29 he left home; two weeks meditating under the Bo-tree; third week under a Muchalinda tree, where Muchalinda the Serpent-King spread his hood as canopy—serpent became sacred. Two merchants offered rice and milk; the bowl became sacred. Brahma appeared, urging him to preach; he agreed, called five friends, ordained them—nucleus of the Buddhist order. They were sent to wander and preach self-restraint, simplicity, chastity. Saka-muni spent 45 years preaching. His death involved four “trances,” miraculous signs, a spontaneously igniting and extinguishing pyre. Sacred symbols: Sun, Tree, Serpent. Doctrine: life after death; earth destroyed five times (four already, last by flood); monasteries/nunneries; good deeds; missionary program. In Mexico, all three symbols appear suddenly in the late fifth century in sculptured objects, “in full bloom.” Stone carvings at Palenque show intertwined trees; the Sun symbol and serpent form the basis of decorative art. Squier recognized the similarity in 1851 (“Symbolism of the Serpent”). Comparative photos appear in the XXIX International Congress of Americanists (University of Chicago Press, 1951) and American Antiquity Vol. XVIII, No. 3, Part 2 (January 1953); Gustav d’Eichthal compared Buddhist and Mexican art in 1865. Both Saka-muni and Azteca Huitzilopochtli were miraculously conceived; both religions had monasteries and nunneries.
Hwui Shan, Traveller par Excellence
The narrative turns to Hwui Shan, presenting him as an explorer, teacher, missionary, and recorder who converted an aboriginal Mexican people, introducing agriculture, weaving, ceramics, astronomy, the calendar, metallurgy, and feather-work. He was revered as a god under the names Quetzalcoatl, Kukulcan, and Wixipecocha. The author claims Hwui Shan’s geographic records, though condensed and edited, were accurate, and that towns named after him trace his route from Point Hueneme through Arizona and down 2,500 miles through Mexico, across to Yucatan, returning via Tehuantepec, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guatemala. Two areas of intense activity—Tula to Tehuacan and Chiapas/Oaxaca—show late-fifth-century productivity, and the author asserts Hwui Shan’s personality explains this cultural rise. Evidence of his impact includes followers who accompanied him, the Emperor of China giving him audience with a recorder, and Moctezuma II believing his promise to return in CE ACATL, laying down arms. The author rejects fictional treatments like The Fair God, insisting Hwui Shan was real. Virginia Prewett’s Reportage on Mexico identifies Quetzalcoatl as a deified living priest, while C. W. Ceram’s Gods, Graves, & Scholars sees a kernel of truth, some suggesting the Apostle Thomas. The chapter ends with Hwui Shan’s record Kuen 327, corroborated by the Mani Chronicle of the Books of Chilam Balam, and a poem on the stone drums by Han Yu, translated by Witter Bynner, lamenting neglected ancient drums.
Early China
The author turns to early Chinese explorations in America, noting that writing, weaving, and giant images of Ha-ak and the horse predate Hwui Shan. Dr. Brinton held that Maya writing developed independently, while Dr. Morley dated earliest Maya writing to 320 A.D., already fully developed. The author suggests that if hieroglyphics resemble Chinese, a connection must be sought in Chinese Classics. A farmer in Honan in 1870 found inscribed bones; by 1898 a student recognized them, and Liang Chi-Chao reported Chinese archeology shaken. Dr. H. G. Creel’s The Birth of China shows Shang bronzes (1765–1123 B.C.) were genuine, contrary to foreign skepticism. Chinese history extends past 5,000 years, with dates synchronized around 840 B.C. Henri Maspero confirmed Shang king lists match The Bamboo Books and Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Shih Chi. Yu (2205 B.C.), Minister of Public Works under Emperor Shun, compiled the Shan Hai King. Chinese wanderings to Siberia/Alaska (3000–2500 B.C.) are noted; stone knives appear in China and among Esquimos but not Europe. Dr. Berthold Laufer’s jade treatise describes stone implements from Chou-dynasty graves near