The Sea Land, the fifth volume of the masterpiece Fu Sheng Liu Ji, has been released 130 years after it was written, chinanews.cn reported.

The book, written by Shen Fu in 1878 during the fourth year of the reign of Qing Emperor Guangxu, is the only ancient literary work recording the controversial Diaoyu Island issue between China and Japan.

A scholar named Peng Ling discovered the fifth volume entitled The Sea Land and published "A Pilot Study on The Sea Land, Fifth Volume of Fu Sheng Liu Ji" in the Wenhui Daily earlier this year.

Peng's research found that Shen wrote in detail about going to Liuqiu (Japan) via Diaoyu Island over 200 years ago, proving Diaoyu Island had been a part of China. Shen's journey is in line with uni possidetis, a principle in international law which states the one who discovers something first takes it as property.