According to the Philippine "Overseas Chinese Business Daily": According to incomplete statistics, there are currently cultural relics from China in museums in 47 countries around the world, with a total of millions of pieces. Most of these cultural relics were looted from China during the war.
How many cultural relics are there in the Yuanmingyuan
In the late Qing Dynasty, backward and vast China was undoubtedly the target of bullying by many Western powers, and the weakness and resistance of the Qing government only blindly paid compensation and cut off land, making many colonial countries even more aggravated the aggression against our country.
In modern history, the Opium War, the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance, the burning of the Yuanmingyuan... These are undoubtedly atrocities that shock china and foreign countries, and at the same time they are eternal pain in our hearts.
Money can be earned again, and land can be recovered, but the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan has become a scar in the hearts of our people that cannot be erased.
The area of the Yuanmingyuan is 200,000 square meters, and many buildings in the Yuanmingyuan are also decorated with many cultural relics of China's dynasties. It is estimated that at the time of the abdication of the last emperor Puyi, there were at least 1.5 million cultural relics in the Forbidden City, and the cultural relics in the Yuanmingyuan were no less than those in the Forbidden City.
According to a compromise by the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the Daoguang years, it is recorded in detail that Ming Daoguang was instructed to inspect the contents stored in the palace and the Yuanmingyuan treasury in the fifteenth year:
One or two silver hammers coexisted in 569390 pieces, including 290505 palace memory and 280694 yuanmingyuan; 1621 types of ruyi, including 1194 palace memory and 450 yuanmingyuan; 501 pieces of jade and pen washing, including 142 pieces of palace memory, 337 pieces of yuanmingyuan storage; 773 pieces of first-class porcelain stoves, bottles, cans, etc., including 337 pieces of palace memory and 291 pieces of yuanmingyuan...
It can be seen that the collection of cultural relics in the Yuanmingyuan is by no means ordinary. However, all this was ruined by the British and French forces.
An infuriating act of banditry
In the 10th year of the Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1860, the Anglo-French army occupied the Yuanmingyuan on October 6 after capturing Beijing.
After the British and French invading forces arrived at the Yuanmingyuan, they looted the Yuanmingyuan, and even, out of revenge, the British leader James Bruce, Earl of Erkin, ordered the burning of the Yuanmingyuan.
It was this fire that burned for three days and three nights that left the Yuanmingyuan with only ruins and broken walls, and the treasures that were not taken away inside were reduced to ashes.
This incident once aroused the resentment of people all over the world, and the French writer Victor Hugo also wrote an article strongly condemning this robbery.
According to the Letter to Captain Butler on the Anglo-French Expedition to China: "Somewhere on earth, there was once a wonder of the world, and its name was The Old Summer Palace. It brings together the almost entire product of a people's almost superhuman imagination. It is a shocking and not yet well-known masterpiece, like the shadow of Asian civilization seen in the twilight from the horizon of European civilization...
You can imagine a fairyland-like building that you can't describe in words, and that's the Old Summer Palace. There are not only art treasures, but also countless gold and silver treasures...
This miracle is no longer there. One day, two robbers walked into the Yuanmingyuan. Together, the two victors completely destroyed the Yuanmingyuan. All the treasures of all our churches do not add up to this magical and glorious oriental museum. What a great achievement! What a windfall! In the face of history, these two robbers are called France and England respectively..."
Therefore, to this day, many of the treasures of the Yuanmingyuan looted by the British and French forces are still lost. Although China has always been committed to retrieving these treasures, there is no specific number to know what other cultural flows are left behind.
The South China Sea shipwreck was discovered, and the British demanded the return of the treasure on board
However, not long ago, fishermen in the South China Sea accidentally salvaged a British shipwreck during fishing.
After the discovery of the shipwreck, archaeologists studied and eventually found that the wrecks were British during the Qing Dynasty. And in these shipwrecks found a lot of cultural relics in the sea, are typical representatives of Chinese handicrafts in various periods. Therefore, experts deduced that this shipwreck should be the ship that the British snatched the treasures of the Yuanmingyuan!
According to experts, the British shipwreck was most likely overturned in distress while carrying these Chinese treasures through the South China Sea, and did not go to Britain.
Logically, since this is a Chinese cultural relic, it is naturally owned by China. But at this time, the British jumped out and said that the shipwreck was theirs, so the treasures on the ship were naturally theirs, and demanded that China return the salvaged things to the British.
This incident once caused international discussion, and many British media at that time publicly stated that these cultural relics were British things on television and newspapers at the time, and specially sent people to China for consultation and negotiation. Of course, in the face of such an unashamed demand from the British media, China naturally cannot make concessions!
brief summary
These cultural relics that have been lost overseas, no matter when and where they are, cannot erase the essence of the precious heritage left by our ancestors.
References: Overseas Chinese Business Daily, Letter to Captain Butler on the Anglo-French Expedition to China