Kalgan, found by Rev. Mark Williams (Smithsonian, 1886), resembling Mississippi mound-builder artifacts. Gerard Fowke suggested non-Chinese origin, tied to Shao-hao (26th century B.C.) and tribes Ki-she and P’u-ku. The Yu Kung records stone arrow-heads as tribute to Yu. Dr. Alex Krieger (1953) argued Folsom Points in America (100,000 B.C.) predate Chinese examples (2000 B.C.), so Indians didn’t receive them from China; the author counters this suggests a “two-way street”—Chinese explorers under Yu brought arrow-heads back as tribute. The LI tripod (three-legged bowl) in northeastern China matches pre-Classic Guatemalan tripods. Shang bronze motifs (owl vessels, thunder/cloud whorls) parallel Maya moan birds amid storm symbols. Dr. Creel notes the split-animal technique appears only in Shang design and North American Indian art. Chinese writing evolved from Fu-hsi (2852 B.C.) and Ts’ang Chieh’s symbols; by 1800 B.C. it was fully developed. Books were numerous by 1100 B.C.; a king’s tomb (~300 B.C.) held ten carts of books. The I LI lists a bamboo writing tablet buried with aristocrats. Finally, the author ties Yu’s era to Hwui Shan: in Fu-sang, a king waited three years after a predecessor’s death to assume power—a custom Hwui Shan noted as unusual, but which prevailed in China under Yu (2250–2205 B.C.), as Mencius recorded for Shun and Yu. The custom originated in China, was carried to Mexico, and continued to Hwui Shan’s time (500 A.D.).
The Classic of the Eastern Mountains: Second Section
The passage concludes an annotated English translation of the “Classic of the Eastern Mountains,” with the translator/editor providing modern geographical identifications for each ancient Chinese description. The text describes mountains southward: YU-NGO Mountain (with japonica and JAN-trees, prickly succory, the TSAH-YU River flowing east into the Yellow River, and CHIU-YU beasts—rabbit-like with crow’s bill, owl’s eyes, serpent’s tail, pretending to sleep when seeing men, their appearance heralding locust destruction). The editor identifies this as Medicine Bow Peak, Wyoming, with the opossum described and locusts common. TU-FU Mountain (no grass/trees, much water) is identified as Longs Peak near Estes Park. KANG Mountain (no grass/trees, much water, green-jade stones, great serpents, CHU-JU beasts—fox-like with fish’s fins, portending disasters) is matched to Mount Harvard or Mount Princeton, with rock crystal, jadeite, turquoise found. LU-K’I Mountain (no vegetation, stones and sand, Sand River flowing south into CH’AN River, LI pelicans—duck-like with men’s legs, portending literary achievements) is identified near Summit Peak and the Great Sand Dunes. KU-SHE Mountain (no grass/trees, much water) is placed near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Northern KU-SHE Mountain (no grass/trees, many stones) is located via Rio Grande water route and shifting sand to South Baldy in the Black Range. Southern KU-SHE Mountain (no grass/trees, much water) is Cook’s Peak. Green-jade-stone Mountain (no grass, many trees, great serpents, green-jade stones, quartz) is Animas or Big Hatchet Peak. W’EI-SHI Mountain (no grass/trees, gems and gold, YUEN River flowing east into a sand marsh) is near Madera, Chihuahua, Mexico. KU-FUNG Mountain (no grass/trees, gems and gold, PI-PI beasts—fox-like with wings/fins, goose voice, portending drought) is near Pamachic, Chihuahua. FU-LI Mountain (gems, gold, lancet-stones, LUNG-CHIH beasts—fox-like with nine tails, nine heads, tiger’s claws, infant voice, eating men) is near Culiacan, Sinaloa. YIN Mountain (YIN River to south, Hu Marsh to north, YIU-YIU beasts—horse-like with sheep’s eyes, four horns, cattle tails, dog-like howl, portending crafty foreigners; CHIE-KEU birds—duck-like with rat’s tails, climbing trees, portending sickness) is identified as Triangulo Peak near Mazatlan. The seventeen mountains span 6,640 LI (editor calculates 2,214 miles, matching his 2,210-mile route following longitude 106°W). Their gods have wild beast bodies with human faces, bearing KOH fish; sacrifices use fowl; prayers for offspring occur in screened places.
