HISTORY
It is called the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", the pinnacle of Chinese garden art, and those who have seen it are all amazed. However, 161 years ago, it was burned by Western invaders, leaving us with endless regrets and indelible pain.
On October 18, 1860, the Yuanmingyuan, known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", was set on fire by the British and French forces. "For two consecutive days, the black clouds formed by the thick smoke have been floating over the former prosperous and rich country, like a lasting eclipse."
Today, the ruins of the broken wall stand quietly, telling the glory of the past, witnessing the humiliation of the past, and sounding the alarm bell for future generations: Remember history, my generation should strengthen itself!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens • A model of all gardening arts</h1>
In the northwestern suburbs of Beijing, there is a world-famous royal garden, the Yuanmingyuan. It was once composed of the Yuanmingyuan, Qichun Garden and Changchun Garden, so it is also called the Yuanming Three Gardens. In addition, there are many small gardens around it like stars arching around it.
It was founded in 1709 (the 48th year of the Kangxi Dynasty), the Qing Dynasty in 150 years, set countless craftsmen, fill the lake and pile mountains, plant exotic flowers and trees, set 40 scenic spots at home and abroad, built 145 large buildings, only to create such a unique wonder. The park covers an area of more than 340 hectares and a construction area of 200,000 square meters.
It inherits China's excellent gardening tradition of more than 3,000 years, with both the grace and magnificence of the palace architecture and the euphemism of the Jiangnan water town garden. At the same time, in addition to the Courtyard with Chinese style, Changchun Garden also has Western-style buildings such as Haiyan Hall and Yuanying Temple.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="49" > a catastrophe • A unique spectacle is finally burned</h1>
The Qing government arrested British diplomatic envoys: In September 1860, at the behest of the Xianfeng Emperor, the Qing general Senggelinqin arrested the British diplomatic envoy Pasha Li and 40 of his entourage.
In October 1860, anglo-French forces invaded Beijing. British Minister Erjin ordered that the royal garden, the Yuanmingyuan, be burned to the ground.
The Yuanmingyuan was founded in the Kangxi Period and consists of three parts: the Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden, and Qichun Garden. Later, Kangxi gave the garden to his fourth son Yin Chan (禛讀 zhēn, Yin Chan was the later Yongzheng Emperor), and after the efforts of the four dynasties of Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang, it cost more than 200 million silver to build this royal garden covering an area of more than 5,000 acres and more than 100 chinese and Western landscapes.
In 1793, the Qianlong Emperor received Magalni, the first British envoy to china, and asked him to tour the whole garden. As a result, the Yuanmingyuan was even known as the "summer palace" of the Qing Dynasty in Europe. The famous French writer Victor Hugo once compared the Yuanmingyuan to the Parthenon Temple of rational art, which is like the castle of the Moon Palace.
The British burned down the Yuanmingyuan because the Qing government did not give preferential treatment to British prisoners of war, and in anger, they wanted to teach the Xianfeng Emperor a lesson. The British prisoners of war mentioned here refer to the British governor in Shanghai, Pasha Li, and his 40 retinue.
Pasha Li came to Beijing this time to serve as the Chinese secretary of the British minister Erjin, but because Erjin did not want to show his face, he always sent Pasha Li to consult with the Qing government on various matters, and the Qing monarch mistakenly thought that he was the supreme decision-maker of the British army, so he took advantage of the opportunity of negotiations with the Qing government before the British army marched into Beijing and detained him, thinking that this would make the British army confused and then cancel the plan to enter Beijing.
However, this did not stop the British and French allies from advancing, and they entered Beijing effortlessly and then forced the Qing government to release them. However, the prisoners were dissatisfied with the British invasion and cruelly treated Pashali's entourage, some of whom were tortured in water prisons, and some were even dismembered, and less than half of them survived.
Pasha Li
Enraged, Erjin decided to give the Xianfeng Emperor a permanent "lesson" in order to avenge the "brutality" of the Qing Dynasty. He originally wanted to burn the Forbidden City, but he was also worried that if the Palace was reduced to ashes, the Qing government would lose face and collapse, so the benefits promised to britain would not be fulfilled. So in the end, Erjin finally chose the Yuanmingyuan.
On October 18, 1860, Erjin sent a division of troops to the Yuanmingyuan to set fire. He wanted to invite the French to join him, but the French felt that the move was "uncivilized" and refused to participate. In a short time, dozens of thick smoke rose, and the Yuanmingyuan became a sea of fire, burning for three days and three nights. Hundreds of eunuchs, palace women, and craftsmen were killed, and the Yuanmingyuan and the nearby Qingyi Garden, Jingmingyuan, JingyiYuan, ChangchunYuan and Haidian Town were all in ruins.
Ruins of the Old Summer Palace
The various rare treasures in the Yuanmingyuan were almost robbed as early as the first few days of the British and French coalition forces entering Beijing. The French, who regarded arson as an uncivilized act, were no different from bandits when they looted.
A French journalist recorded that the French soldiers at that time scrambled, wrestling with each other, stumbling, insulting, shouting, and each taking away his booty. Some people have the queen's red lacquer box on their heads, some people have silk wrapped around their bodies, some people fill their pockets and hats with various crystal gems, and some people smash furniture and take away the gems on them... An ordinary French officer robbed 600,000 francs worth of belongings.
Compared with the chaos of the French army, Britain was more "orderly". The officers took turns robbing, and each regiment had half of the officers in line to rob in the morning, but had to return before noon so that the remaining half could go in the afternoon to rob. After the officers have finished snatching, they will be uniformly put into the soldiers.
Because of the distribution of tasks, some soldiers failed to participate in the robbery, and in order not to disappoint them, the spoils of war had to be distributed fairly, and for this reason, the Anglo-French coalition army also set up a special committee. Of course, the best things are left to the Queen of England and the Emperor of France. Later, when the Anglo-French forces retreated, large carts carrying stolen goods lined up for several miles.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="50" > the Yuanmingyuan artifacts scattered around the world • What is the fate today</h1>
According to the estimates of experts who study the Yuanmingyuan, the looted cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan are scattered around the world and throughout China, totaling in the millions. The cultural relics scattered in China are mainly concentrated in Beijing. The ratio of domestic and foreign countries is about two to eight.
During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the "Shiqu Baodi" compiled the "Shiqu Baodi", which brought together the collection of calligraphy and paintings collected by the Qing Court's inner government, and provided an important basis for the search for the cultural relics of calligraphy and painting in the Yuanmingyuan. Liu Yang, a staff member of the Yuanmingyuan Management Office, spent 2 years extracting the calligraphy and painting works of the Yuanmingyuan from the book, and began to run around, trying to find the whereabouts of these works.
Successive generations of Yuanmingyuan people have been constantly visiting, trying to find traces of the cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan. It is gratifying that after the unremitting efforts of all parties, some of the lost cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan have been able to "go home" one after another.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="51" > Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens • Will it be rebuilt</h1>
Is the Old Summer Palace restored? There have always been two very different views among experts and scholars: on the one hand, the "Ruins Faction", which advocates maintaining the original appearance and reflecting the vicissitudes of history; on the other hand, the "Restoration Faction", believes that the Yuanmingyuan should re-show the glory of the prosperous world through reconstruction.
The complexity of the approval process and the academic dispute between the "restoration faction" and the "ruin faction" often lead to the delay in the reconstruction of some sites and the emergency protection of visible remains. Zhang Fengwu, associate professor of the School of Architecture of Tianjin University, believes that emergency rescue should be placed in an important position at this stage: "Solve the problem of rescue first, and then you can talk about its display and utilization." ”