AsWilliam Shakespearegained fame in 16th one C England , playwright Tang Xianzu was fix his own Saint Mark in China . Billed by someas the “ Shakespeare of the East , ” Tang — who , just like the Bard , die out in 1616 — write operas likeThe Peony Pavilion , The Legend of the Purple Hairpin , The Story of Handan , andThe Dream of Nanke , collectively calledThe Four Dreams of Yuming Tangi . To this day , Tang ’s works — particularlyThe Peony Pavilion , a dramatic romance — are still performed around the macrocosm . Now , according toArchaeology , researcher have located Tang ’s tomb in east China ’s Jiangxi Province .
In late 2016 , workers in the metropolis of Fuzhou bring out a group of 42 tombs underneath a leveled building . The legal age of the graves date back to the Ming Dynasty , a period that cross 1368 CE to 1644 CE.According tothe Xinhua News Agency , expert think that one of the tombs is the concluding resting topographic point of both Tang and his third married woman , Fu .
archeologist also key epitaphs that may have been written by the playwright . They included personal detail about Tang ’s spirit and syndicate , which helped researcher locate the playwright ’s individual tomb , harmonise totheGlobal Times .
China ’s prescribed news program agency , Xinhua , tweet imagesof the tomb .
" The epitaph can aid us memorize more about the calligraphy , artistry , and literature in Tang ’s metre , " said Xu Changqing , head of the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute , according to Xinhua . As for the tombs themselves , experts say they could teach them more about Tang ’s life , his family , and various cultural view of the Ming Dynasty .
Thanks to their respective geographics , Tang and Shakespeare never met in person — or for that matter , even knew of the other ’s cosmos . Still , that has n’t hold back China from drawing parallel between Tang and Shakespeare , using the Bard to promote their own master copy playwright . Exhibitions try similarities between the two men , Formosan opera companies make mash - ups of Tang ’s and Shakespeare ’s deeds , and Fuzhou ’s government evendonated statuesof Tang and Shakespeare to Shakespeare ’s hometown , Stratford - upon - Avon , describe the two standing shoulder - to - shoulder .
But despite Tang ’s renown , his gravesite ’s localization stay a mystery for year . 19th - century Ketubim confirmed that the playwright was swallow in Fuzhou , and an empty grave construct in the city ’s People ’s Park in the eighties commemorated this bequest . Now that the real thing has been found , Fuzhou ’s city regime plans to turn the site into a tourist attraction for fan and academics .
[ h / tArchaeology ]
