The World-famous Royal Garden-Yuanmingyuan

Brief introduction of Yuanmingyuan

Yuanmingyuan is located in the northwest suburb of Beijing, east of Haidian District. Originally a large-scale royal garden in the Qing Dynasty, it covers an area of about 5,200 mu and has an inverted zigzag layout. Yuanmingyuan consists of Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden, with a total area of 350 hectares.

The land building area of Yuanmingyuan is as big as the Forbidden City, and the water area is equivalent to a Summer Palace. Yuanmingyuan combines the characteristics of several famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River at that time, melts the essence of ancient gardening art in China, and melts poetry and painting into ever-changing scenes with the artistic technique of garden in the garden. The southern part of Yuanmingyuan is the imperial court area, where the emperor handles official business. There are 40 scenic spots in other areas, of which more than 50 scenic spots directly imitate famous gardens in other places, such as the Ten Scenes of West Lake in Hangzhou, not only imitating architecture, but also copying names. More interestingly, Yuanmingyuan also has a western-style garden scenic spot. The most famous "watching water method" is a western-style fountain, a flower maze and a western-style building, all of which have the style of Italian Renaissance. There is also a model of Venice in the lake, and the emperor can enjoy the "water city scenery" thousands of miles away from the mountain on the shore.

Yuanmingyuan is a treasure house, which contains rare cultural relics such as celebrity calligraphy and painting, secret room classics, Zhong Ding treasures, gold and silver jewelry and so on, which condenses the essence of ancient culture. Yuanmingyuan is also a garden of exotic flowers and plants, with millions of rare flowers and trees. Westerners who have witnessed Yuanmingyuan completely call her "the king of ten thousand gardens". Indeed, if today is the same as 140 years ago, this super giant garden is well-deserved "the king of world gardens". Regrettably, in 1860, the British and French allied forces looted Yuanmingyuan, and the buildings in the park were burned and the cultural relics were looted. The magical and mythical Yuanmingyuan is in ruins, leaving only broken walls for tourists to mourn.

The name of Yuanmingyuan was named by Emperor Kangxi. The three-character plaque of Michelle Ye Imperial Book hangs on the lintel of Yuanmingyuan. Why is it called Yuanmingyuan? Yong Zhengdi has an explanation, saying that the word "Yuanming" means: "Round and fascinating, the gentleman is also in the middle; Bright and shining, the wisdom of talents is also. " It means "round", that is, a person's moral character is perfect, beyond ordinary people; "Ming" means bright, perfect and wise political achievements. This can be said to be the ideal standard for the ruling class to flaunt the wisdom of the monarch in feudal times.

At that time, the palace buildings used a lot of wood, which was easy to cause fires. In addition, the summer weather is hot, and the walls of the palace are very high, so it is impossible to ventilate. The whole palace is like a stove, and it is impossible to live in it. There is a clearing 20 miles away from the palace. Kangxi wants to build a garden where he can enjoy himself.

According to the ancestral system of the Qing dynasty, in order to ensure the purity of the banners, Han women were not allowed to enter the palace. What alternatives does the emperor have? That is to build a place called the Royal Garden.

About how the Manchu emperor collected beautiful women from all over the country and then gathered in Yuanmingyuan. There is such a record in historical materials: ..... The Qing Palace selected female students, and all Manchu and Mongolian girls over 14 years old but under 20 years old signed up for the election. ..... Emperor Xianfeng said, "Class One is a flag girl, which is not beneficial." The supervisor said, "Long live the son and the rich Lord forever, just calling on the imperial edict to let the provinces choose women to serve, which will make the calligraphy too real and can be realized." ..... In less than half a year, South China Middle School has put dozens of Han women into Yuanmingyuan and separated them from pavilions. Among them, there are four people who are the most popular. Emperor Xianfeng gave them the names Mudanchun, Xingchun, Wu Linchun and Haitangchun.

