| US Government Ancient Astronaut Files |
UFOs in Ancient China

Central Intelligence Agency
January 1990

NOTE

The following document is extracted from the CIA’s January 18, 1990 English summary of the Soviet journal Narody Azii i Afriki (“Peoples of Asia and Africa”) of July-August 1989. It was included as one of a dozen summaries of "major articles" from that publication.

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFO) IN ANCIENT CHINA

A. D. DIKARYOV

The process of emancipation of thought in China in 1980s is particularly impressive after the spiritual vacuum of the epoch of “cultural revolution.” The thirst of the whole society for knowledge based on the economic reforms, takes in a number of cases the form of unofficial science. An example of such organizations is the scientific societies of UFO fanciers with corresponding periodicals as the review “Feidie Tansuo” (“Studies of Flying Saucers”). The efforts by Chinese scientists to find in ancient Chinese sources “historical evidences” of UFO existence are of particular interest for Sinologists and experts in science of science. The activities of adherents of this new scientific trend in China demonstrate methodology and tasks of the Chinese historical science in general.

The article considers a number of concrete modern versions of interpretation of historical materials on extraordinary flying phenomena. A number of works criticizing the attempts to place a historical basis under this problem, as a rule, does not dispute the main modern concept of UFO as a product of alien mind.