The truth came out from the Japanese ancestors: they were not descendants of Xu Fu, and the DNA test results were unacceptable to the Japanese. According to genetic research, the genetic pedigree of the Japanese population has nothing to do with Xu Fu's legend. This subversive conclusion has plunged the Japanese academic community into collective confusion.
In recent years, several teams in Japan and abroad have systematically compared the DNA of ancient people and modern people from all over Japan through high-precision gene sequencing, taking samples across琉球, Kyushu, Honshu, Hokkaido and other regions, focusing on finding whether there are genetic characteristics of China's mainland genes, especially those directly related to the Middle Ages of Xu Fu.
The results revealed by the research are far from as dramatic as legends. Scientists have found that the genes of today's Japanese mainly originate from two ancient groups, one is the early Jami people in Japan, and the other is the Yaya people who migrated from the Asian continent several hundred years BC.
The blood of Jomon people mostly comes from the ancient residents of East Asia tens of thousands of years ago. Although there is an intersection with the blood of southeast and north China, it is quite different.
Although the Yasheng people brought some new genes to the mainland, the source was more biased towards the early farming peoples on the Korean Peninsula and the eastern coast of China. As for the large-scale and systematic migration of people like Xu Fu's eastward journey, no evidence was found in the genetic data that could support it.
The research team made a detailed comparison of the genes of the Japanese sample population and the Chinese mainland, including the Central Plains, Jiangnan, Shandong and other places. Whether it is the male Y chromosome, the female mitochondria, or the structure of the entire genome, there are no signs of large-scale incorporation of the Central Plains population like Xu Fu's era, and there are no genetic characteristics of "foreign big clans" across the country.
Although some Japanese families will claim to be descendants of ancient immigrants, the evidence of large-scale Chinese genes entering Japanese populations has not been found.
There is also relevant evidence in archaeology. The era when Xu Fu was said to have traveled eastward happened to be the period of rapid development of Yayoi culture in Japan. At this stage, most of Japanese rice farming, paddy fields, bronzes and other technologies were closer to those unearthed on the Korean Peninsula and even Liaodong.
If there are really thousands of armies from China's Middle Plains to migrate, according to the common law, bring a whole system of architecture, ceramics, funerals, etc., but these aspects of archaeological materials found hardly any evidence related to the Chinese inland migration at the time, more belongs to the steady development, foreign technology gradually penetrated trajectory.
At the cultural level, from rice farming, ironware technology to some sacrifices and costumes, there are indeed a few imported elements, but this is more like "scattered introduction" for hundreds of years or even longer than a one-time migration. Cultural input is not a sudden outbreak, but a slow integration.
Although Japanese antiquities record “foreign culture” influence, there are few accurate statements about “Xu Fu Group transforming Japan”.
Scientific conclusions in recent years have caused a lot of discussion in Japanese academic circles. Some people who care about the origin of the nation are of course disappointed, because the collapse of myths always makes people feel emotionally difficult to let go, but this is also a necessary stage for facing history honestly.
Today's Japanese are originally the natural result of diverse bloodlines and population migration around the world over hundreds of thousands of years, and this diversity itself is a wealth of society and culture.
Some scholars also remind us not to equate good legends and national identity with serious history, and scientific and folk memory have different positions.
Many parts of the world have believed that the origins of the family came from a certain celebrity, some great migration, but modern genetic methods often restore these myths to real, complex history.
For Japan, although Xu Fu became a unique cultural symbol, what really gave modern Japanese people a unique genetic structure was not a mass immigration event, but a history of continuous exchange and integration for thousands of years.
At present, the most authoritative genetic and archaeological evidence shows that the Japanese as a whole did not have the large-scale "descendants of Xu Fu" as described in legend. Their roots mainly came from the native Japanese Jobi literati and later mainland Yaya people. As for the Xu Fu legend, it is more historical imagination.
This does not affect the beauty of the story, nor will it change the value of cultural exchanges between China and Japan. However, the answers given by science make our understanding of our ancestors clearer and closer to reality.
