introduction
An excellent architectural garden requires a huge amount of manpower and financial resources, especially the royal garden used as a treasure collection. There was once such a garden in China, which was built in the last year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and successive emperors of the Qing Dynasty have been constantly repairing and improving, after a total of more than 150 years of construction. Its cost is far from enough to describe it as huge, among which the pavilions and buildings, pearlstone treasures, can be said to have everything, and the French literary hero Hugo once had a very high evaluation of the Yuanmingyuan.
Unfortunately, such an outstanding garden did not escape the disaster, and the British and French troops rushed into the Yuanmingyuan to loot and destroy it. At that time, the emperor had fled, the city of Beijing was lost, and there was basically no one in the garden to take care of it, so if the coalition forces robbed and robbed, those who could not be moved were burned, and the fire burned for three days without being extinguished. It can be seen that the treasures in the park are rich, the area in the park is wide, and so many treasures and cultural relics have been snatched away and burned, so how can people not be sad!
The Tongzhi Emperor, who later succeeded him, started to repair the Yuanmingyuan, but the situation at that time was tight and financial resources were tight, so it was forced to be suspended shortly after the start of construction. Coupled with the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, the Yuanmingyuan was once again destroyed and completely reduced to a ruin, and its condition was unbearable. The world's excellent culture has been severely damaged, and Hugo has strongly criticized this bad behavior in "Reply to Captain Butler".
After that, China was in the turmoil of the war and the impact of the war for more than a hundred years, and with the founding of new China and the vigorous development of various fields, the restoration proposal for the Yuanmingyuan was gradually being implemented. Just 150 years after the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan, the state sent experts to begin a comprehensive restoration of the Yuanmingyuan, because the damage to the Yuanmingyuan was very serious, the treasure was lost, and only some broken walls and ruins were left in the park, so even if the most advanced scientific and technological means and restoration tools were used at that time, it was difficult to reproduce the former grand scenery of the Yuanmingyuan, which was really hateful and regrettable.
Although the restoration work is difficult, many antiquities restorers are still full of hope and enthusiasm. Incredibly, when they were digging and investigating, they had a surprising harvest here, and they accidentally found more than 50,000 treasures under the ruins of the broken wall of the Yuanmingyuan! Suddenly, the news that the Yuanmingyuan excavated tens of thousands of cultural relics has aroused the attention of many people, and everyone is curious, why can there be so many treasures in the Yuanmingyuan that was destroyed by fire?
It turned out that because it was an invasion and robbery at that time, those soldiers were very hasty, and it was inevitable that there would be a scramble between them in the process of robbery, although some treasures fell into ashes in the fire, but there were also some cultural relics that could withstand the fire and burn, so they were left behind. However, most of the cultural relics left behind are in ruins, and there are not many complete products, but experts still regard them as treasures for research and collection.
Among these cultural relics excavated, including gilded bronze elephant heads, are relatively well preserved and have more collectible value. In the Qing Dynasty, where the production process was not as fine as it is now, it was very difficult to completely manufacture a gilded bronze elephant head, which was very challenging for craftsmen, materials and production processes. In the ancient Chinese history and culture, elephants have always been the representative of auspiciousness, and the gilded bronze elephant head should also be decorated for the auspicious meaning of the Main Hall of the Yuanmingyuan.
From this point of view, the gilded bronze elephant head is not only exquisite in production, but also has a high collection value, and its cultural meaning is also very important. In addition, it is also a recorder of the history of aggression and has extraordinary historical significance. In addition, the bronze statues of the heads of the zodiac beasts treasured in the Yuanmingyuan are also of great historical and cultural value, not only have their own cultural relics value, but also hide the cultural heritage, which is an important part of the Yuanmingyuan. But so far, only 8 bronze statues of beast heads have returned, and the whereabouts of 4 bronze statues of beast heads are unknown, which is extremely painful!
epilogue
The lost and destroyed cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan also tell us a truth, backwardness will be beaten, we should always be proud of the motherland, to build the motherland as our responsibility, the people and the country are always the same, only when the country is strong, the people's safe life can be guaranteed, and all the treasures we have can always get the real belonging.
Reference: Reply to Captain Butler