October in the autumn wind, we inevitably feel nostalgic for the former western suburbs of the model of garden art - Yuanmingyuan classical garden beauty. As the British military chaplain said: "There must be a combination of poets, painters, art connoisseurs, Chinese scholars and other kinds of geniuses, in order to write all the garden, describe the best, give you some slight idea ...... "The sadness of the ruins remaining after the robbery, but also In the 20th century ushered in countless mourners, provoking people how much reverie.
-French writer Victor Hugo praised the garden is a miracle of oriental art
The western suburbs of Beijing is a picturesque landscape, not only the verdant mountain ranges stretching for hundreds of miles, the mountain springs also straight down to the southeast plains, converging into the famous Kunming Lake and other rivers and lakes and swamps, such as the Road of the colorful practice. From Liao, Jin until the Ming Dynasty in Beijing built the capital of the rulers, have established a number of gardens here away from the Palace. From the then still deserted Northeast into the Central Plains of the Manchu royal family, after the capital of Beijing and obsessed with Jiangnan color, coupled with the foreign missionaries there to understand some of the European luxury architecture (but unfortunately not interested in its technological and cultural interest), they are determined to integrate the world's known beauty in the Royal Yuanmingyuan.
The Yuanmingyuan was built from 1709 until it burned down in 1860, **** operated for 151 years. Several generations of the Qing Emperor did not know how much of the world's financial and material resources, to build this dynasty of dynasties unprecedented royal gardens. The garden by the Yuanmingyuan, Wanchunyuan, Changchunyuan three garden composition, it is also known as "Yuanming three gardens". The total area of the three gardens is 5,200 acres, which is 850 acres larger than the largest existing royal garden, the Summer Palace. The circumference of the garden is more than 10 kilometers, and the construction area is 160,000 square meters, which is equivalent to the construction area of the Imperial Palace in Beijing. There are more than 100 scenic spots in the three gardens, and countless buildings, halls, pavilions and pavilions are surrounded by mountains and water.
The Yuanmingyuan inherited the excellent art of Chinese gardening through the ages, bringing together the country's famous gardens and scenic spots, but also boldly absorbed the Western architectural forms, a group of Chinese and Western "Western House" building complex. Chinese gardens can be described as a mixture of landscape and architectural forms, both different from Western gardens to architecture, but also different from Japanese gardens to landscape. Yuanmingyuan is a combination of Chinese, Japanese and Western European three styles of gardening, its reputation has long been spread to the West, and the French Palace of Versailles, known as the "Garden of Gardens". Inside the garden, there are also many rare books, paintings and calligraphy of celebrities, tripods and ritual vessels, gold beads and treasures, copper and porcelain antiques, which is one of the cultural treasures of mankind. The famous French writer Victor Hugo once wrote to Captain Butler in a letter depicted that: "In a corner of the world, there is a world of wonders. This miracle is called the Yuanmingyuan. There are two sources of art, one is ideal, which produces European art; the other is fantasy, which produces oriental art. The Yuanmingyuan is to fantasy art what the Parthenon is to ideal art.
-The British and French armies burned down the entire garden after looting it to frighten the Qing Emperor
When people come to the Yuanmingyuan ruins today, there are only vaguely recognizable stone foundations, twisting and turning watercourses and paths in front of their eyes. Only a few stone pillars of the Great Water Law and Yuan Ying Guan still stand there, overlooking the wreckage, scattered hazelnut, as a monument.
What caused this havoc was the British and French allied forces. French literary hero Victor Hugo had angrily condemned his country with the British **** with the creation of this atrocity said, "On the judgment seat of history, a robber called France, the other is called England."
The British invaders launched the Opium War in 1840 to open the door to China, and then asked to open additional boundaries and envoys to Beijing, could not be satisfied to launch the second Opium War in 1857, Napoleon III's France for a share of the spoils of war, also sent troops into the army. 1860 September, the British and French allied forces landed in Tianjin pushed the city of Beijing, the Reigns of Emperor Xianfeng fled to the summer residence in Chengde, leaving a few million Defenders hunkered down within the city walls (i.e., now within the scope of the Second Ring Road), the outskirts of the countryside to be plundered by the invading army. October 6, the British and French forces stormed the Yuanmingyuan, a small number of Qing soldiers with swords and spears a battle that was lost, and the Minister of the Garden of the Guardian had to commit suicide by throwing himself into the water. See the magnificent palace garden, dazzled by the invasion army immediately began a crazy looting. Then, the Allied Forces Command issued a "free to loot" notice, more than 10,000 British and French officers and soldiers, so you come and go, scrambling into the garden, each full of return.
After the continuous days of robbery, the British monopoly Elgin and proposed: "only the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, the most feasible ...... this move can make the Chinese emperor to produce the greatest shock." British Prime Minister Barmerzoon not only agreed with this, but also said, "I would be very happy if the Peking Palace suffered the same treatment." A planned and larger atrocity then began.
On Oct. 18, a day of disaster in the annals of modern Chinese history, 3,500 British troops re-entered the Yuanmingyuan with torches in hand, lighting them everywhere. More than 300 eunuchs, courtesans and artisans in the garden buried in flames, the huge palace flames rose for three days, the remaining smoke for months. It can be said that "a torch destroyed the famous garden, thousands of rivers and mountains to leave a trail of hate".
After the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, the British and French allied forces threatened the Qing court, if they do not yield will have to attack the city, the palace will also be burned. The corrupt and incompetent Manchu rulers immediately signed the Treaty of Beijing, a treaty of cession and reparations, in exchange for the retreat of the invaders.
