Whenever we stand in front of the Yuanmingyuan, our hearts will faintly sting, and even after more than 100 years of looting in the early 20th century, the Yuanmingyuan, which looks like a paradise on earth, will still appear in front of our eyes. In the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing court, under the influence of Empress Dowager Cixi, gradually fell into decline, and the closed gates of the country also became crumbling under the artillery fire of the imperial powers, and the veil of the eastern powers was completely lifted by a fire in 1900.
In 1900, the Eight-Power Coalition Army, led by Japan, the United States and Britain, invaded China in the name of suppressing the Boxers and maintaining social order, and forcibly divided up the last property of the Qing Empire. The Eight-Power Coalition army totaled about 50,000 troops, of which the Japanese army was the largest, and Italy only sent a symbolic force of 80 people. The entire coalition army plundered under the familiar roads of Japan, not only scavenging for rare treasures from royal gardens such as the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. It also entered the Yuanmingyuan, known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", to plunder, and later burned the Yuanmingyuan.
Fortunately, after the victory of our country's War of Resistance, we can legitimately stand on the stand of justice and ask the Eight-Power Alliance for national treasures. As our country gradually emerged on the battlefield of the world, its status as a great power was also recognized by all countries in the world, and those national treasures that were snatched away by the Eight-Power Alliance were gradually returned at the insistence of our country. As early as 1955, former East German Chancellor Rotivo returned the three volumes of the Yongle Canon that year to our country and reflected on and apologized for his actions.
As an old neighbor of China, the former Soviet Union naturally also reviewed the crimes committed in that year, and in order to form a strategic alliance with our country, the former Soviet Union successively returned 63 copies of the Yongle Canon. In 2013, France also returned the bronze rat head and rabbit head of the Yuanmingyuan to China. However, the treasures looted in the Yuanmingyuan in 1900 are more than these, according to the commander-in-chief of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Wadsi, the details of all the damages and looting losses suffered by the Qing Empire this time will never be found. However, Germany has made a good start, and I believe that national treasures will return one after another.
Britain is also one of the Eight-Nation Alliance, although the British did not return Chinese cultural relics, but the British photographer Felice Bit published old photos taken before the fall of Beijing in 1860, and the British side apologized to China for this matter. After world war II, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also gradually split, and the cultural relics lost in our country are also missing. In addition, the United States and Italy have also returned cultural relics one after another, the United States has returned 361 cultural relics to China at one time, while Italy has returned 796 pieces, and the attitude is also very sincere.
However, Japan, as the main participant of the Eight-Power Alliance, has not been very active in returning cultural relics, and not only that, but also firmly denies the crimes committed in China and tries to cover up history. For this kind of behavior, we can only hope that Japan will learn from Germany, after all, people can afford to lose, right?