Edwards speculates ( The Miscellanies, 1153-1360 , #1236) that the dispersion of the Jews was so massive that it sent Jews all the way to China:
“It is probable that some of the Israelites that had been carried into captivity penetrated as far as China, long before the Christian era; because in that country notices are yet to be found, to which we cannot rationally assign any other original, than some acquaintance with the Jews. If we may believe the traditions of the Chinese, Confucius, their great philosopher, who lived above five hundred years before Christ, had this remarkable saying often in his mouth, ‘It is in the West that the true saint is to be found.’ And Laokun, who lived before Confucius, was as remarkable for another saying, which seems to point at the Trinity: ‘Eternal Reason produced one, one produced two, two produced three, and three produced all things.’ They tell us further, that Mimti, one of their emperors, who reigned about sixty years after Christ, sent ambassadors, at the instigation of an apparition, to look for the saint that heaven had informed him was in the West.”
