Invaders burned Yuanmingyuan twice in history. The Yuanmingyuan was burned down for the first time in the tenth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty (1860), and the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing. The British and French allied forces burned and looted everywhere, savagely plundered and burned the world-famous Yuanmingyuan, and most of the temple buildings in the park were destroyed by fire. The British and French allied forces burned the Yuanmingyuan, aiming to raze it to the ground. However, due to the large area of Yuanmingyuan, scattered scenic spots and vast waters, some remote places and scenic spots in the water survived. According to the winter survey in the 12th year of Tongzhi (1873), there are still 13 buildings in the park. For example, Pengdao Yaotai and Cangzhou Wu in Yuanmingyuan, Dagongmen and Zhengjue Temple in Qichun Garden, etc. The Yuanmingyuan was burned down for the second time in the 26th year of Guangxu reign of Qing Dynasty (1900). Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing and set fire to Yuanmingyuan again, so that the only remaining 13 royal palace buildings here were looted and burned again.
In literary works, it seems that the sin of burning Yuanmingyuan is attributed to the incompetence of Empress Dowager Cixi. It sounds reasonable, but it's not exact. Countless facts in history show that a poor, backward and weak country and nation can only be oppressed, exploited, humiliated and plundered. The history of burning Yuanmingyuan once again proves that a poor, backward and weak country will be beaten.
Now, Yuanmingyuan has been turned into a ruins park, and protective maintenance is being carried out on the ruins, and the mountain water system, garden vegetation, bridges and culverts are restored, and some ancient buildings will also be rebuilt.
Brief introduction of Yuanmingyuan
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Located in the northwest suburb of Beijing, Yuanmingyuan was built in the Ming Dynasty. In the forty-eighth year of Kangxi (1709), Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty gave it to his fourth son, Yin Zhen (later Yong Zhengdi), and named it Yuanmingyuan. After more than 50 years' operation by the five emperors Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng/KLOC-0, we have concentrated a lot of material resources, entertained countless skilled craftsmen, poured the blood and sweat of millions of working people, and carefully built a large-scale and beautiful detached palace.
Every summer, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty came here to spend the summer, listen to politics and deal with military and political affairs, so it is also called the Summer Palace.
Yuanmingyuan Fiona Fang10km is composed of Yuanmingyuan, Wanchun Garden and Changchun Garden. Yuanmingyuan is the largest, so it is collectively called Yuanmingyuan (also known as Yuanming Three Gardens). In addition, there are many affiliated gardens in the east, west and south of Yuanmingyuan, including Jingyi Garden in Xiangshan, Jingming Garden in Yuquan Mountain and Qingyi Garden (the later Summer Palace was built on this basis). , with a total area of more than 5000 mu.
Yuanmingyuan not only brought together several famous scenic spots in the south of the Yangtze River, but also creatively transplanted western garden buildings, which was a masterpiece of gardening art at that time. There are magnificent palaces, light and exquisite pavilions in the garden; There are "buying and selling streets" symbolizing lively markets and "mountain villas" symbolizing rural scenery; Some are modeled after the autumn moon in Pinghu, the sunset photos of Leifeng in Hangzhou West Lake, and some are modeled after the lion forest scenic spots in Suzhou. There are also poems and paintings modeled after ancient poets and painters, such as Penglai Yaotai and Wuling Chunjing. It can be said that Yuanmingyuan is the crystallization of the wisdom and sweat of the working people in our country, and it is also a model of the architectural art and culture of our people. In addition, Yuanmingyuan also contains countless priceless treasures with different styles, extremely precious historical classics and rich and precious historical relics, such as paintings, gold and silver jewelry, Song and Yuan porcelain and so on. It can be called one of the treasures of human culture and the largest museum in the world.
Historical background of burning Yuanmingyuan
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/kloc-In the middle of the 0/9th century, Britain, France and other countries successively completed the industrial revolution. In order to plunder more commodity markets and raw materials, they stepped up their overseas colonial expansion. 1840, they flagrantly launched the opium war against China under the pretext of China's anti-smoking campaign. Due to the decay of feudal system in China and the corruption of Qing government, China suffered a crushing defeat in the First Opium War. Western capitalist countries forced the Qing government to sign the first batch of unequal treaties, and seized many privileges from China, such as reparations, negotiated tariffs, opening five-port trade, consular jurisdiction, and one-sided MFN treatment. The British bourgeoisie thought that it could dump a lot of goods to China through these unequal treaties. But this is not the case. According to relevant data, in 1850, Britain imported 750,000 fewer goods into China than in 1844. First, China's self-sufficient natural economy stubbornly resisted the invasion of foreign goods; Second, there is a contradiction between the increasing opium trade in Britain and the development of legal trade. After the Opium War, British and other colonialists imported opium into China in large quantities, and China's silver kept flowing out, which offset China's income from exporting tea and raw silk and made it unable to buy more British industrial products, which was of course very unfavorable to Britain. The British bourgeoisie should not only maintain the opium trade that brought great benefits to it, but also expand the sales of industrial products to China. This will force the Qing government to open more commercial ports, further control China Customs, and strengthen the control of the Qing government.
