The Yuanmingyuan is a large imperial garden of the feudal dynasty and the Qing Dynasty in the mainland, and the name is the Kangxi Emperor inscribed the plaque "Yuanmingyuan". The meaning of the word "Yuanming" is: round and into the gods, the gentleman's time is also in the middle; bright and universal, the wisdom of the master. "Yuan" refers to the perfection of personal morality and surpasses ordinary people, and "Ming" refers to the bright and bright political achievements, perfect and wise. This is the understanding of the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and it is the ideal criterion for ancient kings to flaunt the Ming Emperor and his virtuous appearance.
Built in the last years of the Kangxi Dynasty and the Yongzheng Period, the Yuanmingyuan was originally built in 1707 (the 46th year of the Kangxi Dynasty) when the Kangxi Emperor gave a garden in the northwestern suburb of Beijing to the fourth son, Ai Xinjueluo Yinchen. After the Kangxi Emperor Xuan Ye collapsed in Beijing's Changchun Garden, Ai Xin Jueluo Yinchen succeeded to the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor. The Yuanmingyuan began to be expanded on the original basis. Later emperors also repaired and expanded the Yuanmingyuan. Under the expansion and repair of several generations of emperors of the Qing Dynasty and more than 200 years, the Yuanmingyuan has become the most magnificent imperial garden in China's history.
The Yuanmingyuan covers an area of 3.5 square kilometers, with a construction area of 200,000 square meters, composed of the Yuanmingyuan and its annexes Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden (later renamed Wanchun Garden), also known as the Three Gardens of the Yuanming Dynasty, with more than 150 scenery.
The Yuanmingyuan is known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens". It has been famous for its grand regional scale, outstanding construction skills, exquisite architectural landscapes, rich cultural collections and profound national cultural connotations, and is known as "a model of all gardening art".
Because the Yuanmingyuan is an imperial garden, there are often Emperors of the Qing Dynasty in and out of this place, in ancient times, whenever the summer was hot, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty would go to the Yuanmingyuan to escape the summer, and it was also used to listen to the government and handle state affairs.
As an imperial garden, the Yuanmingyuan is innumerable, from bronze ceremonial vessels in the pre-Qin period of China to celebrity calligraphy and paintings and various rare treasures of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
There are also a variety of peculiar buildings, not only Chinese architecture, but also Western architecture, in the Yuanmingyuan Changchun Garden also introduced a district of European-style garden architecture, commonly known as "Western-style building". It is composed of more than ten buildings and gardens, such as Harmonious Fun, Line Law Bridge, Square Appearance, Haiyan Hall, Dashui Law, and so on. One of the largest European-style landscapes is located in the north side of the "Haiyan Hall", and the essence of the Haiyan Hall is the bronze statue of the Zodiac, famous in the world for telling the time of the water, and is placed in front of the door of the Haiyan Hall.
The zodiac head was designed by the court Western painter Italian Lang Shining, supervised by the Frenchman Jiang Youren, and produced by the court craftsman. A fountain design based on a seated statue of the Zodiac was built in combination with Chinese and Western cultures.
The body of the bronze statue of the Zodiac is a stone carving wearing a cheongsam, the head of the beast is made of refined red copper, the casting is also very fine, its appearance is deep, and the golden light is introverted. It will not rust for a hundred years.
The details of the zodiac animal head are also very realistic, with folds, fluff, beards, and fangs, which are the highest level craftsmen, chiseled and forged. The heads of the twelve zodiac beasts are arranged in a figure-eight shape on both sides of the fountain, and the six statues on the left and right correspond to each other. At each hour, there will be a corresponding beast head to spray water. By noon, 12 images were spraying water at the same time, and the scene was particularly spectacular.
The landscape of the 12 Zodiac Animal Head Fountain was designed and built in the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747). Fountains generally have two categories, one is modeled on natural water features, there are springs, waterfalls to provide power, and the other is artificial landscaping, today's artificial fountains are mostly driven by electricity. The Zodiac Animal Head Fountain in the Yuanmingyuan belongs to the second kind of artificial landscaping. Although as early as 1600, the English physician Gilber discovered "electricity".
In 1752, the American scientist Franklin confirmed the existence of electricity in nature. But it was not until 1832 that the Frenchman Picksy built the world's first experimental generator, but at this time it was still in the experimental stage, and the use was unstable, until 1866, when the German Siemens made an applicable generator. It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty in the East at that time did not have electricity to drive the fountain to spray water when building the fountain.
So how do the zodiac beast heads in the Yuanmingyuan spray water?
In order to make the zodiac head spray water, the designers and craftsmen at that time took great efforts. Finally came up with the use of the drop to form a dynamic, we also know the principle of "water to the low place", you can transport water to a high place, and then with the help of gravity, the water will flow to the low place, the water fountain in the Yuanmingyuan is to provide the zodiac water supply by lifting the reservoir.