The Historical Development of Yuanmingyuan

Yuanmingyuan is a famous royal garden in Qing Dynasty. In the forty-eighth year of Kangxi (1709), Emperor Kangxi (that is, Emperor Michelle Ye of the Qing Dynasty) gave a garden one mile north of Changchun Garden in the northwest suburb of Beijing to his fourth son, Yin Zhen, and personally wrote the garden as "Yuanmingyuan". In the third year of Yongzheng (1725), Yong Zhengdi (namely Emperor Sejong of the Qing Dynasty, Yin Zhen) built a palace office in the south of Yuanmingyuan, covering an area of more than 3,000 mu from the original 600 mu. From then on, Yuanmingyuan was not only a place for the Qing emperors to rest and visit, but also a place for them to meet foreign envoys and handle their daily affairs. After Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne, he adjusted the garden landscape in Yuanmingyuan, increased the number of architectural groups, and built Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden (Tongzhi renamed Wanchun Garden) in the east and southeast of Yuanmingyuan. These three gardens are all managed by the management minister of Yuanmingyuan, which is called Yuanming Three Gardens.

Yuanming Three Gardens covers an area of more than 5,200 mu, with more than 50 scenic spots/kloc-0. Among them, the most famous ones are Guangming Hall in Zheng Da, Anyou Palace for ancestor worship, high-rise buildings with high water in feast mountains, Pengdao Yaotai simulating pavilions on Fairy Mountain, and Wuling Spring Scenery in Peach Blossom Garden. Some famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, such as the Lion Forest in Suzhou and the Ten Scenes of the West Lake in Hangzhou, are also imitations. Changchun Garden also has a group of European-style buildings, commonly known as the West Building. Yuanmingyuan is also a large royal museum with many treasures, books and artistic masterpieces.

In August of the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing. On October 6th, 65438/kloc-0, Yuanmingyuan was occupied. From the next day, the officers and men began to rob and destroy crazily. In order to force the Qing government to accept the conditions of peace as soon as possible, British Minister Erkin and British Commander Grant ordered Lieutenant General Mitchell to lead more than 3,500 invading troops to Yuanmingyuan on June+65,4381October+10/October 8, 5438 on the pretext that the Qing government had imprisoned British and French prisoners in Yuanmingyuan. The fire lasted two days and two nights.

During the Tongzhi period (1862 ~ 1874), the Tongzhi emperor prepared to restore the Yuanmingyuan for the Empress Dowager Cixi to live in. Later, due to financial difficulties, it was forced to stop work and rebuild other buildings. 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, and the Yuanmingyuan was destroyed again. After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, some warlords, politicians and bureaucrats stole the building materials of Yuanmingyuan, and the site of Yuanmingyuan was further destroyed.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the state attached great importance to the protection of Yuanmingyuan site. 1979, Yuanmingyuan site was listed as a key cultural relics protection unit in Beijing. After that, the repair work of Yuanmingyuan site gradually began. Now it has become the Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park.

Yuanmingyuan construction

Manchu people have lived in Heilongjiang Valley in northeast China for generations. /kloc-In the middle of the 7th century, it invaded North China on a large scale, completely overthrew the Ming Dynasty, entered Beijing from the northeast as the capital, seized the national political power, and established the last feudal ruling dynasty in history-the Qing Dynasty. Because the Qing rulers lived a nomadic life in the northeast before entering the customs, with snow-covered forests in winter and cool climate in summer. After entering the customs, they didn't adapt to the dry and hot climate in Beijing in midsummer. Although the Forbidden City is resplendent and magnificent, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty found it dull and dreary. Especially in the early years of Kangxi, after the fire broke out in the Forbidden City, a high palace wall was built to prevent fire and court riots. The courtyards in the palace set each other off and became interesting. The water in the stream was so gentle that it almost became stagnant water. At that time, the imperial city was once known as the "red wall, green tile and black sewer". This made the emperors a little tired of the palace life surrounded by high walls, so they began to build gardens in the early years of Kangxi, which lasted for more than 200 years. In the western suburbs of Beijing, the endless Xishan Xiufeng: Yuquan Mountain, Wanshou Mountain, Wanquanzhuang, Beihai and other landforms, artesian springs can be seen everywhere, and they converge into large and small lakes and ponds in low-lying places. Yuquan landscape flows into Kunming Lake from west to east, becoming the largest water surface in the western suburbs. Ancient working people lived and worked hard here, and cultivated a large area of paddy fields, forming a natural scenic spot. As early as Liao Dynasty, the feudal emperors chose this place to build Yuquan Mountain Palace. In the Ming dynasty, the natural scenery here attracted more tourists, so some dignitaries occupied the countryside to build villas, and large areas of land were occupied by pieces. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Hou Liwei, the closest relative of the Ming Dynasty, built a lot of buildings here, first of all, the Tsinghua campus, which is known as the "first garden in Beijing" (so it is located outside the western wall of Peking University). Later, Mi led the lake to garden outside the east wall of Tsinghua campus, and managed the elegant and beautiful "spoon garden", which means "Haidian spoon". In the open countryside, pavilions and lakes and mountains complement each other and become a famous garden gathering place in the suburbs of Beijing. In the Qing dynasty, the emperor also took a fancy to the western suburbs, an excellent gardening place. This is how the large-scale construction of gardens began.

