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42 them and their doings. Speaking of the Three Islands P‘êng-lai, Fang-chang, and Ying-chou, he says:

Details lacking in the foregoing accounts may be found in a book called the Record of the Ten Islands, often ascribed to a famous Taoist who lived during the second century, 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.