In 1854, the Treaty of Nanking expired twelve years. The British misinterpreted the provisions of the Sino-US "Wangxia Treaty" that trade and sea surface paragraphs could be slightly changed after twelve years, invoked most-favored-nation treatment, and proposed to the Qing government a comprehensive revision of the Treaty of Nanking. The main contents are: opening up trade throughout China, legalizing the opium trade, exempting import and export goods from sub-tariffs, and foreign envoys stationed in Beijing. France and the United States have also separately demanded that the treaty be amended. The Qing government refused, and the negotiations were fruitless. In 1856, the Treaty of Wangxia expired for twelve years. The United States, with the support of Britain and France, once again put forward a request for a comprehensive revision of the treaty, but it was still rejected by the Qing government. As a result, the Western powers were determined to launch a new war of aggression against China.
In October 1856, under the pretext of the "Yarrow" incident and the French "Father Horse" incident, with the support of Tsarist Russia and the United States, the British jointly launched a new war of aggression against China, the Second Opium War. The aim of the great powers was to grab greater colonial interests in China.
They first provoked a war in Guangzhou twice, but did not meet their expectations. In order to exert direct pressure on the Qing government, it was decided that Chen Bing would be in the capital. The British and French invading forces approached Tianjin in May 1858, and the Qing government was forced to sign the "Tianjin Treaty" with Britain, France, Russia, and the United States.
In June 1859, British and French envoys disobeyed the relevant regulations of the Qing Dynasty on the exchange of treaties between ministers entering Beijing, and on the 25th, they led a fleet to shell the Tianjin Dagukou Fort. However, because the Qing army resisted bravely under the command of the monk Greenqin, and effectively organized an artillery counterattack. The Anglo-French forces were defeated by the Chinese at the Second Battle of Tagukou, with more than 500 casualties and 10 warships sunk or wounded. It was also the only victory in the Second Opium War. Enraged, Britain and France decided to expand the war and relaunch a large-scale military aggression against China.
In July 1860 (The Xianfeng Decade), the British and French invaders' fleets once again broke into the outside of Taku Pass, using the British and French envoys to enter Beijing in exchange for a pretext, while advancing by force and luring "peace" on the other. However, the conditions became more and more demanding, with the aim of Chen Bingjing division and forcing the Qing court to obey. In the face of the aggressors' schemes, the corrupt and incompetent Qing government was bent on begging and begging, and it was hesitant to decide how to defend the war. As a result, the fighter plane was lost, causing the invading army to drive straight to Tongzhou. On September 21, the Battle of Bali Bridge in Tongzhou was defeated by the Chinese army, and the last elite force of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongol cavalry unit of Senggelinqin, was completely destroyed. On the morning of the 22nd, the Xianfeng Emperor fled from the Yuanmingyuan to the Chengde Mountain Resort. The name is "Northern Patrol", but in fact, he ignores the ancestral society and flees for his life. As a result, the capital city has no owner, hundreds of officials are scattered, the army and pawns are slack, and the people's hearts are afraid, which fundamentally shakes the resolute resistance to the invaders.
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. The French army took the lead, passed through Haidian in the afternoon of the same day, and broke into the gate of the Grand Palace of the Yuanmingyuan in the evening. At this time, inside the Xianliang Gate, more than twenty Yuanmingyuan technical eunuchs engaged the enemy. "Don't be afraid of death, fight hard", heroic resistance. However, in the end, due to the invincibility, Ren Liang, the "Eight Pin Leader" of the Yuanmingyuan Jiyong, and others were 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.
On October 7, 1860, after the leaders of the Anglo-French invasion of China broke into the Yuanmingyuan, they immediately "co-ordinated three Members of the Anglo-French Committee to jointly distribute the treasures in the garden." On the same day, the French commander Montauban wrote to the French Foreign Minister: "I have instructed the French commissioners to pay attention to the most valuable items in art and archaeology." It will be dedicated to His Majesty the Emperor (Napoleon III) by His Excellency as a very rare object in France, and will be hidden in the French Museum. The British commander Grant also immediately "sent officers to collect what should belong to the British." "The day after the French and British invading troops entered the park, they could no longer resist the temptation of goods, and the officers and soldiers rushed forward in groups to rob them, devouring the gold, silver treasures and cultural and artistic treasures in the garden like wolves.
According to the descriptions of The British and French officers, priests, and journalists who participated in the scene of the looting: Officers and soldiers, the British and the French, in order to seize the treasure, poured into the Yuanmingyuan from all directions, indulged in wantonness, took and seized, and were in a hurry and chaos. In order to rob the treasure, they beat each other and even had a gunfight. Because there were too many treasures in the garden, they did not know what to take for a while, some moved cloisonné porcelain bottles, some coveted embroidered robes, some chose high-end leather coats, and some went to get wall clocks inlaid with pearls. Some carry large pockets and fill them with treasures of all kinds. Some have gold bars and gold leaves in the wide pockets of outerwear; Some are half wrapped in brocade satin; Some hats are filled with rubies, pearls and crystal stones; Some have emerald collars hanging from their necks. In one of the compartments, there was a mountain of high-grade silk, said to be enough for half of the residents of Beijing, and was transported by soldiers in large carts.
