As you may know, having read my web pages on the "Lost City of the Dead in the Grand Canyon" I have an interest in possible ancient visitors to the Grand Canyon. While researching the possibility that the Chinese or Tibetans may have had a hand in creating this underground installation discovered in 1908 at Marble Canyon, I came upon a rare and obscure book, Ancient Chinese Account of the Grand Canyon, or Course of the Colorado, by Alexander M'Allen, Brooklyn, 1913, which paints a fascinating picture of "ancient Chinese" visitors to the Grand Canyon of Arizona" and the American southwest. This book is virtually unknown to the world and it took quite some digging and waiting to receive the complete book, existent in separate "pieces" and only available through Interlibrary Loan.
The author here refers to "The 14th Book of "The Shan Hai King". 1 The subject of the book is basically a the author's contention that the "ancient Chinese" had visited the Grand Canyon of Arizona". The author's arguments supporting these visits to the Grand Canyon are mainly based on particulars from ancient texts of a possible Chinese expedition to the Americas mentioned in The "14th Book of the Shan Hai King."
"Arctic Perihelia" or "Spectacle of the Five Suns"
Image by Jack Andrews copyright 2001
Perihelion 1. A spot on a solar halo at which the light is intensified (usually at the intersection of two halos or bands of light), often prismatically colored and sometimes dazzlingly bright, formerly supposed to be a reflected image of the sun; a mock sun. Two or more perihelia are usually seen at once, on a level with and on opposite sides of the sun, and sometimes vertically above or below it. - The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary Vol. II P-Z Oxford University Press 1971
"A fine circular prismatic halo was seen round the sun with a distinct prismatic perihelion at the usual distance on each side and above it." - Polar Sea, by Nanes I xii p.301 1778
"...the most frequent occurrence of halos sighted at present occurs toward the Arctic and Antarctic regions.3
Much of my writing from here on is based on statements made in the book, with my associated commentary. The author starts out speaking of the "Place of the Ten Suns" where ten suns were seen rising together." He also mentions that at times seven suns were seen to together and as in my illustration above "The Spectacle of Five Suns."1 He then talks of the ephemeral quality in nine of the ten "suns" which are actually reflections, as he puts it, of the true sun. The nine suns consist of dark ("wu" - Chinese) vapor. It is stated that near the colder Arctic regions there lies a heavy "frozen haze or mist" and that when an observer is below this mist he/she will see mock suns (Perihelia) which as seen briefly are like "flock of timid sun birds" or "wild geese." In Chinese accounts these mock suns or "birds" are sometimes referred to as "children" or "children of the sun."The basic idea of "Fus-ang" as being North America is derived from statements made in the ancient Chinese document "The 14th Book of "The Shan Hai King" ("The Classic of Mountains and Seas") a written compilation by "Yu" at the request of the Emperor Shun, around 2250 B.C. which describes a land a distance of 30,000 "le" (10,000 miles) across the "Great Eastern Sea" (east of China). The land (North America 10,000 "le" or about 3,000 miles wide, from the Pacific to the Atlantic) has been referred to as a "Mulberry tree" by some of the ancient peoples of Mexico. (see below)
