them and their doings. Speaking of the Three Islands P‘êng-lai, Fang-chang, and Ying-chou, he says:
"Tradition has it that they he in the middle of the P‘o Sea [i.e., the Gulf of Chihli]. They are not far beyond the confines of humanity, but the trouble is that as soon as a ship approaches them it is driven away by the wind. In bygone days, it is true, some managed to come quite close to them. Hsien and the drug of immortality are to be found there, and there all creatures, birds and four-footed beasts, are white. Moreover, there the palaces and gates are built of yellow gold and silver.
[Voyagers], while yet afar off, see the island as in a cloud; as they draw closer the Three Enchanted Isles[1] sink beneath the waves; and when nearer still the wind suddenly takes their barque and carries it away. In short, no one has succeeded in gaining their shores, though not a prince but has longed to reach them."[2]
Details lacking in the foregoing accounts may be found in a book called the Record of the Ten Islands,[3] often ascribed to a famous Taoist[4] who lived during the second century B.C., though critics assign to it a much later date. The writer, whoever he may be, catalogues in turn the marvels of the Five Islands. In place of those said by Lieh Tzŭ to have drifted away and become lost, he describes two under the names of Tsu Chou and Shêng Chou; and, in contradiction to the statement of Ssŭ-ma Ch‘ien, he places the group at fabulous distances from the coast of China, synonymous then with the eastern limit of the known world. In one instance, for example, the distance is estimated at a quarter million miles. An idea of the general felicity pervading that happy land is conveyed by the description of a mild, equable climate, and abundant nourishment easily procurable by all.
