Tomb of Xu Guangqi

Tomb of Xu Guangqi
Major cultural heritage site under national-level protection
Period/culture	Ming dynasty
Present location	Guangqi Park, Xujiahui, Xujiahui Subdistrict, Xuhui, Shanghai, PRC
Coordinates	31°11′30″N 121°25′49″E / 31.19153°N 121.43016°E / 31.19153; 121.43016
Classification	Ancient tomb
Identification	3-254 (1988)

The tomb of Xu Guangqi is the burial site of Xu Guangqi (24 April 1562 – 10 November 1633), a prominent late Ming dynasty statesman, scholar, and leader of the Catholic community, as well as some of his relatives. It is located north of Xujiahui, Shanghai, in the present-day Guangqi Park, covering an area of 3,000 square meters and standing 2.2 meters tall. The tomb is elliptical in shape.

In the seventh year of the Chongzhen era (1634), he was posthumously granted the privilege of burial with the rank of a first-rank official, and a special envoy was dispatched to escort his coffin back to Shanghai for burial. Due to the unsettled situation at the time, the coffin was temporarily placed outside the Da'nan Gate of Shanghai (Old City) in the Shuangyuan Villa. In the fourteenth year of the Chongzhen era (1641), he was finally buried in the southwest corner of Gaochang Township, Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture.

In the twenty-ninth year of the Guangxu era (1903), the Catholic Vicariate of Kiang-nan renovated and expanded the tomb. It was once abandoned, even turned into a vegetable garden. In 1957, it was briefly rebuilt.^[1]: 210 During the Cultural Revolution, it became an open-air warehouse and was severely damaged. It was once again restored in 1983. In 2003, it was reconstructed according to the tomb's design from 1903 and has since been well-maintained.

On 26 May 1959, and 7 December 1977, the tomb of Xu Guangqi was declared a cultural relic protection unit of Shanghai.^[2] On 13 January 1988, it was announced as a national major cultural relic protection unit by the State Council.^[3]