Today, the earth's ocean area accounts for 71%, which is only a surface area, the depth is not calculated, and today, with the development of science and technology, the progress of human exploration of the seabed is only 5%.
It can be seen how unfathomable the ocean is and how many stories are buried. When we explore the ocean, salvage a century-old shipwreck in the South China Sea, and actually salvage a lot of cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan, why does the British say let us return them?
The rise and fall of ancient navigation
The most prosperous period of ancient navigation is the two Song dynasties, the two Song dynasties did not have the hegemony of the Ming Dynasty, it was a kind of navigation that benefited the whole world, and it was also the heyday of the Maritime Silk Road.
In order to meet the needs of shipping and overseas trade, the shipbuilding industry of the Song Dynasty developed by leaps and bounds, and the shipbuilding industry at this time could be said to be second to none in the world at that time.
The advent of the navigation compass in the Northern Song Dynasty pushed the navigation industry to a new height, Guangzhou became the largest port of trade during the Song Dynasty, and also made the maritime trade with merchants as individuals develop rapidly, so in order to prevent the loss of coins, the government ordered barter, exchanging silk and porcelain for foreign goods, just like this, most of the trade exchanges at that time were mainly porcelain, so the Maritime Silk Road of the Song Dynasty was also known as the "Maritime Ceramic Road." ”
The Three Treasures eunuch Zheng He went to the West to believe that everyone was very familiar with it, but his voyage was only to declare the rule of the Ming Dynasty at that time. His first stop was Japan.
100,000 sailors pressed the border, so that the Japanese shogunate general accepted the canonization of the Ming Dynasty, becoming the King of Japan "Gendo righteousness" Mt. Fuji in Japan was also named the "Shou'an Town National Mountain" of the Ming Empire.
From this time on, Japan began to submit to China and became a true vassal state of China. However, in order to prevent the Rebellion of the Ming Dynasty, it began to implement the policy of sea prohibition, and the implementation of this policy also heralded the decline of the navigation industry.
However, in the Qing Dynasty, in order to guard against Western colonialists and maintain their own rule, they began to implement policies such as closing the country and prohibiting the sea, and the implementation of the closed country did crack down on the coastal Koukou and smuggling at sea to a certain extent, which played a positive role in the stability of the coastal areas, and Guangzhou became the only trade port open to the outside world.
However, the disadvantages of implementing the closed country outweigh the benefits, and since then, the long-term implementation of the policy has hindered China's contact with the outside world, resulting in China's isolation from the world, making China and the world derailed, and slowly lagging behind the world.
It also led to the Disengagement of the Qing Dynasty from the world, making China, which was once proud, become so powerless in the face of aggression.
The invasion of China by the coalition forces of the great powers and the exile of cultural relics
When Cixi was advised by the ministers, she began a vigorous anti-smoking campaign, but this movement violated the interests of the Western powers in China, and under the protests of the Western powers, Empress Dowager Cixi resolutely declared war on them.
However, the Qing government, which had been closed to the outside world for many years, lagged behind the Western powers that had undergone the Renaissance and industrial revolution under the overall strength and equipment, system and culture.
The people and the army that had been hollowed out by the Western powers using opium were really on the verge of collapse in the face of their armies. The Western powers even formed the Eight-Power Alliance (Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy, and Austria), and the Qing Dynasty tore the last face and began to burn and loot it. The Yuanmingyuan, known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", was also plundered and burned under the invasion of the Eight-Power Alliance.
The cultural relics that have been plundered and burned are innumerable, and those that can be transported away are all transported back to their own countries, and those that cannot be transported are burned on the spot.
Because of the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, many cultural relics have been lost abroad, the most representative of which is the bronze statue of the head of the zodiac in the Yuanmingyuan, the bronze statue of the head of the zodiac in the Yuanmingyuan is a red bronze statue during the Qianlong period, and in 1860, the British and French coalition forces invaded China and captured Beijing, burning the Yuanmingyuan, and the bronze statues of the heads of the beasts began to lose overseas.
The five bronze animal heads known today as cattle, tigers, monkeys, pigs and horses are in the collection of poly art museums, while the two bronze animal heads of rats and rabbits are collected in the National Museum of China.
The remaining bronze statues of the beast's heads are still missing, and it is not known whether there will be a chance for the zodiac to be reunited. When we want to see cultural relics, to study the cultural relics of our own country, we also have to go to other countries to ask them for loans.
Time flies, and the dead are like sif. We can no longer learn from them about our previous experiences. We can only devote ourselves to the discipline of history and archaeology, and through our efforts, we can restore the original facts through the details of certain materials and certain objects.
Therefore, the significance of cultural relics is more that although we cannot know what they experienced from the ancestors, we can restore the truth of the matter from the various objects and materials they left behind.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was the term "ancient science", but what really became an archaeological question was from the Northern Song Dynasty, and Li Qingzhao's husband Zhao Mingcheng during the Northern Song Dynasty was the master of epigraphy, and the "Golden Stone Record" he compiled was still an important document, and at this time, the words "kao" and "ancient" began to be used, and epigraphy became the predecessor of archaeology.
The shipwreck reappeared in the day and the ironclad evidence of the invasion of China
When technology develops, we can explore the ocean, and correspondingly, underwater archaeology also develops. In September 1986, the state decided to develop underwater archaeology, and after more than ten years of efforts, at the end of 1987, the China Underwater Archaeology Research Laboratory was also born.
There are many ships that sank in ancient times on the seabed, among which there may be many precious artifacts. Years later, fishermen in the South China Sea found an ancient shipwreck while fishing, and the archaeological department immediately set out to investigate and confirmed that it was a British freighter that sank here due to an accident on the return trip. The British also thought the ship was missing.
Archaeologists salvaged the boat and found that it was filled with a variety of cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan, which undoubtedly has great value for research. When the news spread around the world, the British media actually asked us to return the cultural relics in the shipwreck to them, how is this different from the fact that a Japanese person publicly denied the Nanjing Massacre?
We have salvaged a hundred years ago British ships in the waters of our country, which are also filled with the cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan plundered during the invasion of China, and after receiving the news, we shamelessly demand that these cultural relics be returned to them.
And the British media actually shouted that the robbed party should return it to the robbed party, which is really ridiculous.
If according to the nautical convention, on the high seas, the treasure is found by whom, but this is a shipwreck salvaged in our waters, the British media actually demanded its return, and if you look at the silent attitude of the British government, you will know that these are just jumping beam clowns.
brief summary:
Afterwards, some countries also denied the fact of invading China, and as a country, they lacked thorough reflection on the history of aggression and could not complete their own salvation, which was irresponsible to history.
In the face of such a heavy history, we must learn the lessons of history, and we must not hold sharp weapons in our hands, otherwise we will just be fish and meat on the chopping board and let others slaughter.
Gentlemen do not argue, although the sword is a sharp weapon, but it must not be fierce and weak, good and brave, need to be self-denial, in the dust and the heart is like glass.
"The weapon of the good soldier is unknown, and the saint has to use it as a last resort." If a person does not have the little will in his heart, that little bit of qi, no matter how strong the sharp weapon in his hand is, he is not available. When navigation and science and technology were advanced in the Song and Ming dynasties, they did not burn and loot other weak and small countries, but promoted kingship, subjugated them with indoctrination, and guided them with civilization.
In the past, due to the underdevelopment of archaeology, many cultural relics under the water were lost and destroyed, but now China has grown up and has the ability to defend those cultural relics that should belong to Our country. I believe that the spirit of China will continue, and I believe that the national treasures that have been lost abroad will not have to be lost overseas under everyone's efforts.