The Classic of the Eastern Mountains: Third Section
SHI-HU Mountain (adjoining SIANG Mountain, gems and gold, thorny plants, WAN-HU beasts—elk-like with fish eyes) is identified as Mt. Fairweather, Alaska. K’I Mountain (reached by water 800 LI south, peach and plum trees, tigers) is Mt. Burkett/Kates Needle. CHU-KEU Mountain (water 500 LI south, no trees/grass, stones and sand, 100 LI circumference, MEI fish) is an unnamed peak near Prince Rupert. Middle FU Mountain (water 700 LI south, no trees/grass, much sand) is Mt. Waddington. HU-SHE Mountain (east by water 1,000 LI, no trees/grass, stones and sand) is Mt. Olympus, reached via Vancouver Island. MANG-TSZ’ Mountain (water 700 LI south, many trees including japonicas and T’ONG, peach and plum, mushroom-rushes, elks and deers, 100 LI circumference, PIH-YANG stream with sturgeons and mud-sturgeons) is Mt. Hood, with the river being the Columbia (salmon identified as the “sturgeons”). K’I-CHUNG Mountain (water 500 LI then shifting sand 500 LI, 200 LI circumference, no grass/trees, great serpents, precious stones, 40 LI body of water called SHAN-TSEH or Deep Marsh, bubbling and running off, great tortoises, KOH-KOH fish—carp-like with six feet and bird’s tail) is Mt. Shasta, with Upper Klamath Lake and Klamath Falls. MEI-YU Mountain (water 800 LI south, trees and grass, gold, gems, ocher, TSING-TSING beasts—like little cattle with horse’s tails) is Los Gatos Peak near San Francisco Bay, with seals identified. WU-KAO Mountain (water 500 LI then shifting sand 300 LI, YIU or Young Sea visible, FU-tree or FU-SANG visible to east, no grass/trees, much wind, 100 LI circumference) is near Santa Barbara, with the editor emphasizing the FU-SANG identification as predating Hwui Shan by 2,700 years, within 30 miles of Hwui Shan’s landing point at Point Hueneme. The nine mountains span 6,800 LI; their gods have human bodies and sheep’s horns, sacrificed with rams and millet, portending wind, rain, and floods.
Main Arguments
The central argument of Visa Aesop Ya is that two Chinese expeditions reached America, one in the fifth century A.D. led by the Buddhist priest Hwui Shan, and another in the twenty-third century B.C. documented in the “Classic of Mountains and Seas” compiled by Yu. Mertz argues that Fu-sang is real and that Hwui Shan’s visit changed its history, creating a brilliant civilization. She contends that the Shan Hai King is “the most astounding geographical document ever written” and that it has never been fully translated into English, with the fragmentary portion titled “Across the Great Eastern Sea” having been neglected because no one had looked across that sea.
The author argues that the puzzle of early Chinese expeditions to America remains unsolved not because the evidence is lacking but because the documents were never understood. She asserts that the earliest account has been assumed mythological and the later false, and that re-studying the Chinese Classics with faith in their veracity may reveal unsuspected truth. She insists on taking the documents literally: east means east, 266 miles means 266 miles.
A related argument concerns the direction of cultural influence. Mertz notes that pottery and corn cultivation arose before Buddha, so Buddhists could not have taught these to the Americas. She raises questions about independent development versus external influence, Chinese emigration, and the absence of Chinese “bones” in American archaeological sites. She argues for a “two-way street” of cultural exchange, suggesting that Chinese explorers under Yu brought arrow-heads back as tribute, and that the custom of a king waiting three years after a predecessor’s death to assume power originated in China, was carried to Mexico, and continued to Hwui Shan’s time.
The author also argues against specific scholarly positions. She counters Dr. Alex Krieger’s 1953 argument that Folsom Points in America (100,000 B.C.) predate Chinese examples (2000 B.C.) by suggesting this proves cultural exchange in both directions. She disputes the presumption that horses were unknown in America before Columbus, citing the Kensington (Runic) Stone in Minnesota, of which the Smithsonian has a copy, as evidence that Norsemen had horses there before Columbus. She argues that the Blythe/Sacaton effigies may date to the first century or earlier, despite the no-horses-before-Columbus presumption.
