A famous French writer once wrote an article that read: "One day, two robbers broke into the Yuanmingyuan, one looted, one set fire to it. ...... One is called France and the other is called English. This article accuses the British and French robbers during the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance, under their plunder, the famous treasures in the Yuanmingyuan were looted, and the Yuanmingyuan was also burned down, and now the Yuanmingyuan is only left with ruins and broken walls, and the scale of the past prosperity is not seen, which makes people heartbroken.
Known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", the Yuanmingyuan was built from the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty and has become a large-scale imperial garden after more than 150 years of expansion and improvement. The Yuanmingyuan covers a huge area, and the art of horticultural construction is exquisite and charming, which not only collects a large number of rare treasures, but also plants many precious plants, which contains high historical and cultural value.
Such a royal garden, which has been called "the model of all gardening art", has not escaped the fate of being looted. In 1856, Britain and France launched the Second Opium War, the Qing army was defeated, and the Anglo-French coalition army directly attacked the Yuanmingyuan. Soldiers of the two countries saw what they took inside, and if they could not take it, they destroyed it, and the barbaric acts were heinous. The most heinous thing is that after they took the treasure away, they set a fire and burned down the Yuanmingyuan, and the precious plants such as ancient trees inside could not be spared.
Today, there are still many treasures left outside, not yet returned to the motherland, some of them are stored in museums in Britain and France, and some are owned by high-ranking British and French officials as their own family property. In fact, after the founding of New China, the state attached great importance to the repair of the Yuanmingyuan, and the relevant experts made unexpected discoveries in the process of maintenance, which was a big surprise. That is, the bronze elephant head, which was found along with the handwriting of the Jiaqing Emperor and the stone engraved with the emperor's seal. These artifacts are of great historical research value, especially the elephant heads and seal stones.
The destruction of the Yuanmingyuan and the looting of many valuable treasures inside it are a great loss and humiliation for our nation. Backwardness means being beaten, we must bear in mind the lessons of history, and only by continuously developing our own strength can we not be bullied. Today's powerful China is also trying to get those treasures back.