In order to further open the door to China, Britain, France, the United States and other western countries tried to oppress the Qing government and give it new rights and interests of aggression in the name of amending the treaty. 1853 In May, Britain first asked China to amend the relevant provisions of the treaty of nanking, followed by the United States and France, all of which were rejected by the Qing government. When the "treaty revision" negotiations initiated by colonialists such as Britain, America and France failed, they became angry from embarrassment and decided to launch a new war of aggression against China to realize their unreasonable demands.
1857, Britain used the Arrow Incident and France used the Abbema Incident as an excuse to jointly send troops to invade China. After occupying Guangzhou, they continued to invade Beijing. Emperor Xianfeng was frightened and sent his sixth brother Prince Gong? As an imperial envoy, he stayed in Beijing to preside over the peace talks. He took his empresses, princes, princes and a group of ministers and hurriedly fled to the Jehol Palace (now chengde mountain resort, Hebei).
On October 5th, 65438/KLOC-0, British and French troops arrived at the gates of Beijing. According to the information provided by Russian diplomat ignatieff, the defenders of the Qing army are concentrated in Dongcheng, and the northern city is the weakest place, which should be captured first; I also heard that the Qing emperor of China was in Yuanmingyuan in the northwest suburb. As a result, the British and French allied forces bypassed Andingmen and Deshengmen and invaded Yuanmingyuan. 10 year10.6, the British and French allied forces invaded Yuanmingyuan, and then carried out robbery crazily.
After the British and French allied forces captured Beijing in the tenth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty (1860), they occupied Yuanmingyuan on June 6, 10. China's defenders were outnumbered, and Wenfeng, the chief minister of Yuanmingyuan, committed suicide by throwing himself into Fuhai. Chang Ai, who lived in the garden, was scared to death. Two days after the British and French allied forces looted, they marched into the city. On June 65438+1October1day, the British army sent 1200 cavalry and an infantry regiment to rob Yuanmingyuan again. James Bruce, the British plenipotentiary, took Parkes and others as an excuse to put the burning of Yuanmingyuan on the agenda as a prerequisite. 10 year 10 month 18 day, 3500 British troops rushed into Yuanmingyuan and set fire to it. The fire didn't go out for three days, and the Yuanmingyuan and its nearby Qingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, Jingyi Garden, Changchun Garden and Haidian Town were all burned into ruins. Nearly 300 eunuchs, ladies-in-waiting and craftsmen were buried in the fire of Anyou Palace. Become a rare atrocity in the history of world civilization.
The first to break into Yuanmingyuan was the French invaders, who took everything they saw. The treasure in each French soldier's pocket is worth 30 thousand to 40 thousand francs. They came empty-handed and returned loaded. In the French military camp, there are valuable clocks and watches, colorful silks and satins and precious works of art worth 30 million francs.
Although the British invaders came a little late, their pockets were full of gold and silver. To make matters worse, they smashed those big porcelain and enamel bottles that could not be moved.
After the British and French invaders looted the Yuanmingyuan, in order to eliminate the spoils and cover up the crimes, the British Minister Plenipotentiary Erkin, with the support of British Prime Minister Pa Max Don, ordered the Yuanmingyuan to be burned. The fire burned for three days and nights, turning this world-famous garden into a scorched earth.
The British and French allied forces burned the Yuanmingyuan, aiming to raze it to the ground. However, due to the large area of Yuanmingyuan, scattered scenic spots and vast waters, some remote places and scenic spots in the water survived. According to the winter survey in the 12th year of Tongzhi (1873), there are still 13 buildings in the park. For example, Pengdao Yaotai and Cangzhou Wu in Yuanmingyuan, Dagongmen and Zhengjue Temple in Qichun Garden, etc.
The Yuanmingyuan was burned down for the second time in the 26th year of Guangxu reign of Qing Dynasty (1900). Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing and set fire to Yuanmingyuan again, so that the only remaining 13 royal palace buildings here were looted and burned again.
This catastrophe, as described and criticized by Hugo, a famous French writer, was that one day, two robbers broke into the Summer Palace, one robbed and the other set fire to it. They returned to Europe happily. These two robbers, one is called France, and the other is called England. They * * * shared the Yuanmingyuan, the treasure house of the East, and thought they had won a great victory.