As we all know, October 18 every year is the "death day" when the Yuanmingyuan is burned down.
The culprit in the destruction of this treasure trove of human culture is the leader of the 'Anglo-French Coalition' - the British Plenipotentiary 'Erkin'.
Here we explain that 'Elgin' is not a human name, but a title of the English nobility, and the recipient is the famous 'Bruce family' in Scotland.
After the annexation of Scotland to England in 1654, the title was retained.
Over the centuries, the Bruce family has inherited this title by 11 people, two of whom are widely known:
One is thomas bruce, the seventh generation of the papal parthenon in Greece; the other is the protagonist of our article, "James Bruce", the culprit who burned the Yuanmingyuan.
James Bruce, the eighth generation of the Bruce family, is a murderous person, his father once robbed and burned Greek antiquities in the war of aggression against Greece, causing great losses to the Greek people.
This may be the so-called "father must have his son"!
In February of the eighth year of the Xianfeng Dynasty (1860), in order to further subdue the Qing court, the British authorities sent Erjin back to China as a minister.
After that, he unified the LinkedIn army, and together with the French army, captured Dagukou and occupied the city of Tianjin, where he signed the Treaty of Tianjin with Guiliang and Hua Shana appointed by the Qing government at Haiguang Temple.
Under the powerful offensive of the Anglo-French army, the Qing dynasty army was gradually defeated, and on October 13, the Anglo-French army officially invaded the city of Beijing.
Erjin knew that the Yuanmingyuan was a rare imperial garden in the world, so after entering the city of Beijing, he immediately rushed to check it out, and in addition to playing, he began to plunder.
On October 7, Erjin ordered the looting of the Yuanmingyuan. In just a few days, the gold, silver, porcelain, calligraphy and paintings in the Yuanmingyuan were all looted.
These precious treasures, which condensed the wisdom and blood and sweat of the Chinese people, became the so-called "spoils of war" of the Anglo-French coalition.
However, infuriatingly, Erjin also ordered the burning of the Yuanmingyuan after looting! On October 18, a raging fire broke out in the Yuanmingyuan for three days and three nights.
In this way, it was built for 150 years, covering an area of more than 5,000 acres and more than 140 scenes, pouring out the huge "museum" and "treasure house" established by the country in the heyday of the Qing Dynasty, which was reduced to ashes in a fire set by the invaders.
Subsequently, Erjin and the French representative Ge Luo coerced the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Beijing, which humiliated the country.
Indignantly, the British authorities also named an old rented street in Tianjin after the robber Elgin, called "Elgin Avenue".
However, the people of Tianjin never accepted this name, but wrote down their hatred for the veteran imperialist's aggression against China.
In 1962, Elgin was ordered to India as Governor-General!
One day in 1963, Erjin's house was suddenly struck by lightning, and a fire suddenly broke out, and Erjin finally died at the age of 52.
It is said that Erjin's body burned in the fire for 3 days and 3 nights, exactly the same time as when he burned the Yuanmingyuan.
It really responded to that sentence: "Good and evil will eventually be rewarded, and the heavenly path is good for reincarnation." Look up in disbelief, who has the heavens spared"!