Source of information:
New Study Finds Japanese Ancestors May Have a "Tripartite Origin"
People's Daily Online Japan Channel "New Research on Japanese Ancestors May Have a" Tripartite Origin "
Press release of RIKEN (April 2024), research paper published in Science Advances
Global Network "Where did the ancestors of the Japanese come from? Japanese researchers make new discoveries in genetic analysis for the first time"
In recent years, several teams in Japan and abroad have systematically compared the DNA of ancient people and modern people from all over Japan through high-precision gene sequencing, taking samples across琉球, Kyushu, Honshu, Hokkaido and other regions, focusing on finding whether there are genetic characteristics of China's mainland genes, especially those directly related to the Middle Ages of Xu Fu.
The results revealed by the research are far from as dramatic as legends. Scientists have found that the genes of today's Japanese mainly originate from two ancient groups, one is the early Jami people in Japan, and the other is the Yaya people who migrated from the Asian continent several hundred years BC.
The blood of Jomon people mostly comes from the ancient residents of East Asia tens of thousands of years ago. Although there is an intersection with the blood of southeast and north China, it is quite different.
Although the Yasheng people brought some new genes to the mainland, the source was more biased towards the early farming peoples on the Korean Peninsula and the eastern coast of China. As for the large-scale and systematic migration of people like Xu Fu's eastward journey, no evidence was found in the genetic data that could support it.
The research team made a detailed comparison of the genes of the Japanese sample population and the Chinese mainland, including the Central Plains, Jiangnan, Shandong and other places. Whether it is the male Y chromosome, the female mitochondria, or the structure of the entire genome, there are no signs of large-scale incorporation of the Central Plains population like Xu Fu's era, and there are no genetic characteristics of "foreign big clans" across the country.
Although some Japanese families will claim to be descendants of ancient immigrants, the evidence of large-scale Chinese genes entering Japanese populations has not been found.
There is also relevant evidence in archaeology. The era when Xu Fu was said to have traveled eastward happened to be the period of rapid development of Yayoi culture in Japan. At this stage, most of Japanese rice farming, paddy fields, bronzes and other technologies were closer to those unearthed on the Korean Peninsula and even Liaodong.
If there are really thousands of armies from China's Middle Plains to migrate, according to the common law, bring a whole system of architecture, ceramics, funerals, etc., but these aspects of archaeological materials found hardly any evidence related to the Chinese inland migration at the time, more belongs to the steady development, foreign technology gradually penetrated trajectory.
At the cultural level, from rice farming, ironware technology to some sacrifices and costumes, there are indeed a few imported elements, but this is more like "scattered introduction" for hundreds of years or even longer than a one-time migration. Cultural input is not a sudden outbreak, but a slow integration.
Although Japanese antiquities record “foreign culture” influence, there are few accurate statements about “Xu Fu Group transforming Japan”.
Scientific conclusions in recent years have caused a lot of discussion in Japanese academic circles. Some people who care about the origin of the nation are of course disappointed, because the collapse of myths always makes people feel emotionally difficult to let go, but this is also a necessary stage for facing history honestly.
Today's Japanese are originally the natural result of diverse bloodlines and population migration around the world over hundreds of thousands of years, and this diversity itself is a wealth of society and culture.
Some scholars also remind us not to equate good legends and national identity with serious history, and scientific and folk memory have different positions.
Many parts of the world have believed that the origins of the family came from a certain celebrity, some great migration, but modern genetic methods often restore these myths to real, complex history.
For Japan, although Xu Fu became a unique cultural symbol, what really gave modern Japanese people a unique genetic structure was not a mass immigration event, but a history of continuous exchange and integration for thousands of years.
At present, the most authoritative genetic and archaeological evidence shows that the Japanese as a whole did not have the large-scale "descendants of Xu Fu" as described in legend. Their roots mainly came from the native Japanese Jobi literati and later mainland Yaya people. As for the Xu Fu legend, it is more historical imagination.
This does not affect the beauty of the story, nor will it change the value of cultural exchanges between China and Japan. However, the answers given by science make our understanding of our ancestors clearer and closer to reality.
Source of information:
New Study Finds Japanese Ancestors May Have a "Tripartite Origin"
People's Daily Online Japan Channel "New Research on Japanese Ancestors May Have a" Tripartite Origin "
Press release of RIKEN (April 2024), research paper published in Science Advances
Global Network "Where did the ancestors of the Japanese come from? Japanese researchers make new discoveries in genetic analysis for the first time"