The Yuanmingyuan, also known as the Royal Garden, was a garden given to the fourth son of the Emperor, Yin Chan, by the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Founded in 1707, the total occupation of the ground reached 3.5 square kilometers, yin chan ascended the throne, and then expanded the original garden, adding the palace buildings such as the Qinzheng Hall, the Cabinet, the Six Ministries, the Military Aircraft Department, etc. Since then, the Yuanmingyuan has become a holy place for the emperors of the Qing Dynasty to escape the summer heat, because its buildings are complete, so even if it is to listen to the government, it can handle political affairs.
How magnificent is the Yuanmingyuan? From the Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang these four emperors can be seen, at the same time, they are also a special existence, Yongzheng and Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty national strength is at its peak, it is not too much to describe the country rich and strong, but in the Jiaqing Daoguang period, the Qing Dynasty's national strength declined, the government was corrupt, the national treasury gradually could not make ends meet, plus in 1840, the first Opium War broke out, foreign powers hoped to gradually control Chinese rule through foreign trade transactions.
In 1860, the Anglo-French coalition army launched a war of aggression against the mainland, after Britain, France and the United States successively proposed to the Qing government to amend the unreasonable treaty was rejected, the Anglo-French coalition army directly invaded Beijing on the grounds of seizing 39 British hostages, on October 6, the Anglo-French coalition army captured the Yuanmingyuan, because the Qing government executed 21 hostages, so after entering the Yuanmingyuan, the Anglo-French coalition army began a crazy act of retaliation.
On the night of October 6, the famous Qing army general Monk Greenqin and a group of eunuchs guarding the garden were killed in the line of duty, on the 7th, the British and French troops began to rob the Yuanmingyuan in a big way, many treasures and cultural relics were looted, and some were all destroyed, until October 9, when the British and French allied troops withdrew, the original magnificent Yuanmingyuan had been destroyed, and the eyes were full of sores, on October 19, the British commander James Braus ordered the soldiers to set fire to various palaces and burn all the books and works preserved by the Qing Emperor.
Today, we can still see that after it was burned down, the Yuanmingyuan was in ruins, and the magnificent palaces that were once destroyed by the Eight-Power Alliance were reduced to ashes. I don't know if the Three Emperors of Kang Yongqian will feel sad about this after they know it? Years later, the British exhibited a group of photographs of the Yuanmingyuan before it was destroyed, each of which is shocking and can also see the glory of the Qing Dynasty.
As can be seen from the photos, since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, there have been a lot of European and American crafts passed in, in the yuanmingyuan architecture, most of the use of European and Chinese style design, according to time speculation, the earliest batch of buildings, was built during the reign of the Qing Kangxi Emperor, its forest garden style is still based on the classical Chinese style, and later after the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the throne, the original began to transform and build, added a lot of buildings.
It was also during this period that many European and American style buildings were introduced to the mainland, and basically the general pattern has been fixed, from lakes to additions, as well as rivers, which are dotted in it, which shows that the Yongzheng Emperor is also an emperor who understands aesthetics. During the Qianlong period, when mainland trade was at its peak, many Western gadgets were sent to the court, and Qianlong also rebuilt a large number of buildings in the Yuanmingyuan, the most famous of which was the "Three Gardens of the Yuanming".
This is during the reign of Qianlong, in the eastern suburbs of the Yuanmingyuan built changchun garden and Qichun garden two large forest gardens, in the middle of Qianlong, and in the yuanmingyuan built Bishan house, algae garden, Wenyuan Pavilion and other buildings, according to records, at that time hung plaques of garden buildings reached 600, the scenery is very spectacular. In the north of Changchun Garden, there is the European-style forest garden building area, which was also called "Western-style Building" during the Qing Dynasty.
This complex, planned from 1747, lasted 12 years to complete, designed and guided by Western missionaries Lang Shining, Jiang Youren and others, the most interesting is the three large artificial fountains in the main body of the Western building, the concept is peculiar, the momentum is huge, a Western missionary once commented that it is "the Yuanmingyuan, the Palace of Versailles in China". In 1860, when the British and French troops burned the Yuanmingyuan, the Qingyi Garden, Jingmingyuan, JingyiYuan and other buildings were also burned down, robbing the Yuanmingyuan of a large number of 441 European clocks.
In the end, the Qing court was forced to sign the Treaty of Tianjin and the Treaty of Beijing with Britain, France, Russia and other countries to quell the invasion of Western powers, but this most historic building could never go back, and future generations could only experience its glory through the photos left behind.
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