Turning the pages of history, one can recall the prosperity and prosperity of various dynasties from one text to another, but prosperity only appears in history, and few cultural relics and buildings remain, and the history books only record their existence. The so-called "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens" Yuanmingyuan is one of them, but unfortunately, now we can only see the prosperity of the Yuanmingyuan from the written records, because the Yuanmingyuan has been burned by the British and French allies...
The Yuanmingyuan was built in 1707 (the 46th year of the Kangxi Dynasty), first as a summer resort when the emperor traveled, the Yuanmingyuan was not very large at that time, until Yongzheng began to expand after he ascended to the throne, purchased a large number of wood and stone, began to build according to the appearance of bauhinia City, and added a large number of buildings, garden landscapes and pavilions. In addition, the construction style of the Yuanmingyuan also adopted the European garden form, and various precious treasures and ornate artifacts were placed in the garden.
After the end of the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty, which was easily defeated by the British, shocked the world, and the Western powers began to re-examine this once powerful country, and the Qing government signed the Treaty of Nanking after the defeat, which made the world see the true face of the Qing government's foreign power.
In October 1860, Britain and France, with the support of Tsarist Russia and the United States, jointly launched the Second Opium War, and on October 6 of the same year, the Anglo-French coalition army bypassed the city of Beijing and went straight to the Yuanmingyuan, because of the large number of invaders at that time, the Qing government abandoned the Yuanmingyuan when it saw the situation.
The British and French coalition forces in the Yuanmingyuan as if into no man's land, began to plunder wildly, but because of the many treasures in the Yuanmingyuan, the British and French coalition forces will carry some precious cultural relics close to the body, the rest of the large objects are loaded into the car to take away, the remaining some can not be taken away, the British and French coalition forces all smashed, and in order to cover up the crime, the British commander James Bruce ordered the burning of the Yuanmingyuan when he left, the fire has been burning for three days and three nights, leaving only a dozen buildings in ruins to remain intact.
Robert, the rev. of the British army, wrote in his notepad: "Burn, burn, just leave no one, not a single house left, let there be no trace of a palace here!" This is the face of the aggressor!
In 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing, the Yuanmingyuan was looted again, and the Yuanmingyuan, known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", became a ruin after this great looting, and this incident was also called "the death of the Yuanmingyuan" by posterity. ”
After the founding of New China, the state attached great importance to the restoration of the Yuanmingyuan, and when the workers cleaned the lake, a large number of porcelain fragments and gold artifacts were found, and experts salvaged nearly 5,000 precious cultural relics from them. According to experts, although the Eight-Nation Alliance snatched a large number of cultural relics, for some large and difficult to take away items, they smashed and destroyed them in the lake, and the complete cultural relics at the bottom of the lake were most likely accidentally dropped into the lake in the process of transporting treasures, and they have not seen the light of day until now.
When salvaging cultural relics, experts also found copper-gilt elephant heads at the bottom of the lake, this cultural relic is of great value, it is one of the most complete cultural relics found so far, and it is also the best witness of the war, a well-deserved national treasure! After decades of restoration, many cultural relics in the Yuanmingyuan have been restored intact, and I believe many people will wonder: why restore cultural relics and not restore buildings?
This question is actually very easy to answer, the death of the Yuanmingyuan is the death of China, and the ruins and walls of the Yuanmingyuan today are also a sign of the shame that China has suffered, so the reason why the state has not repaired the Yuanmingyuan is to let each of our Chinese remember the humiliation they have suffered, and always remind us: "Backwardness will be beaten!"