In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, China was constantly uprisings inside and invaded by foreign powers.
Since the beginning of the Opium War, the great powers have coaxed China's closed doors with strong ships and sharp cannons, the Qing court has declined, old weapons cannot face the enemy's foreign guns and cannons, the gates of Beijing have been opened, countless rare treasures have been robbed and lost overseas.
One of the most unfortunate is the Old Summer Palace, which has been built since the Kangxi period, from the Yongzheng to the peak of the Qianlong period, the Old Summer Palace in the Qianlong period not only has the beauty of oriental gardens, but also adds a lot of Western atmosphere.
Unfortunately, such a beautiful garden did not last long, and the arrival of the eight-nation coalition army drowned these carved beams and paintings in the fire, the most precious of which was the twelve beast heads, and they were also lost overseas in this catastrophe.
Where are they all now? What's the story behind it?
- Lost artifacts
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty generally worked in the Forbidden City, and they liked to go to the surrounding gardens when they were usually resting.
Since the time of the Yongzheng Emperor, this custom has begun, as a famous workaholic emperor, often pick lamps and night battles to approve various twists and turns, but in his spare time the Yongzheng Emperor still likes to come to the Old Summer Palace to relax, and later he simply dealt with various official affairs here, and finally died here.
After that, the Qianlong Emperor completely classified this place as a holiday area, and took his mother and daughter-in-law to play when he had nothing to do, rowing to see the flowers, and living a beautiful life.
However, to say that the longest time to stay, should be the Xianfeng Emperor, except for important festivals such as the winter solstice and the New Year, basically stay in the Old Summer Palace, you basically can't see the emperor in the Forbidden City, forcing several ministers to write to ask the emperor to stay in the Forbidden City for more work.
But the Xianfeng Emperor did not care about this, he not only severely rebuked those ministers who wrote to the letter, but also severely punished them, and the emperor, who had no one to persuade him, could finally live happily in the Old Summer Palace.
However, Xianfeng failed to protect his favorite Old Summer Palace, and before the Anglo-French army attacked Beijing, the Xianfeng Emperor took his concubines to run to Rehe, and when he was in Rehe, he heard that his favorite Old Summer Palace was burned by the Anglo-French army, and a large number of treasures were robbed.
The Xianfeng Emperor, whose faith collapsed, died in Chengde not long after, and could never return to his favorite Old Summer Palace.
After the Eight-Nation Alliance, China completely declined, and there was no way to fight back, and the subsequent rulers were unable to maintain the dilapidated garden, so they had to let him go on like this.
However, after the founding of New China, we began the work of cultural relics protection and cultural relics recovery, and many cultural relics of the Old Summer Palace were searched and sent back by people with lofty ideals.
When it comes to the most famous Old Summer Palace flowing back cultural relics, it must be the twelve beast heads. This beast head is the nozzle of the Haiyantang fountain, and when it was built, Qianlong wanted to add more Western elements to the Old Summer Palace, so he gave the casting task of this fountain to Lang Shining.
Since he wanted Western elements, Lang Shining naturally thought of nude female sculptures, but how could someone as conservative as the Qianlong Emperor accept it? Ordered to be redesigned on the grounds of violating ethics and morality, so Lang Shining replaced the naked female statue with the zodiac
In this way, the bronze statue of the zodiac was born.
It is a pity that the Anglo-French army burned the Old Summer Palace, and these beast heads were also snatched away and drifted in all directions.
Where are they all now?
- Journey home
After the Anglo-French army snatched these beast heads, they ran out of news, and it was not until the eighties of the twentieth century that these beast heads slowly appeared in the auction house.
In the last century, an American collector accidentally saw the head of a beast in a household, and he intuitively felt that this was a good thing, so he bought it for 1,500 yuan, and then sold it at a high price, and has been collecting it in various European and American collectors.
It was not until 2000 that the seven people, rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, horses, monkeys, and pigs, slowly returned to the mainland.
In 2009, Christie's held an auction in Hong Kong, including this important sub-mouse head, but Mr. Choi Mingchao did not pay for it, resulting in the auction being lost.
But the treasure eventually returned to the mainland, and the Pinault family in France bought the head and gave it to the Chinese government as a gift, and the Chinese Administration of Cultural Heritage said it would later put the collection of the head into the National Museum.
The millennium is a good year, and this year the ugly bull, the Yin tiger, and the rabbit beast appeared at auction one after another.
First of all, Shanghai Christie's auctioned the ugly bull and beast head, auctioning the cultural relics stolen during China's decline in China, and the news aroused social attention as soon as the news came out, and Poly Group decisively made a move and bought it for 745,000 Hong Kong dollars, and this ugly bull and beast head fired the first shot of Poly Group's auction of recycled beast heads.
Not long after, the head of the Yin Tiger Beast also appeared at the Shanghai Sotheby's auction house, and Poly Group bought it again for 15.44 million Hong Kong dollars.
When Christie's Shanghai auctioned, in addition to the tiger head, there was actually a rabbit head, and the rabbit head was also auctioned, and finally it was bought by the Pinault family and given to the Chinese government.
With people's attention to the head of the beast, a report by Shenzhen Satellite TV made people see the hope of the return of the head again.
A famous collector in Taiwan said that the dragon beast head was in Taiwan and was completely preserved, and the collector originally wanted to put this dragon beast head in the auction house for auction, but during that time, there happened to be a rabbit head auction incident, so the collector did not take out this dragon head again.
However, there was also grapevine that the dragon head appeared in France and was sold to a Chinese collector for 24 million.
In 2013, he was bought by Macau's "gambling king" Mr. Stanley Ho for 69.1 million Hong Kong dollars, and after a period of exhibition in Macau, Mr. Ho donated him to the Poly Museum of Art.
The good news is that in 2019, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage finally officially brought the head of the noon horse beast back to the Old Summer Palace, and she finally went home.
The head of the Shen monkey beast was also photographed by Poly Group and is now in the Poly Art Museum.
There is news that this beast head was bought by Chinese in the United States, but he could not confirm that this beast head was indeed the batch of the Old Summer Palace, so it is uncertain whether this beast head was stolen from the Old Summer Palace in the first place.
The head of the pig was bought by Mr. Stanley Ho and also donated to the museum.
The head of the snake beast, the head of the sheep beast, the head of the chicken beast, and the head of the dog beast are still unknown.
epilogue
Some people say that the return of the "horse head" is indeed a happy thing, after all, it represents an unforgettable history. However, I don't think contemporary times should spend too much energy and cost to find retribution, because sometimes the lack makes people remember history better. And the present generation should invest this energy and money where it is more needed. ”
I don't think so.
This should be our thing, we have found it as a matter of course, now it is a society ruled by law, and we cannot rob, so we use this method to take cultural relics home.
If China's influence in the world were a little greater, it would be even less important to worry about this kind of thing.
The loss and return of the 12 zodiac beast heads in the Old Summer Palace has witnessed China's humiliating history and the process of becoming strong, only if the country is strong will not be despised, backwardness will be beaten, for the national rejuvenation, my generation should strengthen themselves!