A Ming Dynasty tomb uncovered at a construction site in China in 2008 is now revealing insights into the remarkable woman for whom it was built, say researchers who've just finished translating two stone epitaphs found within.
The person buried in the tomb was known as Lady Mei, who went from concubine - "unwashed and unkempt," according to the epitaphs - to a powerful military and political strategist before she died in 1474 at about age 45.
She "called herself the survivor," the epitaphs continue.
She would later bear a son who would rule an entire province in southwest China.
She would become a power behind the throne, helping her son develop "strategies for bringing peace to the barbarian tribes and pacifying faraway lands," according to the epitaphs, which have now been translated into English and published in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.
Found in her tomb were gold jewelry and other gold items, including a fragrance box, many inlaid with precious and semiprecious stones including rubies, sapphires and turquoise.
Lady Mei, born in 1430, was one of three wives of a duke of Qian named Mu Bin, who ruled the province Yunnan on the country's frontier in the southwest.
As the most junior of three wives, she was likely a concubine Mu Bin married after arriving in Yunnan to rule and guard the province, researchers wrote in the published article.
She bore a son, Mu Zong; when the duke died 10 months later, Lady Mei began grooming her son to become the next duke.
"She raised the third-generation duke. She managed the family with strong discipline and diligence, and kept the internal domestic affairs in great order, and no one had any complaint," the translated epitaphs read.
Lady Mei would eventually be granted the title "Dowager Duchess" by the emperor of China.
When she died, her body was brought from Yunnan to Nanjing, the first capital city of the first Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang.
"On the day of her death, the people of Yunnan, military servicemen or civilians, old and young, all mourned and grieved for her as if their own parents had passed away," her epitaphs read.
