PureInsight | August 22, 2026
[PureInsight.org] Whether extraterrestrial beings exist has long been a subject of debate. Those who believe in their existence can point to a whole host of videos, eyewitness accounts, and news reports featuring interviews with witnesses. Those who do not believe simply attribute these sightings to weather balloons, space debris, hallucinations, or even April Fools’ Day pranks. The two sides often seem to be talking past each other, with neither willing to accept the other’s explanation.
Recently, the U.S. government released declassified videos and documents related to UFOs, seemingly dropping a bombshell among UFO enthusiasts. Flying saucers moving in ways that appear to defy the laws of physics, octagonal-shaped craft, and strange phenomena that even astronauts could not explain have prompted many people who once dismissed extraterrestrials as nothing more than a conspiracy theory to reconsider their views. Perhaps humans are not the only intelligent life in the universe. And in fact, records of UFO-like phenomena can be found as far back as ancient times.
About 1,000 years ago, in May of 1018, during the second year of the Tianxi era of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a strange report recorded in the History of Song: “In Xijing, rumors spread of a monster shaped like a hat that flew at night, causing great fear among the people.” According to the rumors, a hat-shaped object was flying back and forth over Luoyang at night, frightening the local residents.
The panic eventually spread to the capital, and the stories became increasingly terrifying. The “Hat Monster” was said to be capable of transforming into a wolf and attacking people, then later entering homes and eating people. At one point, even the military was frightened: “Families gathered together in groups, sitting in circles and shouting until dawn; the military camps were especially affected.” (History of Song) Apparently, this mysterious hat-shaped flying object frightened people quite a bit 1,000 years ago.
Of course, the “Hat Monster” during Emperor Zhenzong’s reign was not the only such incident. Several decades later, the great Chinese writer Su Shi, better known as Su Dongpo, also witnessed something resembling an unidentified flying object. At the time, Su Dongpo was traveling to Hangzhou to take up an official post. Along the way, he visited Jinshan Temple. After his visit, he was preparing to leave when the monks at the temple urged him to stay and enjoy the sunset. Unable to refuse their hospitality, Su Dongpo stayed and watched the sunset with them.
Su Dongpo, however, was famously a night owl. What began as watching the sunset eventually continued until late at night. The moon had set and the sky had grown completely dark when suddenly a mass of flames appeared in the middle of the river. Its brilliant glow illuminated the mountains and startled the birds resting there. One can imagine how dazzling the light must have been. Su Dongpo described the scene in his poem Visiting Jinshan Temple, “The moon begins to rise over the river; By the second watch, it has set, and the night is utterly dark. In the heart of the river, there seems to be a torch blazing; Its flying flames illuminate the mountain and startle the roosting birds.”
This brilliant flame was not the moon, and it could hardly have been a forest fire. So, what exactly was it? Even a scholar as learned as Su Dongpo could not identify anything that corresponded to what he had seen. All he could do was wondering, “Neither ghost nor man—what on earth could it be?” Su Dongpo was left completely puzzled, so much so that he apparently could not even sleep peacefully afterward.
Perhaps worried that later generations might misunderstand his account, Su Dongpo added one more sentence: “This is what I saw that night.” It was almost as if he were saying, I saw this with my own eyes—it was not an artistic exaggeration.
Of course, among the most famous UFO sightings in Chinese history is the painting Red Flames Rising into the Sky (Chiyan Tengkong) by the Qing Dynasty artist Wu Youru. In the painting, a crowd of people stands on an arched bridge, all gazing into the distance. Some point toward the sky, while others turn around to discuss what they are seeing. Yet all of their bodies are oriented toward the right side of the painting. Floating in the sky on the right is a round flying object. In the inscription accompanying the painting, the artist described it this way, “South of Jinling City, I suddenly saw a mass of fire, like a ball of flame, moving from west to east. It was shaped like a giant egg, red in color but without radiance. It floated in midair and moved very slowly.” After ruling out sky lanterns and meteors, the artist was struck by the strange nature of the object and decided to paint what he had witnessed that day. Keep in mind that more than 130 years ago, there were no airplanes or rockets.
And China was not the only place where UFO-like objects appeared. Similar “hat monsters” can also be found in ancient Western art. Inside the Basilica of Our Lady in Beaune, France, there is a tapestry depicting the Virgin Mary. Above a palace in the scene is a floating object that looks remarkably like a hat, appearing completely out of place. The official explanation is that it represents a priest’s hat. But many UFO enthusiasts believe it may actually be evidence of an unidentified flying object.
There is also a 15th-century oil painting housed in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. In this painting, The Madonna and Child with Saint Giovannino, we can clearly see a disk-shaped object emitting a golden glow in the sky behind the Virgin Mary. Below the disk, a man shields his eyes with his hand as he stares in astonishment at the strange object in the sky. Even the dog beside him appears to be gazing upward with its mouth open. Unless the object is intended as some kind of symbolic reference to a divine miracle, it looks remarkably similar to the flying saucers reported in modern times.
Even more astonishing is a fresco in the Dečani Monastery in Kosovo. On either side of a depiction of the Crucifixion of Christ are what appear to be two remarkably modern spacecraft—and there seem to be people sitting inside them. It is hard to imagine what inspired the artist to create such a science-fiction-like scene more than 600 years ago.
If we regard these strange “craft” in ancient paintings as coincidences resulting from artistic imagination and accidental similarities to modern objects, then the UFO battle of July 1566 is a different story—it appears to be a case of “pictures to prove it.” At the time, numerous enormous black spheres reportedly appeared over Basel. They moved at incredible speed, circling around the sun and seemingly battling one another. They turned fiery red, then gradually faded before disappearing completely. A woodcut depicting this supposed UFO battle is still preserved today in the Wickiana collection in Switzerland.
We can even find accounts from alleged UFO eyewitnesses. The Italian historian Leone Cobelli wrote in his Chronicle of the Unidentified Flying Objects of Forlì that one night in 1487, a fiery disk appeared. It traveled from Mount Berguoro, passed over Forlì, and flew toward the walls of the Castle of Ravaldino. The following day, another fiery disk appeared at Mount Berguoro and passed through the area. All the residents of Forlì reportedly saw it clearly. As a historian, Cobelli’s account of the phenomenon would perhaps seem more credible than a typical report from an ordinary witness.
Clearly, whether in the East or the West, these apparently technologically advanced beings seem never to have stopped observing humanity. But why do they keep “visiting” Earth? No wonder even the U.S. government is searching for people who might be able to unravel this mystery.
Chinese version: https://www.zhengjian.org/node/303430
