A hand-written document showing the Diaoyu Islands to be part of China has gone on public display in Beijing.

Visitors to the Beijing Poly Arts Museum from Monday to Oct. 8 will be able to view the document, named "Jishizhu," free of charge.

It is believed to be part of the fifth chapter of "The Six Chapters of a Floating Life" by Shen Fu, a writer and painter from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The document records a trip by Shen and two officials to the Diaoyu Islands and the Ryukyu Islands (known as Okinawa today) in 1808 during the ruling period of Emperor Jiaqing (1796-1820).

The three led the trip to the Ryukyu Islands in two ships to deliver an imperial edict from Jiaqing, who conferred a title of nobility on the monarch of the Ryukyu.

"The record was 76 years earlier than 1884, when the Japanese claimed they found the islands," said Fu Xinian, a major member of the National Committee of Cultural Relics.

According to the document, it took one day for Shen and his companions to travel from the Diaoyu Islands to the territory of Ryukyu, proving the islands belonged to neither Ryukyu nor Japan, but to China, according to Fu.