Fusang is a mythical world tree or place located far east of China.
In the Classic of Mountains and Seas and several contemporary texts,
A country which was named Fusang was described by the native Buddhist missionary Huishen (, Huìshēn), also variously romanized as Hui Shen, Hoei-sin, and Hwai Shan. In his record, dated to AD 499, during China's Northern and Southern dynastic period, he describes Fusang as a place which is located 20,000 Chinese li to the east of Dahan, and it is also located to the east of China (according to Joseph Needham, Dahan corresponds to the Buriat region of Siberia).
In Chinese mythology, Fusang refers to a divine tree and an island which are both located in the East, from where the sun rises. A similar tree, known as the Ruomu () exists in the west, and each morning, the sun was said to rise in Fusang and fall on Ruomu. According to Chinese legends, ten birds (typically ravens) lived in the tree, and because nine of the birds rested, the tenth bird would carry the Sun on its journey. This legend has similarities with the Chinese tale of the fictional hero Houyi, sometimes referred to as the Archer, who is credited with saving the world by shooting down nine of the suns when all ten suns simultaneously took to the air one day. Some scholars have identified the bronze trees which were found at the archaeological site Sanxingdui as these Fusang trees.
Interpretations of Huishen's account
Eastern Japan
Japan was one of the interpretation place for Fusang. However, Huishen's report differentiates Fusang from the ancient Japanese kingdom of Wa, which has been tentatively located in the Kinki, Kyūshū, or it has been located on the Ryukyu Islands.
For historical context, the earliest account of East Asian history referring to Japan as "Fusang" is found in an epitaph of a Paekche individual named (禰軍; 예군) created in 678.
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According to Chinese historian Lianlong Wang (王連龍), the characters of "日本" are referring to the kingdom of Paekche as Japan was referred to as Busang Kingdom (扶桑國). Historically, "Busang (Fusang) Kingdom" was reserved for the "farthest east kingdom" depending on the nation that used it (i.e. Korea was a "Fusang Kingdom" from China's perspective) similar to Cheonggu/Qingqiu. However, since the individual was Korean, "Busang Kingdom" in the context of his epitaph was directing it towards Japan (then Yamato Kingship) as the kingdom of Japan was farthest east from Korea's perspective, while Ilbon (日本; 일본) was dedicated to Paekche, his home nation.
The term Fusang would later be used as a designation for 'Japan' in Chinese poetry. Since Japanese name Nihon (, lit. 'Root [i.e. source, birthplace, origin] of the Sun') or the Chinese name Riben was a name of Japan, some Tang dynasty poets believed that Fusang "lay between the mainland and Japan." For instance, Wang Wei wrote a 753 farewell poem when Abe no Nakamaro (Chinese Zhao Heng ) returned to Japan, "The trees of your home are beyond Fu-sang."
Fusang is pronounced Fusō in Japanese, from classical Fusau, and it is one of the names which is used as a designation for ancient Japan. Several warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy were named Fusō (the Japanese ironclad warship Fusō, or the World War II battleship Fusō). Several companies, such as Fuso, also bear the name.
Gustaaf Schlegel believed that Fusang was most probably "the long island of Karafuto or it was Sakhalin". Joseph Needham added that "if Kamchatka and the Kuriles may also be considered, there is no better means of identifying it at the present day."
Note that there was an ancient province of Japan which was named the Fusa-no kuni (the 'Country of Fusa') in eastern Honshū, which encompassed all of the modern-day Chiba Prefecture as well as the southwestern part of the modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture.
The Americas
thumb|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 which are given by Huishen (20,000 Chinese li) would mean that Fusang is located on the west coast of the American continent, when the ancient Han-period definition of the Chinese li is taken into account. Some 18th-century European maps locate Fusang north of California, in the area of British Columbia. An American location does not match with the claim that horses were sighted (because horses did not exist in either North or South America at that time) nor does it match with the claim that deer were domesticated and milked.
Fusang was mentioned in a map of Marco Polo's voyages to the Far East which was supposedly made (or copied) by his family, the map includes the Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska. The map has been dated to the 15th or 16th century, which means that at best it is a copy of the original map. However, the ink was not dated, so it is also possible that Alaska could have been added later on when its existence became known.
Descriptions of Fusang
thumb|Mention of Fusang ("Fousang des Chinois") on a 1792 French world map, in the area of modern-day British Columbia.
According to the report of Huishen to the Chinese during his visit to China, which is described in the Book of Liang:
On the organization of the country: