Zhengjue Temple Manjushri Bodhisattva, Shunmu Tian, Fish Leaping Iris Flying, Shega fortress... Today, the Yuanmingyuan held a special press conference, where 365 old photos of the Old Summer Palace were released on the spot, most of which were displayed to the public for the first time. What did Manjushri Bodhisattva of the Zhengjue Temple, who had the slightest relationship with the Qianlong Emperor, look like? A full-body photograph of Manjushri Bodhisattva in manjushri pavilion of Zhengjue monastery taken in the 1920s was first published, and it has a vital reference value for the study and restoration of manjushri pavilion of Zhengjue temple. The existence of the Yuanmingyuan Shunmutian, which only exists on the map, has been debated by experts and scholars, and an old photograph confirms its predecessor and surprises people that its appearance is very similar to the current Summer Palace Silhouette Pavilion...
Pictured: Audience visit xinmin evening news reporter Pan Zixuan photo
The reporter came to the Zhengjue Temple in the Yuanmingyuan today, and walked along the antique lacquered red steps into the second floor of the "highest floor", accompanied by the creaking of the ancient wooden structure, under the dim light, a series of black and white photos came into view. Among these photographs, the oldest "age" was born in 1873. The 365 photos span 80 years and restore the vicissitudes of the Yuanmingyuan in the past 160 years. They seem to open up a yellowed historical memory, making people unconsciously dream back to the "summer palace" of the past.
Dreaming back to the "summer palace" of 160 years ago
The Yuanmingyuan was burned down by the British and French forces in 1860, and since then the Yuanmingyuan has gradually become a ruin, losing its former glory. In the past 160 years, the Yuanmingyuan has experienced from the Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens to the ruins to the ruins, from the royal gardens to the villages inhabited by the people to the first batch of national archaeological site parks, and there are not many written records before these changes.
According to Li Xiangyang, deputy director of the Yuanmingyuan Management Office, fortunately, in the one hundred years after the yuanmingyuan disaster, many photographers carried the most advanced photographic equipment at that time to shoot the ruins, including Hong Kong photographer Lai Afang, German photographer Ormai, Frenchman Xie Manlu, Swede Xi Renlong, these early images have also become the historical witness of the centuries-old vicissitudes of the Yuanmingyuan.
Pictured: The audience flipped through the old photo album Xinmin Evening News reporter Pan Zixuan took a photo
In the most eye-catching position of the entrance to the "highest floor", a large full-body portrait of Manjushri Bodhisattva is particularly striking. This photo was taken 100 years ago at Zhengjue Temple, and now it is back at Zhengjue Temple. At that time, the Qianlong Emperor was often revered as Manjushri Bodhisattva by foreign kings and foreign envoys because of his outstanding martial arts, and Qianlong himself also respected Manjushri Dojo, so he built a Manjushri Pavilion at the Zhengjue Temple in the Yuanmingyuan and enshrined Manjushri Bodhisattva, and after 1860, the statue of Manjushri Bodhisattva was destroyed, leaving no image data, and its image became an insoluble mystery in later generations.
The reporter saw that in this old photo, Manjushri Bodhisattva rode a statue of a green lion, with a total height of three feet, two children standing on the left and right, a lion slave on the left and a Vedic on the right, both eight feet high. The statue of Manjushri Bodhisattva and its backlight are all wooden gold-clad, the lion and the two children are multicolored gold, and the base is a white jade platform. "This photo is one of the only four remaining photos within the mountain gate of Zhengjue Temple, which can verify the accuracy of historical records, and also makes up for the academic gap, which is of vital reference value for the study and restoration of the Wenshu Pavilion of Zhengjue Temple." Li Xiangyang said.
