preface
Among the ancient Chinese architecture, the Yuanmingyuan can be called the most brilliant pearl. At that time, in the history of world architecture, it was difficult to have a garden building comparable to the Yuanmingyuan. However, this world-famous pearl was destroyed when the British and French allies invaded China, and many precious cultural relics inside were looted.
Anglo-French forces invaded Beijing
Since then, the mainland has wanted to repair the Yuanmingyuan many times, but because the mainland has fallen into a war situation, so until 1996, that is, about 150 years after the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan, the country has the energy and ability to reorganize and repair the Yuanmingyuan, but the time is too long, although with the help of some modern scientific and technological means, it is also a fantasy to completely restore the Yuanmingyuan. However, when experts sorted out and restored it, more than 50,000 cultural relics were accidentally found.
Ruins of the Yuanmingyuan garden that were burned down
In 1860 AD, after the British and French troops broke into Beijing, they were not satisfied after looting the gold and silver treasures and precious cultural relics in the Yuanmingyuan, and they wanted to teach the cowardly Qing government a lesson, so they wantonly destroyed the cultural relics and buildings in the garden that could not be taken away, but the Yuanmingyuan was too large, and it was difficult to completely destroy the manpower, so they decided to set fire to the Yuanmingyuan, and the fire burned for three days, destroying this world-famous garden. Let this pearl that is also dazzling in the history of world architecture disappear, and a world-famous garden has disappeared since then.
The site of the Yuanmingyuan ruins was cleaned up
According to a Newsletter in the Times at the time: "It is estimated that the total value of looted and destroyed property exceeded 6 million pounds. "But there are too many treasures in the Yuanmingyuan, and even if the British and French forces set fire to the Yuanmingyuan, there are still a large number of precious cultural relics left behind in the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan." Some of the well-preserved buildings and cultural relics have reappeared in front of the world after careful excavation and cleaning by experts.
In 1996, the mainland began to carry out the restoration of the Yuanmingyuan, but because of its age and serious damage, even if it borrowed advanced scientific and technological means, it was still impossible to restore the Yuanmingyuan as it was. However, when experts excavated and inspected the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan, there were new discoveries. Experts involved in the restoration actually excavated tens of thousands of cultural relics under the ruins of the broken wall. What's going on?
The site of the Yuanmingyuan ruins was cleaned up
The news of the discovery of cultural relics in the Yuanmingyuan attracted the attention of many people at that time, and people were very puzzled why so many cultural relics were spared in many plunders and destructions. For this problem, experts believe that these cultural relics can be preserved because the Yuanmingyuan was burned at that time, its degree was not very thorough, and many places survived. Part of the reason is that under the panic of the time, many of the preserved cultural relics fell into the water and were not discovered, so these cultural relics were preserved. Finally, under the careful excavation of experts, tens of thousands of buried cultural relics can be seen again, after expert statistics, some of the 50,000 cultural relics excavated are seriously damaged, some are only a component, but there are still many cultural relics that are still well preserved.
The site of the Yuanmingyuan ruins was cleaned up
Among these excavated cultural relics, there is also a national treasure level, which is a bronze statue. The bronze statue excavated by experts was excavated with only one part of its head left. When it comes to the bronze statue of the Yuanmingyuan, people will always naturally think of the famous zodiac animal head. After the British and French invasion of Beijing, these precious beast heads were exiled overseas, and although the mainland spent a lot of money, there are still many beast heads that have not returned to the motherland.
It is worth noting that the bronze statue found this time is not one of the twelve animal heads, the image of a twenty independent elephant, after consulting the information, experts finally named this precious cultural relic - gilded bronze elephant head.
Gilded bronze elephant head
epilogue
The gilded bronze statue is the most precious cultural relic left behind in the entire Yuanmingyuan ruins, and it is now well preserved in the museum. In addition to this gilded bronze statue, experts have also found other jade products and porcelain in the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan, which is of great significance for mainland archaeology and understanding of that period of history, providing important information.
The Yuanmingyuan has been swept up many times and can still excavate so many cultural relics, it can be inferred that the complete Yuanmingyuan was once magnificent and brilliant, and its current appearance is really deplorable.
Resources:
The Times