-After the disaster of the Yuanmingyuan, the foreign affairs movement emerged, and the tragedy led to national awakening and progress
From a cultural point of view, the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan was an unprecedented tragedy in the history of human civilization. From the process of history, this backwardness and defeat of the tragic disaster shocked the knowledgeable Chinese. The second year after the disaster that is 1861, learning to introduce foreign advanced technology of the foreign affairs movement began to organize, just because of the resistance, the country "self-improvement" goal has not been achieved, the Yuanmingyuan itself, and even the whole of Beijing, the whole of China continues to be more than just a disaster.
After the Anglo-French allied forces burned the Yuanmingyuan, left behind photos can also be seen in most of the building remnants are still relatively intact, the Qing court in more than 30 years will still be used as a heavily guarded forbidden garden, and a series of restoration projects, Tongzhi, Guangxu two generations of emperors and the Empress Dowager Cixi also often to this tour. Just because of internal and external problems, the Qing court financial resources are stretched to the limit, can only divert naval funds to build the Summer Palace and can not afford to take care of more.
In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing, not only was the Summer Palace by a looting (later restored in 1903), the Yuanmingyuan ruins were completely destroyed. Because of the management of the garden institutions to escape, the garden has no livelihood of the idle flag soldiers and the city hooligan hobo group of theft and transportation of building materials. Into the years of the Republic of China, the site is more unattended, the warlords and even many rich families to carry the stone used to build a tomb to repair the garden, one or two years to come to the theft of the horse-drawn carriages almost every day, the remnants of the garden has become a "stone yard". Until the founding of New China, the Yuanmingyuan ruins have been protected, and in recent years and get some restoration.
It is sad that the invaders took away the Yuanmingyuan cultural relics in Europe and the United States for a long time in the market exhibition sale. Until 1987, the New York market also appeared in the auction of Yuanmingyuan fountain clock and other objects reported. Relentless facts show the people of China, those who call "Western civilization" purveyor, in the land of China is so barbaric. The Yuanmingyuan disaster, but also stirred up countless Chinese children's self-esteem and sense of self-improvement, in order to try to get rid of the status of discrimination by the West and stand on their own in the world of nations.
If we travel through the time tunnel, people will see from the ancient Babylonian sky garden to the Qin Afang Palace and other countless brilliant palace, but also again and again sadly witnessed a torch into the ashes of the fire. The cycle of building and war destruction that consumes the people's fat and wealth constitutes a burning scene on the stage of history. I believe that with the progress of human civilization, this into a difficult and easy to destroy the cycle will end, all the magnificent achievements of civilization will be left intact to future generations.
The Mingyuan was devastated by the British and French forces in 1860, but many architectural monuments remain throughout the park. At least in 1870, some of the buildings in the Xiyanglou were still intact, and there was a halfway large-scale restoration of the Chinese-style buildings in the park during the Tongzhi period. So who completely destroyed it?
Fire robbery: allied forces, bandits and sieve bandits
When the Anglo-French allied forces ransacked the Yuanmingyuan frantically, there were countless bandits involved in the looting. The British and French forces chose the most valuable things to loot, the bandits plundered the remaining essence, and the people picked up the bits and pieces that were abandoned on the road, and even the eunuchs who guarded the garden took advantage of the fire to loot. Easily accessible valuable items were soon searched clean, some people and hope in the scattered, buried in the dust of the fine treasures, they manipulated the broom and dustpan, in the garden on the road flying sand and dust, guarding the garden eunuchs officers and soldiers will be known as "sieve soil thieves", there is a proverb: "sieve soil, sieve soil, a lifetime without suffering", "sieve soil, sieve soil, a lifetime without suffering". A lifetime without suffering", but fortunately this time has not hurt the building.
Wood robbery: Yuanmingyuan into a charcoal factory
In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing, the western suburbs of the garden was looted again. This time, the Qing government has completely lost control of the Yuanmingyuan, looting people are no longer satisfied with robbing the foreigners robbed the remaining wealth, they will be robbed by fire in the garden of the remaining scattered buildings, wooden bridges, columns, piles sawed off, with a large rope pulled down, the garden of the size of the trees were also indiscriminately cut down to the ground. At that time, the town of Qinghe wood piles up, busy trading, while the garden is a charcoal factory, tree branches, roots are all burned into charcoal.
Stone robbery: selling stones can get rich
Republic of China in the early days of the warlords, like the turnover of the Yuanmingyuan as an inexhaustible field of building materials, Puyi period of the archives left a lot of helpless records: "military escort daily more than 10 cars pulling the park in the Taihu Lake stone." In fact, the demolition and sale of the situation is far more serious than recorded in the archives. Xu Shichang demolished the Yuanmingyuan belonging to the Ming Chunyuan and mirror spring garden of wood, Wang Huaiqing demolition of the garden in the Anyou Palace wall and the Western building stone. From then on, the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan can be used as building materials, from the ground to square bricks, roof tiles, wall bricks, stone, and underground wood pegs, wooden piles, copper pipes, etc. were searched clean, off and on for more than 20 years! Later people called this for the Yuanmingyuan fire robbery after the "stone robbery".
Earth robbery: in the Royal Garden open rice
So far, the Yuanmingyuan has been over the fire robbery, wood robbery and stone robbery, building, wood, masonry have been gone, its tragic fate is over? Not yet! It has to go through the last, more thorough "earth robbery". The end of the Xuantong, the local Banner people have been in the garden on the site of the old palace to build houses, the former Royal Garden wheat ridge looking at each other. 1940 after the Japanese occupation period, Beijing, food tension, and so rewarded to open up the land. From this time onwards, farmers one after another into the garden to fill in the lake, open rice paddies. Yuanmingyuan this in the early Qing dynasty after more than 150 years of painstakingly managed the victory of the lake and mountains, then face completely different.