Xiyanglou scenic spot, in the middle of the Dashui Law and Haiyan Hall, there is a rammed earth platform more than ten meters high, which is part of the water tower required for water use by all large and small water methods in that year, according to researchers from the Yuanmingyuan Management Office, this is a solid earth platform, solidly topped with the "tin sea" above it, that is, the tower of water holding water, the reservoir, this reservoir can store 160 cubic meters of water at a time.
The central building of "Haiyan Hall" is an 11-bay "I" building, and there are also small fountain pools in the north of the south building. This building is the water supply building of the nearby fountain groups. The east and west ends of the building are water wheelhouses for water lifting, and the lower floor of the middle section platform is a high platform, and a reservoir is built on the platform to ensure the operation of various water methods, which is the so-called "tin sea", because there was a reservoir welded with tin plate at the top, so it is commonly known as "tin sea".
Xihai is a water storage building of various sizes in Haiyan Hall, and the whole building is divided into two floors. The material for building the reservoir is also not general sand, we also know that water is a liquid state of the substance, easy to seep the phenomenon, so the general material is not OK, now we have cement concrete and other materials to build the reservoir, but at that time there was no such material, the reservoir at that time was made of sand, white ash, yellow map combination of "triad" to build.
At this time, the reservoir used in the zodiac has been there, and then the copper pipe is connected to the spout of various large water methods and the heads of the zodiac beasts, and in the era when there was no electricity and electric motors, the pressure difference from top to bottom was used to press the water in the reservoir to the large and small outlets near and far, and the water used by various water methods was pressed out of the water tower. Every other hour, the portrait representing that hour will spray water from the mouth, and at noon, the portrait of the twelve generations can gush into the fountain at the same time.
So there is a way, but the water will not go to the reservoir for no reason, so how is the water transported?
At the time of the initial construction, the water-carrying machinery of the Dragon Phoenix Water Wheel was used to provide the water required for the reservoir, and the power was manpower, using the human pedaling water wheel, using the mechanical principle to raise the water level, and finally sending the water to the reservoir, which also sent the water to the "Tin Sea", and then for various water methods and zodiac beast heads to spray water.
At that time, when there was no electricity, it was bitter to the people at that time, although the various water methods in the Yuanmingyuan were beautiful, but behind the good scenery was indeed a bit "labor-intensive", for the ancient royal family to appreciate for a while, it required a lot of manpower and material resources to consume.
Bronze statue of the head of the zodiac beast past and present
On October 6, 1860, the British and French troops looted the Yuanmingyuan, looted cultural relics and treasures, and burned the Yuanmingyuan, and the bronze statue of the head of the zodiac began to be lost overseas. Later, when the Tongzhi Emperor wanted to repair it, he was forced to stop it due to financial difficulties. After the Eight-Power Alliance, it was attacked by bandits, and the Yuanmingyuan was finally reduced to ruins.
At present, 8 animal heads of the zodiac have returned to China, including rat heads, ox heads, tiger heads, rabbit heads, dragon heads, horse heads, monkey heads, and pig heads, of which the dragon heads are currently well preserved in Taiwan. The head of the rat and the head of the rabbit were auctioned and donated to China by the Pino family; the head of the cow, the head of the tiger and the head of the monkey were photographed by poly group; the head of the horse and the head of the pig were acquired by the entrepreneur He Hongshen and donated to the country.
Today, five bronze animal heads of cattle, tigers, monkeys, pigs and horses are collected in the Poly Art Museum, and rats and rabbits are collected in the National Museum of China. The whereabouts of snake heads, sheep heads, chicken heads, and dog heads are still unknown. Although 8 animal heads have returned to China, it has paid a high fee for the return of Chinese cultural relics.
Most of the bronze statues of the heads of the zodiac beasts are obtained at auctions, but when auctioning Chinese cultural relics, they will attract the attention of the society, thus attracting patriots to bid, which eventually leads to the bidding process at a price much higher than the market price, so that some businessmen and auctions will seize our national feelings and begin to speculate for high-priced benefits.
epilogue:
Finally, I hope that we can look at cultural relics rationally and not be used by some companies and individuals with ulterior motives. Although the Zodiac carries the history, culture and memory of the time, it is also a representative of the combination of Chinese and Western cultures. But we don't necessarily have to put them together, and the incompleteness of the zodiac is like telling us that we have been robbed once before, so that we should learn from history and not let this happen again.
Text/History Zi Mo Ge
Looking at the historical storms and clouds of the past, Zi Mo and everyone reminisced about history together. Thank you for your attention and likes, thank you for your support.
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