Inside the Summer Palace, a bronze phoenix stands, and a special circle of foreign letters is engraved on the tail of the phoenix. After being interpreted by experts, the meaning was discovered. What's going on here? If you want to know, let Xiaobian reveal the secret for you:
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The Summer Palace is one of the famous gardens in the north of the mainland, which was dedicated to the royal garden during the Qing Dynasty, its predecessor was Qingyi Garden, and its specific location is located in the western suburbs of Beijing, with a distance of 15 kilometers from the urban area and a total area of more than 3 square kilometers. The Summer Palace and the Yuanmingyuan, known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", are adjacent to each other, based on Kunming Lake and Wanshou Mountain, and their artistic techniques mostly borrow from the style of southern gardens, and are known as the "Royal Garden Museum".
The Summer Palace, formerly known as Qingyi Garden, was a large-scale garden built by the Qianlong Emperor to honor his mother and empress dowager, which was very large at that time and had a royal style. Unfortunately, in the 10th year of Xianfeng, after the invasion of the Anglo-French coalition forces, qingyi garden was burned down by the invaders, and later rebuilt during the Guangxu years, officially renamed the Summer Palace. In 1961, the Summer Palace was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units, together with the Humble Administrator's Garden, Chengde Mountain Resort, lingering garden and known as China's four famous gardens, becoming the "holy land" in the hearts of Chinese and foreign tourism enthusiasts.
There are many attractions in the Summer Palace, but in comparison, the pair of dragons and phoenixes in front of the Renshou Hall in the garden are the most interesting. From the perspective of shape, the bronze phoenix in front of the hall stands tall and has a symmetrical and mighty shape, and the sea cliff is stepping on the sea cliff, which is quite powerful. But the flying dragon sitting next to it was completely different, the bronze dragon was old in shape, the four claws were stretched weakly, the eyes were lifeless, and the outstretched dragon claws seemed to be offering a gift to the copper phoenix. What's even more amazing is that even the dragon balls that should have been embedded in the front paws of the bronze dragon are missing. Therefore, many people have deduced that the strange shape of the copper phoenix and the bronze dragon may be related to the late Qing Dynasty Empress Dowager Cixi's overhead Guangxu Emperor, after all, the power at that time was in the hands of Empress Dowager Cixi, and the poor Guangxu Emperor was just a puppet.
Tourists who have carefully visited the Summer Palace Tongfeng know that in fact, there is a special secret hidden in the Tongfeng, but many people are still difficult to explain the mystery. It turned out that on the body of the copper phoenix, several foreign letters were impressively engraved. At the tail of the copper phoenix, there is a circular seal-shaped mark, the shape of which is two circles inside and outside, and there is a text in the middle of the inner circle, but it is now impossible to see clearly, there are 5 foreign letters between the two circles, and through local enlargement, it is found that the letters should be "MUNTZ".
Speaking of this, many readers may pinch a handful of sweat for the maker of the copper phoenix, after all, in the feudal dynasty at that time, it was a felony to write words on royal utensils privately, according to the temper of Empress Dowager Cixi, once this matter was discovered, the craftsmen may be fined forfeited, and even may be charged with military distribution. Of course, we don't know what the craftsman's fate will be, but we can explore the meaning of foreign letters. After searching and research, it was found that the foreign language "MUNTZ" means "Menz alloy", and the Mengzi alloy is a zinc-copper alloy.
It turns out that the copper phoenix is cast from zinc and copper alloy, it seems that the craftsmen who make the copper phoenix are very conscientious, leaving a clue to the production of materials on the copper phoenix, and once the copper phoenix is damaged in the future, the craftsmen of later generations can find the same metal to repair the copper phoenix. Why do Chinese craftsmen go to great lengths to engrave foreign letters on copper phoenixes? Wouldn't it be more concise and clear if you left Chinese? In this regard, scholars have speculated that the craftsmen involved in the production of copper phoenixes may have studied overseas, or they may have been specially blinding Cixi's eyes and ears, and the real reasons still need to be further studied by experts.
References: "Past Events in the Qing Palace" by Huang Bin published by Jilin Publishing House
Wen xiucai, editor-in-chief of Wenlan Hairun Studio, written by: Special history writer: Changshan Zhao Zi worm