Pictured: At the entrance of Zhengjue Temple, a huge full-body portrait of Manjushri Bodhisattva of Zhengjue Temple Xinmin Evening News reporter Pan Zixuan took a photo
The full body portrait of Manjushri Bodhisattva is from the hand of the French photographer Xie Manlu. He is the photographer known to have photographed the most remains of the wooden structures of the Yuanmingyuan before they were completely destroyed in 1900. The press conference also announced for the first time the photos taken by Xie Manlu around 1882 before the wooden structure of the Yuanmingyuan was completely destroyed, including the Yuanmingyuan Shunmutian, Beiyuanshan Village, Yuyue Iris Fly, Sheweicheng, Lianxi Le, Huifang Academy (Broken Bridge Remnant Snow Stone Bridge), Hongci Yonghu, Kuixing Tower, Changchun Garden Palace Gate, Haiyue Kaifu, Fahui Temple Duobao Glass Pagoda and other architectural complexes. These old photographs clearly show the situation before these buildings were completely destroyed, breaking the way the Chinese architecture of the Yuanmingyuan was only presented in the documentary records or paintings in the past, allowing people to glimpse the glory of the royal garden.
The story behind the old photos
At the press conference, Liu Yang, vice president of the Beijing Shidi Folklore Society, donated an old photo of the electronic version of the full body portrait of Wenshu Bodhisattva in Wenshu Pavilion of Zhengjue Temple to the Yuanmingyuan Management Office, which was collected by the Yuanmingyuan Archives.
These old photographs can be collected and returned to the Yuanmingyuan again, which has taken a long and winding road. Their "master", Liu Yang, played a very important role in it. He said his fascination with cultural relics and monuments began in his teens, especially the Old Summer Palace. When he was in middle school, he often walked the streets and alleys in his spare time, searching for monuments, and almost every month he had to go to the book market behind the Yuanmingyuan to take a look around and buy things about the Yuanmingyuan.
Pictured: Liu Yang donated the whole body portrait of Manjushri Bodhisattva of Zhengjue Temple to the electronic version of the old photo taken by Pan Zixuan, a reporter of Xinmin Evening News
Over the years, from Beijing to the whole country and overseas, Liu Yang has cherished the dream of the "summer palace", looking for bits and pieces about the Yuanmingyuan in various parts of the world, only to spell this "puzzle" of the Yuanmingyuan more completely. In the process, he collected various old photos from all over the world, which have great significance for the study of the history, architecture, gardens and other aspects of the Yuanmingyuan and the maintenance and restoration of related buildings.
Among the more than 300 old photos, many of them have a story behind them. Liu Yang introduced that around 1882, Xie Manlu bought seven rats, cattle, tigers, rabbits, dragons, horses, pigs, etc. of the twelve animal heads, but in the process of transporting back to China, the pig heads, rabbit heads, and rat heads were stolen and lost, and only the head of the ox, the head of the tiger, the head of the horse and the head of the dragon were brought back to France. Xie Manlu took photographs of them separately, of which the image of the dragon's head was first discovered, which is of great significance for studying the diaspora process of the beast head in the Yuanmingyuan. In 2006, the Yuanmingyuan Management Office used old photographs of the Dashui Law to identify the stone fish in a private house near Xidan in Beijing as a relic of the Dashui Law, and collected it in the Yuanmingyuan Exhibition Hall.
Pictured: Yuanmingyuan Shunmu Tianlao photo Xinmin Evening News reporter Pan Zixuan photo
The return of this pair of stone fish, Liu Yang is also involved. According to his recollection, one day in 2003, he walked the streets as usual, passing through the Xidan scale hook hu at the same time, at the moment when a courtyard opened the door, he inadvertently glimpsed a pair of large stone fish, the pair of stone fish attracted his attention, liu Yang, who was hoisted up, circled the courtyard for three months, had the honor of taking several photos, a year and a half later, while writing a book on the Yuanmingyuan, Liu Yang suddenly turned to a close-up of the pair of stone fish taken by a French photographer. He looked out the photos he had taken in the courtyard a year and a half ago, and he didn't expect that it was the stone fish scattered in the Yuanmingyuan.
This pair of White Jade Stone Fish was originally located in front of the Yuanmingyuan Great Water Law, and has been lost outside for about 80 years. Later, through the coordination of the Yuanmingyuan Management Office, the stone fish returned to the Yuanmingyuan, which is the third cultural relics in history to return to the Yuanmingyuan free of charge. The Yuanmingyuan also launched the "Yuanmingyuan Scattered Cultural Relics Return cultural relics protection project" at the right time, which promoted the return of a series of cultural relics. (Xinmin Evening News reporter in Beijing Pan Zixuan)