The countries that burned the Yuanmingyuan were Britain and France. There were only eight countries. The fire burned for three days and nights.
Burning Old Summer Palace (English: Burning Old Summer Palace, French: Burning vieux palais d'été), the Old Summer Palace was looted twice in history, the first time was by Britain and France during the Second Opium War When the Allied Forces invaded Beijing, the second time was during the Eight-Nation Allied Forces' invasion of China. In order to eliminate traces of the loot and cover up the crimes, the Old Summer Palace was burned again.
Burning the Old Summer Palace refers to the burning of the Old Summer Palace in a narrow sense. In a broad sense, the scope of burning is not only the Old Summer Palace, but also the three royal mountains and five gardens in the west of Beijing, namely Wanshou Mountain, Yuquan Mountain, Xiangshan Mountain, and Qingyi Garden. , Old Summer Palace, Changchun Garden, Jingming Garden and Jingyi Garden, the scope and extent of their burning was much larger than that of Old Summer Palace.
A rough estimate of the number of plundered cultural relics in the Old Summer Palace is about 1.5 million, ranging from bronze ritual vessels from China’s pre-Qin period to famous calligraphy and paintings of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and various rare objects. A rare treasure, only architectural ruins remain.
Cause of the incident:
On October 6, 1860, the British and French forces passed through the northeastern suburbs of Beijing and headed towards the Old Summer Palace. At that time, the remnants of Seng Gelinqin and Ruilin were stationed in the north of the city. Resistance means fleeing. The French army went ahead and passed through Haidian in the afternoon of the same day. In the evening, they broke into the Grand Palace Gate of the Old Summer Palace. At this time, there were more than twenty Jiyong eunuchs from the Yuanmingyuan engaging in battle with the enemy inside the Xianliang Gate. "Don't be afraid of danger and move forward with all your strength", but in the end they were outnumbered. Ren Liang, the "eighth grade leader" of Yuanmingyuan's technical and bravery, and others died in the line of duty. By 7 p.m., the French invading army captured the Old Summer Palace. Wen Feng, the minister in charge of the garden, threw himself into Fuhai and died.
On October 7, after the British and French invaders broke into the Old Summer Palace, they immediately "sent three British and French committee members to discuss the distribution of the treasures in the garden." The French commander Monttopin wrote to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs that day. "I order the French commissioners to take note of the items that are most valuable in art and archeology first. I am going to dedicate items that are extremely rare in France to His Majesty the Emperor (Napoleon III) and hide them in a French museum." British Commander Grant They also immediately "sent officers to try their best to collect objects that should belong to the British." The day after the French and British invading troops entered the park, they could no longer resist the temptation of the items. Officers and soldiers rushed forward in groups to rob the park. gold and silver treasures and cultural and artistic treasures.