In October 1860, the British and French troops broke into the Yuanmingyuan and burned the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", which became a major event in Chinese history. Afterwards, there was a theory that Gong Zizhen's son Gong Banlun brought LinkedIn French troops into the Yuanmingyuan. In several wild histories, this is recorded.
The "Great View of the Wild History of the Qing Dynasty" says: "In the Battle of Gengshen, the British entered Beijing with a division ship, burned the Yuanmingyuan, and half-Lunshi went with him. Half-Lun rode in first, taking the gold and jade heavy weapon and returning. ”
The "Examination of the Destruction of the Yuanmingyuan" says: "Therefore, those who burned the Yuanmingyuan were guided by Gong Banlun. Half-Lun famous orange, zizhenzi, good talk, debauchery, embarrassed by the Beijing division, moved to Shanghai, for the British consular chronicle room. And the British soldiers were in the north, and Gong wei said: "The essence of the Qing is in the Yuanmingyuan." And the Beijing Division fell, so the British and French soldiers went straight to the Yuanmingyuan. ”
In the "Gossip of the Evil Sea Flower", it is written: "When the envoy (Wei Tuoma) was discussing peace in the lobby of the Ministry of Rites, Gong Orange was also present, and it was difficult to do everything, and King Gong (Yi Xun) was greatly embarrassed, that is, Gong Orange was blessed by the country, so why should he be a tiger elephant wing? Gong Lisheng said: My father is not allowed to be an official, and I am so poor that I am subsistence on outsiders, so why should my family receive grace? King Gong looked at the sky and could not speak. ”
These records have noses and eyes, and the details are realistic. So, who is Gong Banlun?
Gong Banlun, formerly known as Gong Orange, the character Filial Piety, also known as Xiao Gong, in his later years, was the eldest son of the famous poet Gong Zizhen.
Gong Zizhen was a famous poet of the late Qing Dynasty and was talented. However, his career was not smooth, and in 1829 (the ninth year of Daoguang), he was too aggressive in the temple examination, angering Cao Zhenyong and other examiners, and was ranked nineteenth in the third class, failed to enter the Hanlin Academy, and was only appointed as the secretary of the cabinet. At the beginning of 1839 (the nineteenth year of Daoguang), Gong Zizhen repeatedly wrote letters exposing the shortcomings of the imperial court, which angered the bureaucrats of the current dynasty. Coupled with the fact that he and his boss did not get along well, he resigned and returned to his hometown. Later, he worked as a teacher at Yunyang Academy in Danyang, Jiangsu. But within a few months, he fell ill and died.
During Gong Zizhen's stay in Beijing, Gong Banlun also accompanied his father in the capital. During this time, he studied Manchu, Mongolian, Tangut (Qinghai-Tibet and Tibetan) and other scripts, and his language talent was extremely high.
The Gong family has a rich collection of books in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so Gong Banlun has loved to read books since he was a child and has read a lot of books. The history books say that he "reads everything in the collection of books, and there is no end to learning and governance." However, Gong Banlun was a debauchery, a lonely personality, and a taciturn man. I took the imperial examination and failed to pass the examination several times.
After the death of his father Gong Zizhen, Gong Banlun went to Shanghai. Because he was proficient in English, French and other foreign languages, by chance, he met the Englishman Wittoma working in the Shanghai Customs and Taxation Department, and was deeply appreciated by Wittoma, hired him as a staff member, and the two had a close relationship ever since. Later, Wittema served as the translator for the British Plenipotentiary Erjin, and Gong Banlun followed Erjin and his party to Beijing.
After the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, Gong Banlun returned to Shanghai. He was originally a reader, not good at management, coupled with his wild and uninhibited, the days became poorer and poorer. In the end, it came to the point where I had to sell my library to get by.
When Li Hongzhang was in Shanghai, he once "pitied his talents and mourned his poverty" and sent people to give him two hundred taels of silver every month. Some wild historians say that he took the money to eat, drink and gamble, and soon lost.
As for whether Gong Banlun actually led the way for the British and French allies to burn down the Yuanmingyuan, historians are still inconclusive. And those wild histories with noses and eyes, how much is credible, it is difficult to say. Because he was a staff member of Wittoma, and at that time he was in Beijing, even if he did not lead the way, as long as there was a little wind, the public opinion at that time would not let him go. No wonder there are so many notes on the history of the wild that chronicle this.
Gong Banlun is a person with character defects. The reason why he called himself "Half Lun" is that since ancient times, there have been five luns, that is, kings and subjects, fathers and sons, brothers, husbands and wives, and friends. And he is not respected, "no king, no father", only love his own concubine, even if it is half of the husband and wife, so he calls himself "half Lun".
In his later years, he lived in Shanghai with his original wife in the same city, but did not see each other for ten years. His two sons came to see him occasionally, often scolded by him. Gradually, the sons stopped interacting with him. His brother hated him to the bone, and he didn't come and went with him at all, like a stranger.
In 1870, Gong Banlun died in Shanghai, without even a single relative visiting him, and he could not wake up in loneliness. And his manuscripts have not been passed down, and it is still difficult to find them.