December 25 is The Christmas day in the West, but on the 24th, a picture brushed the circle of friends:
The main content of the picture is: Christmas Eve, Christmas and Carnival Night, which originated from the burning of the Yuanmingyuan by the Eight-Nation Alliance more than a hundred years ago, Chinese if these festivals are simply the shame of Chinese...
Advocating Chinese chinese festival, there is no problem.
But in just a few hundred words, there are many loopholes in fact.
Text | Choi Hyuk-ho
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<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" >1 Who burned the Yuanmingyuan? </h1>
On October 6, 1860, after the British and French forces captured Beijing, they directly attacked the Yuanmingyuan.
On the 7th, after the leaders of the British and French invasion of China broke into the Yuanmingyuan, the British commander Grant immediately "sent officers to collect things that should belong to the British." At the command, an "organized plunder" immediately formed in the Yuanmingyuan.
On the 18th, the British commander, James Brauss, Earl of the Eighth Earl of Elgin, ordered that the Yuanmingyuan be burned to the ground. "There is not a single one left, not a single house left, so that there is no trace of a palace here."
The Yuanmingyuan was annihilated in the fire.
In 1861, the French literary magnate Victor Hugo, in a letter to his friend, Captain Barrett, who had participated in the Anglo-French Forces of the Second Opium War, severely condemned the crimes committed by the Anglo-French forces in the Yuanmingyuan:
"One day, two robbers broke into the Yuanmingyuan, one robbed and one burned it. It turned out that victory was a plunder, and the victor stole all the wealth of the Yuanmingyuan and then shared the loot with each other. All this is done in the name of Erkin. ”
The great literary hero Hugo was angrily denouncing the evil deeds of the British and French allies, "two robbers, one called France, one called English", how come we forgot about it?
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" >2 When was the Eight-Power Coalition? </h1>
Since it was the British and French coalition forces that burned down the Yuanmingyuan, what happened to the Eight-Power Alliance?
The Eight-Power Alliance launched a war of aggression against China in the name of suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, causing indelible harm to the Chinese people, but that was in 1900 (the 26th year of Qing Guangxu) -
On May 28, 1900, eight major countries, led by the then British Empire, the United States of America, the French Third Republic, the German Empire, the Russian Empire, the Empire of Japan, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, formed a war of armed aggression against the Qing Dynasty.
On August 16, 1900, the commanders of the Eight-Power Alliance "allowed the army to rob openly for three days," and the city of Beijing fell into an unprecedented catastrophe, the first time in hundreds of years that the Chinese capital had been looted by a foreign occupation force.
Previously, the British and French forces attacked the northwestern suburbs of Beijing and burned the Yuanmingyuan, but the change did not affect the interior of the Forbidden City, and the city of Beijing was not much damaged. However, this robbery by the Eight-Power Alliance made the Forbidden City difficult to escape. At the same time as the Forbidden City, it was also looted by the Temple of Heaven, the Three Seas, the Summer Palace, the Liubu Jiuqing, the Hanlin Temple, the Qianfa Hall, the Taitang Temple, the Guanglu Temple, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other Qing government institutions.
The residences of the princes, the private residences of the rich, etc., were also plundered.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" >3 Where did Christmas come about? </h1>
December 25 was originally just a holiday for the ancient Romans and had nothing to do with Christianity. But by the 1st century, when Christianity was prevalent in the Roman Empire, they incorporated this local festival (Saturnalia) into the Christian system to celebrate the birth of Jesus. In the 4th century, the church officially announced that December 25 would be the birthday of Jesus, called "Christmas".
The night before Christmas is called Christmas Eve, and on this night, most European and American families choose to have dinner at home, sit around the burning fireplace, and share the world, or hold a party and celebrate all night. This is a bit like our Spring Festival, full of happiness and peace and reunion.
As for 26 December, celebrated as Boxing Day in parts of the Commonwealth, gifts are given to those who have served in the first year. On this day, families gather to watch sports games or play board games, and hunting is one of the most popular celebrations of the day.
References: 1. Jinfu's "Burning the Yuanmingyuan" 丨 "Literature and History Reference", No. 19, 2010;
2. Shi Wenxuan, "Send away the Winter Solstice Day, usher in the Festival of Theaurida" 丨 "Museum" Magazine 2010; etc.