History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
The Yuanmingyuan is a pain in the hearts of every Chinese, and generations of Chinese want to see what the Yuanmingyuan looked like before it was destroyed. At the British Sotheby's auction, several photos taken by the British photographer Fellisbitt in 1860 before the British and French coalition forces attacked Beijing caused widespread concern among collectors, and photos suspected of being found before the Yuanmingyuan was burned down for the first time, causing a huge sensation.
Photo at Sotheby's, UK, auctioned for £200,000. After leaving his post in Beijing for 18 years, the Englishman Orlmut recalled in his diary the yuanmingyuan buildings he saw in his diary: "What comes into your eyes is the rich and moving colors of the decorations, soaked in the blue sky of Beijing, as the viewer moves and the light and shadow of the sun are constantly changing, the white marble of the building makes them particularly eye-catching, reflected on the lake in front of you, like a phantom... The viewer cannot help but wonder that he has come to the world of 'One Thousand and One Nights'. ”
In 1860, the Anglo-French army invaded Beijing, snatched a large number of treasures from the Yuanmingyuan, and burned the Yuanmingyuan, and after the Qing court was forced to sign the Treaty of Beijing, the right of abode of Westerners in China was expanded from Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and other treaty ports to Beijing. Under the british Hurd, the Great Clearance Customs was a multi-Western employee, and the German Ernst Olmer was among them.
When Orma took the photo, 13 years after the Yuanmingyuan was burned, a total of 12 pictures were taken, and the Tongzhi Emperor also happened to issue an edict in 1873, ordering the reconstruction of the Yuanmingyuan, and less than a year after the start of construction, it was stopped due to shortage of funds and opposition from the courtiers.
The Yuanmingyuan was built during the Kangxi Dynasty, mainly in the last years of the Kangxi Dynasty and the Yongzheng Dynasty, and in the 46th year of the Reign of the Kangxi Dynasty (1707), the Kangxi Emperor gave a garden in the northwestern suburb of Beijing to the fourth son, Ai Xinjueluo Yinchen. "Yuanmingyuan", this name was named by the Kangxi Emperor. The three-character plaque of the Kangxi Emperor's imperial book hangs above the door of the Yuanming Hall.
There is an explanation for this "Yuanming" Yongzheng Emperor, saying that the meaning of the word "Yuanming" is: round and into the gods, the gentleman's time is also in the middle; bright and universal, the wisdom of the people is also. "Yuan" refers to the perfection of personal morality and transcends ordinary people; "Ming" refers to the political achievements of the bright light, perfect and wise. This can be said to be the ideal criterion for the ruling class in the feudal era to flaunt the ming dynasty and the wise.
In the middle of the 17th century, Emperor Taiji established the Qing Dynasty, and the climate was cool due to the fishing, hunting and farming life in the northeast before entering the customs. After entering the customs, they were not accustomed to the dry and hot climate of Beijing, especially in the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, after a fire broke out in the Forbidden City, and in order to prevent fires, they built high palace walls. The courtyard of the imperial palace, coupled with the fact that the stream and ditch flow was too gentle, almost became stagnant water, which made the emperors somewhat tired of the court life with deep walls, so from the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, they began to build gardens, which lasted for more than two hundred years.
In the western suburbs of Beijing, there are a continuous xishan xiufeng: Yuquan Mountain, Wanshou Mountain, Wanquan Zhuang, Beihai and other terrains, artesian springs are everywhere, and in low-lying areas they merge into large and small lakes and ponds. The Yuquan landscape flows into Kunming Lake from west to east, becoming the most beautiful scenery in the western suburbs. The craftsmen are surrounded by mountains and rivers, and in their years of expansion, they have finally become the most magnificent royal garden in China's history.
In October 1856, Britain and France, with the support of Tsarist Russia and the United States, launched the Second Opium War. On October 6, 1860, the Anglo-French army went around the northeastern suburbs of Beijing and attacked the Yuanmingyuan, when the remnants of the monk Gelinqin and Ruilin resisted briefly in the northern part of the city and fled. At this time, inside the Xianliang Gate, more than twenty Yuanmingyuan technical and courageous eunuchs engaged the enemy, "not afraid of death, and fought hard", but in the end, because they were outnumbered, Ren Liang, the "eight-pin leader" of the Yuanmingyuan technical courage, was killed in the line of duty. At 7:00 p.m., the French invading army captured the Yuanmingyuan. Wen Feng, the minister in charge of the garden, threw himself into Fuhai and died. Chang Concubine, who lived in the garden, was frightened and died.
Qing Dynasty historical records show that only 441 European clocks of various sizes were displayed and stocked in the Yuanmingyuan at that time, and only one large clock survived after the disaster. Afterwards, 1,197 items were seized that were taken away by bandits and "abandoned by the invading army," which was only one-thousandth of the objects in the park at best. A large part of it is priceless. This heinous crime of destroying human culture is truly heinous! Such a beautiful, like a fairyland, but in 1860 it was reduced to ruins, profoundly exposing the tragic lesson of backwardness and being beaten, which deserves to be remembered and warned by all Chinese!
The road of history is full of twists and turns, and there is a lesson: "Conscientious and strong, the wind is the death"; "the prosperity is not sluggish, and strive to be strong". Only by keeping history in mind, taking history as a mirror, and being brave after knowing shame can we make our motherland prosperous and forever stand tall in the east of the world!