"One day two robbers broke into the summer palace, one snatched it, one burned it, and it turned out that victory was a plunder." This is a passage written by the famous French literary artist Victor Hugo, the summer palace in the text refers to the Yuanmingyuan, and the robbers in the text refer to France and England. In 1860, when the Anglo-French army invaded Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi fled with the Guangxu Emperor, and the palatial imperial garden was turned into a broken wall in a fire.
In 1709, the Kangxi Emperor ordered the construction of a summer palace next to the Summer Palace, at the peak of China's feudal social development, and the legendary emperor of the Qing Dynasty was preparing to build a legendary imperial garden. However, the elderly Kangxi Emperor was no longer willing to bother with these things, and as the administrator of the huge empire, he did not have the heart and did not have to pay attention to a garden, so he gave this garden to his 4 sons, the later Yongzheng Emperor.
Later Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng all attached great importance to this garden, and experienced more than 150 years of construction and operation, whether it is the specifications of the building or the treasured cultural relics, they have reached the peak of ancient Chinese garden art. It contains both the rigidity of the northern garden and the graceful twists and turns of the southern garden, so many people call this garden the Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens. The Yuanmingyuan represents the most quintessential part of Chinese and Western architectural culture, treasureing the most well-known treasures in Chinese history, from bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to royal treasures from the Qing Dynasty, it can be said that this is a veritable Chinese cultural museum.
The splendid garden is a symbol of prosperity, but it has become the saddest memory of the last days. After the prosperity of Kang Yongqian, the Manchu Qing Dynasty quickly entered a period of rapid decline, and the Eight Banners nobles and the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu dreamed of the heavenly kingdom under the policy of closing the country and locking the country, without the slightest knowledge that China was far behind the world. Until 1840, a cannon on the coast shattered the dream of the heavenly kingdom, China entered the humiliating and tragic modern history, and unconsciously, the great empire standing in the east of the world has long lost its former grandeur.
In 1860, the British who launched the Opium War were not satisfied with vested interests, they wanted to further open up the Chinese market and plunder more raw materials. So the United French launched the second Opium War, the Manchu Qing government at that time was still busy suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, when the British and French allies invaded, the Qing government did not have the slightest ability to fight back, two robbers easily broke into the city of Beijing, they stood stunned in front of the Yuanmingyuan, coveting this glorious palace.
They plundered all the treasures in this palace, and in order to cover up their crimes, they burned this splendid palace to the ground. The protection of this human culture and art has completely disappeared from history, and people today can no longer imagine the style and splendor of this palace, and the ruins of the broken walls left behind still vaguely record the humiliating and unbearable history. Many scholars have been unable to recreate the appearance of the palace through the literature, until an auction, some ancient photos recreated the splendor and amazement of the Yuanmingyuan.
Most of these photos were taken by the British, and the photos are some of the scenes before the yuanmingyuan burned down, because the photography technology at that time was not developed, these photos are actually not very clear, but those blurry shadows can also see the yuanmingyuan once like a fairyland. The reappearance of the photo allows people to see what the Yuanmingyuan once was, and once again stings the hearts of Chinese children, such a majestic and magnificent palace, which should have been the proudest part of Chinese culture, is now only a pile of rocks and ruins.
History cannot be forgotten, and although that history is in the past, we should remember the humiliation and misfortune of the past. Those treasures that have been lost overseas will one day return to the embrace of the motherland, and those that belong to the glory of the Yuanmingyuan will one day reappear in another way, but all the sons and daughters of China will not forget the banditry of England and France.