Yuanmingyuan is located in the north of Guajiatun, about one mile away from Changchun Garden, that is, in the north of today's Peking University and west of Tsinghua University. The Yuanmingyuan in the Kangxi era has water surfaces such as Qianhu and Houhu, and gardens such as "Peony Pavilion" and "Natural Picture Scroll". When Yuanmingyuan was still a princes' garden, the rules could not exceed the emperor's Changchun Garden, so there were not many scenes built and the reputation was not great, which was far less than Changchun Garden. But later, with the master's accession to the throne, the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty came. After more than 60 years of continuous expansion, the most magnificent royal garden in China's history was finally built.

The chief designer of Yuanmingyuan is an architect named Lei Jinyu, who was attracted by Kangxi when he was building the Forbidden City. However, in actual construction, most of them are still the views of the emperor, and Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong all personally guided them.

Composition of Yuanmingyuan

The Yuanmingyuan in history consists of Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden (Wanchun Garden). The three gardens are adjacent to each other, commonly known as Yuanmingyuan. * * * covers an area of more than 5,200 mu (about 350 hectares), which is nearly 1000 mu larger than the whole Summer Palace. It is a large royal palace built and operated by the feudal emperors in Qing Dynasty for more than 50 years. Emperors Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng, etc. all lived in Yuanmingyuan for many years and held court meetings here to handle political affairs. Together with the Forbidden City, it was the political center of the country at that time and was called the "imperial garden" by the Qing emperor.

Old Summer Palace

It was mainly built in the last years of Kangxi and Yongzheng, and by the end of Yongzheng, the landscape group had spread all over the park for 3 thousand mu. During the Qianlong period, the park was built and renovated many times. The main landscape groups of the park include the famous "Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan" (i.e. aboveboard, diligent and virtuous, Jiuzhou Qingyan, hazy moonlight, natural picture scroll, Bitong Academy, Ciyunpu Lake, upper and lower skylight, apricot blossom spring pavilion, frank as Gu Hanjin, Changchun Xianting, Wanfang Anhe, Wuling Spring scenery, long mountains and waters, long moon and dark earth, and great kindness throughout the ages. Siyi Bookstore, Fanghu Scenic Area, Bathroom, Pinghu Qiuyue, Pengdao Yaotai, Xiushan Mansion, Juedong, Qin Jing Qin Ming, Han Xu Langjian, Boda Dagong, Zuoshichaoliu, Quyuan Fenglian, Shendong), as well as Zibishan Mansion, Algae Garden, Ruofan Pavilion, Wenyuan Pavilion and other major garden buildings at that time, there were about 600 plaques, which was the highest among royal gardens at home and abroad.

Changchun garden

It was founded in Qianlong 10 (1745), and when 175 1 officially set up the general manager of Guanyuan, the main scenic spots of Guanyuan West Road were basically completed, such as Lianhuaitang, Hanjingtang, Yulinglongtang, Siyongzhai, Haiyue Jinkai, Dequan Pavilion and Liu Xiangzhu. Later, Ganyuan Garden and Xiaoyou Tianyuan Garden were built one after another. The eastern scenery of the park (Yingqingzhai, Ruyuan, Jianyuan and Lion Forest) was built on a large scale during the thirty-first to thirty-seventh years of Qianlong, including Xiyanglou Scenic Area, and Changchun Garden * * * covers an area of one mu. About 200 garden buildings are hung with plaques.

