"Yuanming twice robbed Kunming, and Hehua did not think of returning the year before. A song can't be blown endlessly, and the ashes are still flying in the evening."
Li Dazhao lamented the destruction of the classical royal garden Yuanmingyuan, whose brilliance will always exist in the world.
Compared with European art, Oriental art is naturally immeasurable in many aspects due to its different origins.
The Greek temple is a combination of the golden ratio and is a model of art, and the Old Summer Palace is also a representative of oriental art, and the royal glory is shining.
Restoration of the Old Summer Palace
We strive to restore every corner of the Yuanmingyuan that has been destroyed, its flowers, trees, and every piece of rubble have the shadow and feeling of the Empress Dowager Cixi Lafayette, and the fate of the Qing Dynasty is closely related to the fate of the Yuanmingyuan, and they are also the foundation of Chinese culture.
In recent years, many scholars have been investigating and restoring the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan, and new discoveries have continued.
A century and a half of time have passed since the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan, and experts have also made many discoveries in their investigation of the Yuanmingyuan.
Ruins of the Old Summer Palace
Among them, in the process of archaeological excavation of cultural relics, nearly 50,000 cultural relics were found under the Yuanmingyuan, which can not be regarded as a windfall?
Originally built for the summer vacation of the royal family, the Yuanmingyuan began construction from the Kangxi Period, and it consumed a lot of manpower and material resources.
It covers an area of more than 5,000 acres, the Yuanmingyuan Park is rich and diverse, the architectural complex is rich and grand, and it is very exquisite, integrating a lot of Western construction techniques, which can be called a model of Chinese and Western integration, and is also the peak level of Chinese architectural art.
The Yuanmingyuan is a good embodiment of the royal temperament and style, and the location of its geographical location fully embodies the ideas of Taoism and Yin and Yang, and the address is unique.
To the west of the garden there are rolling mountains. Mainly Wanshou Mountain, Yuquan Mountain, etc., the water under the mountain is mainly some tributaries, relying on the mountains and water and relying on the royal dragon qi, which is a treasure land of feng shui.
The former site of the Old Summer Palace
The ancestors of the Qing Dynasty won the world on horseback, and although they had been in the customs for many years, they still could not adapt well to the climate in the guan.
In particular, the summer heat is unbearable, and summer vacation is the top priority in the palace, and one of the purposes of the construction of the Yuanmingyuan is also to avoid the heat.
Its chief designer was the famous Qing Dynasty architect Lei Jinyu, who was also a number of missionaries from the West, combined with the architect's ideas.
Emperors such as Kangxi and Yongzheng attached great importance to the renovation of the Yuanmingyuan and hoped to add elements they liked. On this basis, this magnificent building was born.
Yuanmingyuan stone pillars
The architectural art of the Yuanmingyuan is exquisite, detailed into the garden's boulevards, as well as pebbles, as well as its walls, stone carvings, bronze statues, etc., are the product of the combination of Oriental and Western artistic characteristics.
Compared with the famous gardens of Jiangnan such as the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Suzhou Garden, the Yuanmingyuan also absorbed and integrated the architectural characteristics of Jiangnan, and transplanted some of the characteristics of Western palaces.
There are majestic palaces in the park, as well as exquisite pavilions, autumn moons in the West Lake, and gorgeous spring lights.
Naturally, there is also Lafayette's favorite drama garden, the stage of the Yuanmingyuan is more special, and listening to the opera is one of the main entertainment activities of the royal family and nobles.
In order to listen to the sound quality of the play, as well as a pleasant psychological experience, most of the stages in the Yuanmingyuan have a patio, so that the sound of the play comes through the water, and then through the focus of the patio, the sound quality is very good.
The collection of books in the Yuanmingyuan is also rare in the world, and the royal collection is very large and comprehensive, with everything, which is a rich cultural base.
During the Second Opium War, the Western powers once again felt the cowardice and corruption of the incompetent Qing government, and they intensified their bullying of us.
It was 1856, and the British and French allies went everywhere they went, killing and looting, and they finally set their greedy eyes on the Yuanmingyuan.
The Anglo-French army burned the Yuanmingyuan
After the Anglo-French army entered the Yuanmingyuan, it began a frenzied robbery. Many precious artifacts and so on are countless, and the pockets of the Anglo-French coalition were heavy on that night, but they were not satisfied.
Many of the Treasures looted by the French army were innumerable, almost all of them were art treasures of immeasurable value, which were the only remaining and could not be copied.
Not only is the commercial value, but its cultural value is also immeasurable.
A British soldier named Herris hired more than 10 laborers to transport the looted treasure back to the barracks.
The soldiers armed with giant axes were fierce, smashing the jeweled furniture down with an axe, cutting off the gems and flying away, and the precious works of art were damaged.
This is more than a hundred years of painstaking efforts, and the cultural treasures in it are composed of the blood of Chinese culture.
Treasures were looted, or wooden sticks were used to destroy everything that could not be taken away, and the Yuanmingyuan was reduced to ashes in this war.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, many experts have begun to restore the cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan.
The Yuanmingyuan was destroyed
In the archaeological work in 1996, experts gained a lot, and at this time, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan, experts used a lot of advanced technology to explore the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan again.
In particular, the third excavation between 2013 and 2020 was the largest and most extensive, and experts also made significant discoveries here.
Underground in the Yuanmingyuan ruins, experts found more than 50,000 cultural relics, and their initial speculation is that these cultural relics may have been accidentally lost by the British and French coalition forces in the process of transporting treasures.
The excavated pieces of cultural relics are exquisite, and some are still well preserved.
The gilded elephant head of the Zodiac Beast Head
Among them, the gilded elephant head in the zodiac beast head is of great value and precious, and the production process is also very exquisite, which is also an important consolation for the archaeological work on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan.
Li Hu's "Visiting the Ruins of The Yuanming Dynasty" has: "The magnificent garden of the absolute era is instantly turned into ashes -- and so on."
Hugo once said: "Even if we add together all the treasures of Notre Dame de Paris, the value of the treasures in it cannot be compared with the cultural relics value of this Oriental Art Museum, and I believe this is true."
This is the memory of history, but also the lesson of history, today's Yuanmingyuan in the ashes of history, only the ruins of the broken wall, we as the descendants of Yanhuang think and repair it, never stopped.
Once the royal garden was destroyed, now what is left to our descendants is the ruins of the broken wall, standing in the autumn wind of history, we must meditate, remember the history and remember the lessons of our beating, in order to continue to learn experience and continue to move forward.
The artistic characteristics and architectural style of the Yuanmingyuan are also worthy of careful study, and with the continuous advancement of archaeological work, I believe that more artistic treasures can be brought to us in the future.