Xu Fu's deeds were first seen in the biographies of the first Qin Emperor and Hengshan Mountain in the Historical Records (called "Xu Shi" in the biographies of the first Qin Emperor and "Xu Fu" in Hengshan Mountain in Huainan). According to Historical Records, Qin Shihuang hoped to live forever. In 219 BC, Xu wrote that there were three fairy mountains in the sea, Penglai, Abbot and Yingzhou, where immortals lived. So Qin Shihuang sent Xu Shi to lead thousands of boys and girls, as well as three years' food, clothing, shoes, medicines and farm tools to the sea to seek immortality, which cost a lot. However, Xu led many people to the sea for several years and did not find the sacred mountain. In 21 BC, Qin Shihuang made an east tour to Langlang, and Xu Shi excused himself that he was unable to sail because he was blocked by huge sharks, and asked for more shooters to deal with sharks. Qin Shihuang agreed and sent a shooter to shoot a big fish. Later, Xu Fu led his people out to sea again and came to "Guangze Plain" (probably Kyushu, Japan). He felt that the local climate was warm, the scenery was beautiful and the people were friendly, so he stopped making himself king and taught the local people the methods of farming, fishing, whaling and paper draining, and never came back.

Later, all the history books recorded the fact that Xu Fu went to sea, but there were different opinions about where he arrived. "reflection" "Wu Shu? Biography of Wu Sovereignty, History of the Later Han Dynasty, Biographies of Dongyi and Kuodizhi are recorded as Zhizhou, but the specific location is unknown. In the last week of the Five Dynasties, the monk Yi Chu wrote in the "Six Sticks of Yi Chu" "City Wall? "Japan", it is explicitly mentioned for the first time that Xu Fu finally arrived in Japan, today's Qin family (an ancient Japanese ferry family. ) is his descendant, and said that after Xu Fu arrived, he called Mount Fuji Penglai.