Qichunyuan

Earlier, it was originally a mansion given by Yun Xiang, Prince of QIA. It was built in the last years of Kangxi, and was later given to Fu Heng, a great scholar. In the thirty-fifth year of Qianlong (1770), it was officially incorporated into the royal garden and named Qichun Garden. The scope at that time did not include its northwest. In the fourth and sixteenth years of Jiaqing, there were two gardens in the west. One was Xishuang Village, which became a prince, and the other was Zhuang Jing and Princess Han Hui Garden. After large-scale repair, reconstruction and addition, the garden began to have a scale of 1000 mu and became one of the main gardens of the Qing emperor. At this time, Yuanming Sanyuan is in its heyday. Jiaqing first wrote the poem "Thirty Scenes of Spring Garden", and then more than twenty scenes were created one after another. At that time, the famous landscape groups were Fuchuntang, Qingxiazhai, Hanqiuguan, Shengdongshi, Siyi Bookstore, Chunzezhai, Fenglinzhou, Weizaotang, Zhonghetang, Bixiang, Chikuling, Xiyushan Building, Yanyulou, Hanhui Building, Chengxintang and Weizaotang. There are more than 100 garden buildings with plaques. Qichunyuan Palace Gate was built in the 14th year of Jiaqing (1809). Because it was built more than half a century later than the Grand Palace Gate of Yuanmingyuan and the Second Palace Gate of Changchun Garden, it is also called the "New Palace Gate" and has been in use ever since. Since the early years of Daoguang, Fuchuntang area of Huayuan East Road has been rebuilt as a place to support the Empress Dowager. But the scenery of Yuanxi Road has always been the garden residence of Daoguang and Xianfeng emperors. After the destruction of 1860 Park, it was renamed Wanchun Garden when it tried to rebuild during the Tongzhi period.

Xiyanglou

In order to pursue all kinds of fun, the Qing emperor also introduced a European-style garden building in the northern boundary of Changchun Garden, commonly known as "West Building", which consists of more than ten buildings and gardens, including Heqi, Hangqiao, Flower Array, Bird Cage, Fang Mao, Haiyan Hall, Yuan Yingguan, Dashuifa, Waterscape, Hangshan and Hangqiang. The planning began in the 12th year of Qianlong (1747) and was basically completed in the 24th year (1759). It was designed by western missionaries Lang Shining, Michelle benoit and Wang Zhicheng and built by craftsmen in China. The architectural form is Baroque style in the late Renaissance of Europe, and the garden form is Rainotte style. However, it also absorbed many traditional techniques of gardening and architectural decoration from China.

The main body of the West Building is actually an artificial fountain called "Water Method". It is characterized by a large number, great momentum and strange ideas. It mainly forms three large fountain groups, namely, Harmony and Curiosity, Haiyan Hall and Dashuifa, which are quite interesting.

Heqi: It was the first building built in the autumn of the 16th year of Qianlong. The main building is on the third floor. There is a large seawall fountain in the south of the building, which consists of bronze geese, bronze sheep and humpback grouper in the west. On the left and right sides of the building, the octagonal hall extends from the curved corridor, where Chinese and western music is played.

Haiyan Hall: It is the largest palace in the West Building. The main entrance of the main building faces west, and there is a big pool in front of the steps. Twelve bronze statues of animal faces (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog and pig, belonging to the China Zodiac) are arranged around the pool in a figure of eight. They spray water for one hour (2 hours) day and night, and the twelve constellations spray water together at noon. This elaborate design of replacing the western nude statue with the bronze statue of the zodiac is really a masterpiece of combining Chinese and western. Originally, it was a European portrait of naked women, but Qianlong felt that naked women did not conform to the customs of China, so he changed it to the zodiac, made of bronze.

Dashuifa: It is the most spectacular fountain in the West Building. The building is shaped like a stone niche, similar to a doorway. There is a big lion head spraying water below, forming a seven-layer water curtain. There is an oval chrysanthemum fountain in front and back, and a bronze sika deer in the center of the pool. The antlers spray water eight times. Two servants kept ten bronze dogs, and sprayed water from their mouths, shooting directly at the deer, splashing layers of waves. Commonly known as "hunting dogs for deer." On the left and right sides of Dashuifa, there is a huge spray tower, which is square and has thirteen floors, and the top spouts water columns. There are eighty-eight copper pipes around the tower, all of which spray water together. At that time, the emperor was sitting opposite watching the water method and looking at this group of fountains. Magal, the British envoy, and the Dutch envoy both "admired" the wonders of water law here. It is said that if this fountain is fully opened, it will be like a flash flood. It is said that people in the vicinity have to gesture when they speak, and its spectacular degree can be imagined.