Key Concepts
Fu-sang: The name given by Hwui Shan to the country he visited 20,000 LI east of the Great Han Country (itself 20,000 LI east of China), approximately 40,000 LI (13,000 miles) east of China. The country was named for a valuable plant with pear-shaped reddish edible fruit that preserves without spoiling, resembling bamboo shoots. Mertz identifies Fu-sang with Mexico and the west coast of North America.
The Kingdom of Women: A country described in the Classics, located approximately 350 miles east of Fu-sang in Hwui Shan’s account, or about 10,000 LI (3,000 miles) northwest of Fu-sang in Yu-Kie’s account. The inhabitants were light-colored, clean people with long hair. Women became pregnant in the second month, gave birth at the sixth or seventh month, nursed from hair at the back of the mother’s neck, and babies walked in three months and became adult at three or four years. Men had human bodies but dog heads and made dog sounds. Mertz interprets this as a matriarchal system, citing matrilineal features in Athabascan culture and Hopi practices where houses pass from mother to daughter.
The Shan Hai King (Classic of Mountains and Seas): Compiled by Yu at Emperor Shun’s request, supposedly 2250 B.C., describing mountains and rivers across the “Great Eastern Sea.” Originally 32 books, only 18 remain. No complete English translation exists. Mertz considers it the most astounding geographical document ever written and follows its directions exactly.
Kuen 327: The translation of the Fu-sang and Kingdom of Women story, which Mertz analyzes in detail.
The Liang-Sse-Kong-Ki: The memoirs of the Four Lords of the Liang Dynasty, the report of the interrogation of Hwui Shan by Yu-Kie, a wit who inserted extravagancies of his own but whose account adds to and corroborates the preceding information.
Katchina ceremonial masks: Mertz’s explanation for the dog-headed males and other animal-headed beings described in the Classics. She argues these were ceremonial masks worn in Indian religious rites, reproducing animal heads in feathers, fur, skin, or woodcarving, excavated from Alaska to Florida.
The Snake Clan: The Hopi origin legend, related by J. W. Fewkes, in which a Chief’s son met the Spider Woman, came to a Kiva where people dressed in snake skins turned into snakes, and married a girl turned into a yellow rattler. Their male children were blood brothers of the snakes, establishing the Snake Clan. Mertz uses this to explain the “serpents as husbands” description.
The five “unlucky” days: The Maya practice of despairing at year’s end, destroying household-god images, then rekindling fires and setting up new gods. Mertz notes the Chinese similarly burned household gods at year’s end, replacing them with new ones to absorb the family’s sins.
Cochineal: Plant lice of the nopal cactus yielding red dye, the finest growing around Cuilapan, State of Oaxaca. Mertz notes “early” cochineal insects appeared in southern Tibet, Lahore, Kabul, and Nepal, thriving only on a Bengal cactus similar to the nopal, and observes that “Nepal” is phonetically close to Mexican “nopalli.”
The LI tripod: A three-legged bowl found in northeastern China that matches pre-Classic Guatemalan tripods, cited as evidence of cultural connection.
Themes
A recurring theme in the book is the question of how to read ancient documents. Mertz argues that the Chinese Classics have been dismissed as mythology or falsehood because scholars failed to understand them, and that taking them literally—following directions exactly, treating east as east and distances as distances—reveals their accuracy. She criticizes the scholarly tradition that dismissed Chinese accounts, exemplified by Klaproth’s conclusion that the Chinese did not know east from south and could not count. The book suggests that scholarly skepticism can become its own form of blindness, preventing recognition of truths that are plainly recorded.
Another theme is the sudden appearance of civilization. Mertz repeatedly notes that cultural elements appeared suddenly and “in full bloom” in Mesoamerica: corbelled roofs appeared suddenly in northwestern Yucatan in 475 A.D. with the calendar appearing simultaneously; the three sacred Buddhist symbols—Sun, Tree, Serpent—appear suddenly in the late fifth century in sculptured objects; the earliest Maya writing (320 A.D.) was already fully developed. This pattern of sudden appearance suggests to Mertz the arrival of external influences, specifically from China.
