Tomb of Xu Guangqi, Tomb in Xujiahui, Shanghai, China
The Tomb of Xu Guangqi occupies the northern part of Guangqi Park in Xujiahui: an oval earthen mound 2.2 m high and 300 sq m in area, faced with granite, holding ten graves. The main grave is that of Xu Guangqi and his wife Wu, flanked by those of four grandsons and their wives. In front stand a granite bust of Xu in first-rank official dress, a stele inscribed by mathematician Su Buqing, a three-bay stone archway, and a stele corridor with twelve engraved stones.
Xu Guangqi died in 1633; in 1634 the Ming court granted a first-rank official burial and sent a guard to bring his coffin back to Shanghai, where he was interred in 1641 at the confluence of the Zhaojia and Fahua rivers. The Catholic church rebuilt the tomb in 1903 for the 270th anniversary of his death, adding a cross. After damage during the Cultural Revolution, it was restored in 1983 and again in 2003 following the 1903 layout.
The name Xujiahui comes from Xu Guangqi's descendants settling around the grave. A Catholic cross stands at the tomb because Xu was a Catholic; in 1903 the Jiangnan vicariate rebuilt the grave for the 270th anniversary of his death and Ma Xiangbo wrote a text carved on its base. The 1983 stele corridor holds 12 engraved stones, including a portrait of Xu and the opening line of his preface to the Elements of Geometry.
The tomb lies in the northern part of Guangqi Park, about 15 metres from the granite statue of Xu Guangqi. The 150-square-metre granite platform in front of the mound is level and step-free, and stone benches are placed on both sides. The stele corridor stands east of the tomb.
The tomb's original stone stele was rediscovered by chance beneath the burial mound in 2007; about one square metre, it is damaged at the upper right corner and now stands in a flower bed in Guangqi Park. The epitaph text, lost for decades, was found in a 1920 magazine, and its Latin lines indicate Xu's Catholic name, Paul.
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