Chinese Knew North America More Than 4000 Years Ago!

Most scholars view cultural, but widely separated, similarities with caution. The fact of similarity does not mean contact between peoples. Parallel but independent development of cultural traits is a possibility. (40) Even contact between peoples would not necessarily mean a colonial venture but perhaps only an exploration. (41) At the present state of knowledge, however, there are those who say that evidence in support of early cultural connections across the Pacific Ocean appears to be better than the evidence of strong cultural relations between the early peoples of the central valley of Mexico and Guatemala. (42)

A reader of such stories as Hwui Shan has to tell might also question whether a Buddhist priest of the fifth century would have had a motive for such a journey. Few Chinese seem to have had a motive, or the curiosity, but for a Buddhist priest the answer is almost certainly yes. (43)

It is particularly believable that Buddhist priests would have made such a trip. (44) Traveling Buddhist priests and scholars, such as the famous Fa-Hsien, traveled west, south, and north over all of Asia and into Africa and Europe as missionaries and pilgrims of the first major religion known to actively take its belief to others. (45) Buddhist priests were particularly active in the fifth and sixth centuries. (46) They even visited early Britain and the Roman Empire, leaving records that are not questioned—as long as the journey does not cross the Pacific Ocean. (47)

Fa-Hsien regards a fallen companion
Institute of Texan Cultures, 74-234

Fa-Hsien, traveling in the fifth century, ranged from China across central Asia, came back into India from the west, took ship for Ceylon, traveled across the Indian Ocean, around Sumatra, across the China Sea, and back home. His was a stupendous journey, and his written accounts sound much like Hwui Shan’s. (48) This journey is believed in spite of Fa-Hsien’s notes about “evil spirits,” Buddha’s shadow left on a rock, and an invisible but white-eared dragon. Like Hwui Shan’s account, his journey is also a human story of hardship and faith. Unlike Hwui Shan’s, it is accepted as true. (49)