A British officer snatched a golden Buddha statue from a temple with 500 deities worth £1,200. A French officer robbed property worth 600,000 francs. The son of the French commander-in-chief Montauban had looted a treasure worth 300,000 francs and filled several carriages.
A British second-class soldier named Helith stole two golden pagodas (both three-story, one 7 feet high and one 6.4 feet high) and other treasures from the garden at one time, and found 7 strong men to carry them back to the barracks for him. The man became rich from looting in the Yuanmingyuan and enjoyed it for life, earning the nickname "Chinese James". In addition to the plundering of the invaders, there are countless things that have been trampled on by them. Several houses were filled with satin clothing, which had been dragged out of boxes and thrown to the ground, and people walked into the houses, barely covering their knees. The sappers, armed with large axes, smashed all the furniture and removed the gems on the top. Some smashed large mirrors, while others shot ferociously at the candelabra for fun. Most of the French soldiers were armed with sticks and smashed everything they could not take with them. When French troops temporarily withdrew from the Old Summer Palace on October 9, 1860, the beautiful garden had been destroyed to the point of lupus.
Just as the Qing government was bending its knees to the invaders, agreeing to accept all the terms of "peace" and signing the treaty on a later date, the British leaders of the Invasion of China, Erjin and Grant, claiming that their captives had been mistreated, ordered the burning of the Yuanmingyuan. The reason for the burning of the Yuanmingyuan is that different people hold different views, and the official Chinese historians say that the British and French allies set fire to cover up their barbaric plunder. It is also believed that due to the Qing Dynasty's long-term non-observance of the diplomatic etiquette practiced in the West, since the Qianlong period, the monarchs of Western countries and their envoys have been treated with contempt and inequality, and the works that hold this view include Travis Heinis III's "Opium War".
On October 18 and 19, 3,000 or 4,000 British troops set fires everywhere in the country, and the fire was not extinguished for three days and nights, and the whole garden turned into a sea of fire, covered with smoke, and the flames were candles. The sky over Beijing, more than 20 miles away, was dim, like a solar eclipse, and a large amount of soot and ash stars fell directly on the alleys. Afterwards, according to the qing officials, only 20 or 30 temple pavilions and temples, official gates, duty houses and other buildings survived in the vast Yuanming Three Gardens, but there were many uneven doors and windows, and the interior furnishings and several cases were all looted. Since then, some buildings in Wanshoushan Qingyi Garden, Xiangshan Jingyi Garden and Yuquan Mountain Jingmingyuan have also been burned.
According to relevant materials, on October 18, 1860, when the British invading army burned down The Anyou Palace, because they came suddenly, the chief eunuch locked the gate of The Anyou Palace, so at that time, a total of 300 eunuchs, palace women, craftsmen, etc., were burned alive in the Anyou Palace.
When the Yuanmingyuan was plunged into a sea of fire, Erjin declared: "This move will shock China and Europe, and its effect is far beyond the imagination of people thousands of miles away." The Messenger of the Lord of the arson regarded this act as a despicable achievement, while the righteous people of the whole world were outraged by this barbaric crime.
Hugo wrote in 1861: "One day two robbers walked into the Yuanmingyuan, one snatched something and the other set fire to it. It was as if the war had been won and the robbery could be carried out... In the face of history, these two robbers, one named France and the other called English."
Under pressure, Prince Gong Yixin, who was ordered to remain in Beijing, promised all the conditions of the invaders. Soon after, the texts of the Tianjin Treaty were exchanged with Britain, France, and Russia, and the Treaty of Beijing was signed. In this way, the imperialist powers not only occupied a large area of territory in Kowloon Division and the north, demanded huge military indemnities of 16 million taels of silver, but also greatly strengthened the political and military control of the Qing government and the economic and cultural aggression against the Chinese people. The degree of semi-feudalism and semi-colonization in China has further deepened.
Although the barbaric burning of the Anglo-French army in 1860 caused fundamental damage to the Yuanmingyuan, the complete destruction of the Yuanmingyuan was indeed a long-term process.
After the Yuanmingyuan was burned, some attractions still survived. According to the investigation report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1873), the surviving buildings in the park include the Grand Duke of Guoran in the Yuanmingyuan, the ZibiShanFang, the Yuyue Iris Fly, the Cultivation Hall, the Prudential Siyong, the Zhiguotang, the Lesson Nongxuan, the Shunmutian, the Chunyuxuan, the Xinghua Chunguan, the Wenchang Pavilion, the Kuixing Pavilion, the Pengdao Yaotai, the Wanfang'an and the Cross Pavilion, the Tibetan Boat Dock, the LinYuan Jinjing and the Haiyue Kaiping of the Changchun Garden, the Grand Palace Gate of the Qichun Garden, the Solemn Dharma Circle, and the Zhengjue Temple. Many of the remaining buildings have fallen into disrepair.
