The tomb of a seventh century politician, who was one of the most powerful women in Chinese history, has been discovered in the central province in China.
Shangguan Wan'er who lived from 664 to 710 in the Tang Dynasty was a famous politician and the most trusted aide of Wu Zetian, China's only women emperor.
Wan'er married to Li Xian (656-710), Zetian's third son and the fifth emperor after his mother but was killed in 710 when Li Longji (685-762), the seventh emperor of the Tang Dynasty, launched a palace coup.
Archaeologists confirmed that the tomb belonged to Shangguan Wan'er from an epitaph that was seriously damaged when it was found near Xi'an Xianyang International Airport at Xianyang in Shaanxi province, state-run China Daily reported.
Du Wenyu, a historian specialising in Tang Dynasty history studies, said that the discovery of the tomb with the epitaph is of major significance in the study of the Tang Dynasty.