The theme of cultural convergence runs throughout the book. Mertz identifies parallels between Chinese and Mesoamerican practices: the calendar with shared animal names (serpent, rabbit, dog, monkey, tiger, lizard, razor/sharp-edged, cane/reed, eagle/bird); the burning of household gods at year’s end; the miraculous conception of both Saka-muni and Azteca Huitzilopochtli; the existence of monasteries and nunneries in both religions; the split-animal technique appearing only in Shang design and North American Indian art; Shang bronze motifs (owl vessels, thunder/cloud whorls) paralleling Maya moan birds amid storm symbols. She finds it strange that flower names were absent from the Mexican calendar despite the culture’s love of flowers, and that so many names match another culture rather than using distinctive local animals like the turkey.
The theme of the deified visitor emerges in the identification of Hwui Shan with Quetzalcoatl, Kukulcan, and Wixipecocha. Mertz presents Hwui Shan as an explorer, teacher, missionary, and recorder who converted an aboriginal Mexican people, introducing agriculture, weaving, ceramics, astronomy, the calendar, metallurgy, and feather-work. She cites Virginia Prewett’s Reportage on Mexico identifying Quetzalcoatl as a deified living priest, and C. W. Ceram’s Gods, Graves, & Scholars seeing a kernel of truth in the legend. The theme suggests that historical figures can become mythological over time, and that beneath the legends of gods lie the deeds of real men.
The Author’s Conclusions
Mertz concludes that Hwui Shan’s account, as preserved in Kuen 327 and corroborated by the Mani Chronicle of the Books of Chilam Balam, is accurate. She asserts that Hwui Shan landed at Point Hueneme, north of Los Angeles, where California records show an ancient Indian holy site and place of sacrifice, and that he traveled inland through Arizona and down through Mexico to Yucatan, leaving towns named after him along a route that can be traced from Point Hueneme through Sacaton, Picacho, and Hano in Arizona, through Quijano, Huepac, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, and Colima in Mexico, across to Yucatan (Muna, Mani, Sacabchen, Champoton), and returning via Tehuantepec, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guatemala (Sacapulas, Zacualpa, Huixtla). She concludes that Hwui Shan’s personality explains the cultural rise visible in two areas of intense activity—Tula to Tehuacan and Chiapas/Oaxaca—in the late fifth century.
The author concludes that science confirms Hwui Shan would have found inhabitants with high culture 350 miles inland just before 500 A.D., citing the Mogollon culture with its wickerwork sandals, cotton textiles, and some 38,000 corn cobs. She concludes that the descriptions of houses match the Mogollon pit houses excavated in central Arizona—circular, with tunnel-shaped covered entrances—precisely. She concludes that the dog-headed males were katchina ceremonial masks, and that the Kingdom of Women can be established within a 50-mile radius of Mogollon Mesa, possibly at Shungopavy, the oldest Hopi site.
Regarding the earlier expedition, Mertz concludes that Yu’s record in the Shan Hai King describes real geographical features that can be identified with specific mountains and rivers in North America. Her annotated translation of the “Classic of the Eastern Mountains” identifies seventeen mountains spanning 6,640 LI (which she calculates as 2,214 miles, matching her 2,210-mile route following longitude 106°W) from Medicine Bow Peak in Wyoming through Longs Peak, Mount Harvard or Mount Princeton, Summit Peak, Santa Fe, South Baldy, Cook’s Peak, Animas or Big Hatchet Peak, Madera in Chihuahua, Pamachic in Chihuahua, Culiacan in Sinaloa, and Triangulo Peak near Mazatlan. The third section identifies nine mountains spanning 6,800 LI from Mt. Fairweather in Alaska, through Mt. Burkett, an unnamed peak near Prince Rupert, Mt. Waddington, Mt. Olympus, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta, Los Gatos Peak near San Francisco Bay, to a location near Santa Barbara where the FU-tree or FU-SANG is visible to the east—within thirty miles of Hwui Shan’s landing point at Point Hueneme, and predating Hwui Shan by 2,700 years.
The book ends with the identification of the FU-SANG tree near Santa Barbara, visible from WU-KAO Mountain, establishing a direct geographical link between the ancient Chinese classic and the later account of Hwui Shan, and confirming that both expeditions reached the same region of the California coast.
