1860 10 6 18, the British and French allied forces began to burn the world-famous imperial garden of the Qing dynasty-Yuanmingyuan.
In the autumn wind in October, we can't help feeling the beauty of classical gardens in Yuanmingyuan, a model of garden art in the western suburbs. As the British chaplain said, "You must have a poet, painter, art connoisseur, China scholar and other talented people to describe the scenery and give you some ideas ..." The tragic ruins left after the robbery ushered in countless mourners in the 20th century, which triggered people's reverie.
-French writer Hugo praised the garden as a miracle of oriental art.
The western suburbs of Beijing are picturesque, with not only verdant mountains stretching for hundreds of miles, but also flowing spring water in the mountains, which flows down from the southeast plain and flows into famous rivers and lakes such as Kunming Lake. The rulers who established the capital in Beijing from Liao, Jin and Ming Dynasties successively established many gardens and detached palaces here. After living in seclusion in the northeast and entering the Central Plains, the Manchu royal family became infatuated with the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, and learned some European luxury buildings from foreign missionaries (unfortunately, they were not interested in their technology and culture), and decided to integrate the known world beauty into the Royal Yuanmingyuan.
Yuanmingyuan was built in 1709, burned in 1860, and * * * was put into operation on 15 1 year. Several generations of Qing emperors spent a lot of money and material resources in the world to build this unprecedented royal garden. The garden consists of Yuanmingyuan, Wanchun Garden and Changchun Garden, so it is also called Yuanmingyuan. The total area of the three gardens is 5,200 mu, which is 850 mu larger than the Summer Palace, the largest existing royal garden. Garden perimeter 10 km, construction area10.6 million square meters, equivalent to the construction area of the Forbidden City in Beijing. There are more than 0/00 scenic spots in Sanyuan/KLOC, and countless platforms, halls, pavilions and pavilions are surrounded by mountains and rivers.
The Yuanmingyuan has inherited the excellent gardening art of China in the past dynasties, gathered famous garden attractions all over the country, and boldly absorbed western architectural forms, resulting in a number of "Western architecture" combining Chinese and Western styles. China gardens can be called a mixed form of landscape and architecture, which is not only different from western gardens with architecture as the mainstay, but also different from Japanese gardens with landscape as the mainstay. Yuanmingyuan has three gardening styles: Chinese, Japanese and Western Europe. Its reputation has already spread to the west, and it is as famous as the Palace of Versailles in France, and is known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens". There are also many rare books, celebrity calligraphy and painting, Ding Yi ritual vessels, gold beads and bronze and porcelain antiques in the park, which are one of the treasures of human culture. Hugo, a famous French writer, once described it in a letter to Captain Butler: "In a corner of the world, there is a world miracle. This miracle is called Yuanmingyuan. Art has two sources: one is ideal, which produces European art; One is fantasy, which produces oriental art. Yuanmingyuan's position in fantasy art is just like that of the Parthenon in ideal art.
-In order to scare the Qing emperor, the British and French allied forces burned the whole garden after the robbery.
Nowadays, when people come to the site of Yuanmingyuan, all they can see is the dimly discernible stone foundation, tortuous waterways and paths. Only a few pillars of Dashuifa and Yuanyingguan still stand there, overlooking the ruins and tiles, like a monument.
It was the British and French allied forces that caused the disaster. Hugo, a French writer, once angrily condemned this atrocity committed by his country and Britain. He said, "In the judgment seat of history, one robber is called France and the other is called Britain."
1840 After the British invaders launched the Opium War and opened the door to China, they demanded to open more concessions and send envoys to Beijing. However, it was not satisfied with launching the Second Opium War in 1857, and Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte's ruling France also sent troops to share the spoils. 1In September, 860, the British and French allied forces landed in Tianjin and advanced on Beijing. Emperor Xianfeng fled to chengde mountain resort, leaving tens of thousands of defenders to retreat within the city wall (that is, within the scope of the Second Ring Road now), leaving the suburbs plundered by the invading army. 6543810.6, the British and French allied forces rushed into Yuanmingyuan, and a few invulnerable Qing soldiers were defeated in World War I, so the minister of protecting the garden had to throw himself into the water. Seeing the magnificent palace garden, the dazzling invading army immediately began to plunder crazily. Then, the Allied Command issued a notice of "free robbery", 1000 more than British and French officers and men came and went, scrambling to enter the park, and all returned with full loads.
After several days of looting, the British monopolist Er Jin put forward: "Only burning Yuanmingyuan is the most feasible ... this will make Dihua suffer the greatest shock." British Prime Minister david palmer not only agreed with this, but also said, "I will be very happy if Beijing Palace is treated in the same way." A planned greater atrocity began.
10 year 10 month 18, a disastrous day in the modern history of the Chinese nation, 3,500 British soldiers entered Yuanmingyuan again with torches and lit them everywhere. More than 300 eunuchs, maids-in-waiting, and craftsmen were buried in the fire. The huge palace rose in flames for three days, and the smoke and the moon continued. It can really be said that "a torch destroys a famous garden, leaving traces of mountains and rivers throughout the ages."
After the Yuanmingyuan was burned, the British and French allied forces threatened the Qing court, and if they did not yield, they would go into the city to burn the palace. The corrupt and incompetent Manchu rulers immediately signed the Beijing Treaty, ceding land for compensation in exchange for the invaders' retreat.
-The Westernization Movement after the Yuanmingyuan disaster brought about national awakening and progress.