In the twelfth year of Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Tongzhi planned to rebuild the Yuanmingyuan, planning to restore the former imperial area of the Yuanmingyuan, jiuzhou district, and a few scenic spots north of Fuhai, and to restore the Qichun Garden and rename it "Wanchun Garden" as the residence of the empress dowagers of the two palaces (Ci'an and Cixi). However, the plan was eventually abandoned after 11 months of construction due to insufficient financial resources. Since then, some of the attractions in the park have still been repaired on a small scale, and Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor have visited the park many times. At this time, in addition to the surviving buildings, the Yuanmingyuan still retains a large number of precious flowers and trees, landscapes and stones, building sites, bridges, roads, garden walls and garden gates are mostly intact. The Yuanmingyuan is still a royal forbidden garden, and the positions of Minister of Management and below are retained.
In 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance captured Beijing, and the Qing Emperor fled again. In the chaos, the Yuanmingyuan was again looted by the nearby garrison and bandits. Except for the new palace gate (Qichunyuan Palace Gate), which was protected by the zhuang households, all the remaining buildings in the park were pushed down and demolished by soldiers and bandits, and bricks and tiles were demolished and sold. The ancient trees in the park, wooden bridges and wooden stakes in the building foundation were all hijacked and transported to the nearby town of Qinghe for sale. After this looting, the repair parts that had gone through the Tongzhi and Guangxu dynasties were also gone. In the 30th year of Guangxu (1904), some officials of the Yuanmingyuan were dismissed.
In the decades after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the remnants of the Yuanmingyuan ruins continued to be looted. The building materials such as square bricks, striped stones, stone materials, Han white jade carvings, Taihu stone, and blue-chip stone in the park were transported by warlords and bureaucrats to build private gardens and mausoleums, and the tiger skin stone wall of the Yuanmingyuan was demolished to build roads. In addition, some relics of the Yuanmingyuan were placed in public places, such as the Bronze Qilin at the Changchun Garden Gate, the Dan Majesty Stone of Anyou Palace, and the Mizuki Mingser Monument, which were moved to the Summer Palace from 1910 to 1937; The Huabiao of Anyou Palace, Shi Qilin, Xiyanglou Line Faqiao and The Flipping Tail Stone Fish, Meishi Stele, Yinghua Stele and Wenyuan Pavilion Stele were moved to Yenching University and the Old Library of Beijing Library respectively; the precious Taihu Stone such as the Eight Pillars of Lanting Monument, the Yuanying Guanshi Balustrade and the "Qinglian Flower" were moved to Zhongshan Park in 1915; the stone lion and pedestal of the Great East Gate of Changchun Garden were moved to Zhengyang Gate and Xinhua Gate.
The white jade and bricks and tiles of the Western-style building site were also mostly transported by warlords and bureaucrats, or bought by various stone workshops and carved into other stones on the spot. In 1928, the stone materials of the Dashuifa site were demolished to build the Suiyuan Memorial Monument. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, some of the ruins in the park were filled in by pingshan mountains and converted into paddy fields under the slogan of "rewarding agriculture".
In 1950, Zhou Enlai instructed that the ruins should be well protected, the land should not be allocated, and there will be conditions for repair in the future. It was planned to locate the Beijing Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences here, but in 1960, most of the land in the park was converted into farmland by the nearby production team, and a large number of people quickly poured in, successively demolishing the remaining buildings such as the Fuhai Stone Barge of the Yuanmingyuan, the remnants of the City Wall and foundation of the Shewei City, the Three-Hole Bridge of Wanchun Garden, the Yuncai Gate, and the Seven-Hole Gate of Changchun Garden, as well as all the remaining garden walls, and cut down the only remaining ancient tree of the Flower Temple in the park. In particular, after 1975, all units in the park to destroy a large number of earthen mountains, fill in lakes, cut down trees, build factories, pig farms, chicken farms, the original Yamagata water system and the remaining ancient tree vegetation at the site of the Yuanmingyuan completely disappeared, especially the Qichun Garden was occupied and damaged the most seriously.
In the past hundred years, the Yuanmingyuan has experienced three disasters, fire, stone and earth. The fire robbery was burned by the British and French allies; the stone robbery was those who were high-ranking officials and nobles who pulled stone materials from inside, and what was the chinese table; the earth robbery was the common people pulling soil from the inside and surrounding the lake to build land, and these three robberies completely destroyed the Yuanmingyuan. The coalition army is the first disaster, and at the same time that the coalition army is robbing, the natives are also robbing, and the emperor's family does not rob the white and does not rob.