From a cultural point of view, the destruction of Yuanmingyuan is an unprecedented tragedy in the history of human civilization. Judging from the historical process, this tragic disaster, which was beaten behind, shocked people of insight in China. In the second year after the disaster, that is, 186 1 year, the Westernization Movement began to be established, but the national goal of "self-improvement" was delayed due to heavy resistance, and Yuanmingyuan itself and even the whole of Beijing and China continued to suffer.
After the British and French allied forces burned the Yuanmingyuan, it can be seen from the photos that most of the architectural remains are still relatively complete. The Qing court still regarded it as a heavily guarded forbidden park for more than 30 years, and carried out a series of restoration projects. Tongzhi, Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi often visit. Just because of domestic troubles and foreign invasion, the Qing court was short of financial resources, so it could only misappropriate naval funds to build the Summer Palace and was unable to take care of it.
1900, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, not only the Summer Palace was looted (later restored in 1903), but also the site of Yuanmingyuan was completely destroyed. Due to the escape of the garden management organization, the idle flag soldiers and hooligans in the park began to steal building materials. During the Republic of China, the ruins were even more neglected. Warlords of all factions and even many rich people come here to carry stones to build tombs and gardens. In the past twenty or thirty years, there have been an endless stream of stolen carriages almost every day, and the remnant garden has become a "stone yard". It was not until the founding of New China that the site of Yuanmingyuan was protected, and it has been restored to some extent in recent years.
Sadly, the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan plundered by the invaders have been exhibited and sold in European and American markets for a long time in the past hundred years. Until 1987, there was no report about the auction of Yuanmingyuan fountain clock in new york market. Ruthless facts show that the people of China, the so-called "disseminators of western civilization", are so barbaric in the land of China. The disaster in Yuanmingyuan also aroused the self-esteem and self-improvement consciousness of countless Chinese sons and daughters, trying to get rid of the status of being discriminated by the West and stand on their own feet in the world.
If we cross just visiting, people will see countless magnificent palaces, such as the Hanging Gardens in Babylon, Qin Epang Palace, etc., and they can also witness the flames burning into ashes again and again sadly. Buildings that have exhausted people's fat and people's essence circulate with the destruction of war, forming a burning scene on the historical stage. I believe that with the progress of human civilization, this difficult and fragile cycle will end, and all brilliant achievements of civilization will be left intact to future generations.
Although the Ming Garden was completely destroyed by the British and French allied forces in 1860, there are still many architectural relics in the whole garden. At least in 1870, some buildings of Xiyang Building were still intact, and there was a large-scale Chinese architectural reconstruction in the park during the Tongzhi period. So, who completely destroyed it?
Fire robbery: Coalition forces, bandits and soil thieves
When the British and French allied forces looted Yuanmingyuan crazily, countless bandits took part in the robbery. The British and French allied forces chose the most valuable things to rob, bandits plundered the remaining essence, Wang picked up the scraps abandoned by the Committee, and even the eunuchs guarding the garden took advantage of the fire to rob. Easily available valuables were quickly collected, and some people pinned their hopes on exquisite treasures scattered and buried in the dust. They picked up brooms and dustpans and flew sand and dust on the middle road of the garden. Eunuchs and soldiers guarding the garden call them "soil-sifting thieves", and sometimes there is a saying: "soil-sifting, soil-sifting, never suffering." Fortunately, the building was not injured at this time.
Robbery of wood: Yuanmingyuan turned into a charcoal factory
Eight-Nation Alliance 1900 invaded Beijing, and the gardens in the western suburbs were looted again. This time, the Qing government completely lost control of Yuanmingyuan, and the people who took advantage of the fire were no longer satisfied with robbing foreigners of their surplus wealth. They sawed off the scattered buildings, columns and wooden bridges in the garden after the fire robbery, and pulled them down with big ropes. The trees and trees in the garden were also cut down. At that time, the timber in Qinghe town was piled up like a mountain, and the trade was busy. There were many charcoal factories in the park, and all the branches and roots were burned into charcoal.
Stone robbery: selling stones can also make a fortune.
In the early years of the Republic of China, warlords who changed like lanterns regarded Yuanmingyuan as an inexhaustible building material field. There are many helpless records in the archives of Puyi period: "Soldiers use 10 cars to pull Taihu Stone in the garden every day." In fact, the situation of dismantling and selling is far more serious than that recorded in the file. Xu Shichang demolished the timber of Ming and Jing Spring Gardens in Yuanmingyuan, and Wang Huaiqing demolished the wall of Anyou Palace and the stone of the west building in the garden. Since then, everything that can be used as building materials in Yuanmingyuan ruins, from square bricks, roof tiles, wall bricks and stone strips on the ground to underground wooden nails, stakes and copper pipes, has been collected and pulled intermittently for more than 20 years! Later generations called this a "stone robbery" after the fire in Yuanmingyuan.
Soil robbery: planting rice in the imperial garden forest
At this point, Yuanmingyuan has been looted by fire, wood and stone, and all buildings, trees and bricks have disappeared. Is its tragic fate over? Not yet! It has to go through a more thorough "soil robbery" in the end. At the end of Xuan Tong, local banners built houses on the ruins of the palace in the park, facing the former royal garden. During the Japanese occupation period after 1940, Beijing was short of food, so it was rewarded for land reclamation. Since then, farmers have successively entered the park to fill the lake in Pingshan and open up wasteland to grow rice. Yuanmingyuan, a painstaking effort in the early Qing Dynasty 150 years of victory over lakes and mountains, is beyond recognition.