The flower bed is a garden that imitates the maze of Europe. Its main feature is that the brick wall carved by four-foot tall figures is divided into several mazes, so it is called "Wanhua Array". In its heyday, every Mid-Autumn Festival night, the Qing emperor sat in the circular pavilion in the center of the array, and the ladies-in-waiting held lotus lanterns made of yellow colored silk to find a way to fly, and the first one could get the reward of the emperor. So it is also called yellow flower array or yellow light. Although the diameter distance from the entrance to the central pavilion is only more than 30 meters, it is easy to enter and exit, and it is easy to walk into a dead end. The Qing emperor sat on a high place and looked around at the lotus lanterns, which made him feel happy.

The whole scenic area of Xiyanglou is no more than one fiftieth of the total area of Yuanming Three Gardens, only a small part. But it is a successful attempt to imitate European gardens in China. This plays an important role in the history of gardens in China and the history of garden exchanges between the East and the West. Its construction has aroused strong repercussions in Europe. A Western European missionary who witnessed it spoke highly of the West Tower: it combines beauty and interest in one place, with all kinds of magnificent and peculiar fountains that people can imagine, the largest of which can keep pace with the fountains of Versailles and St. Croix's Church. The missionary concluded that Yuanmingyuan is also the Palace of Versailles in China.

The collection of Yuanmingyuan

Yuanmingyuan is not only famous for its gardens, but also a royal museum with a rich collection, which can be called a treasure house of culture. Hugo once said: "Even if all the treasures of Notre Dame de China are added together, it can't compare with this magnificent Oriental Museum." The garden is luxuriously furnished and has a large collection of art treasures. According to westerners who have witnessed the Yuanmingyuan, "the magnificent scene in the garden is beyond description and imagination of Europeans". "This royal villa contains all kinds of precious treasures, which are spread all over thousands of households." Exquisite carved mahogany furniture, exquisite ancient broken porcelain and enamel bottle lamps, tapestries, carpets, leather goods made of gold and silver, pure gold-plated French clocks, exquisite general plan of Yuanmingyuan, pictures inlaid with gems, vivid plaques of scenic figures, and other exquisite domestic art products and various exotic decorations in Europe.

Yuanmingyuan is rich in books and cultural relics. Now, just a few examples are given. Wenyuan Pavilion is a library building modeled after Fan Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo. It is one of the famous fourth royal pavilions in the north and was built in Qianlong for forty years. In the pavilion are the Sikuquanshu ordered by Qianlong and the Integration of Ancient and Modern Books compiled by Kangxi. Sikuquanshu is the largest comprehensive series in ancient China, with more than 3,400 kinds of books, nearly 80,000 volumes and more than 36,000 volumes. It embodies the ancient civilization of our country and shows the great spirit of the Chinese nation. Due to the voluminous articles in the book, the most important one at that time was selected and compiled into the Summary of Sikuquanshu, with a total volume of 12000. The manuscript of Yao Hui is divided into two parts, one is in the algae hall of the Forbidden City, and the other is in the "tasting room" of the East Wing of Changchun Garden. In addition, there is a famous Wenxuan in Hanjingtang-Chunhua Xuan, which was specially built to collect the manuscripts of the famous French post "Chunhua Pavilion Post". Ge Tieyuan copied the calligraphy works of 99 people, including Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi, Cang Xie, Yu Xia and Confucius, in the third year of Chunhua in Beining (992). The Post is divided into ten volumes, which is the first large-scale cluster post in China, and is known as the ancestor of ten thousand posts. During the Qianlong period, according to the Northern Song Dynasty's "The Initial Extension of Getie", this stone was carved with a hook after careful revision. It lasted for three years. In the spring of the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong (1772), about 24 cloisters in front of Chunhua Xuan were inlaid with 144 engravings. This is the famous "Gan Da Engraving Chunhua Pavilion Post". Needless to say, during the theft of Yuanmingyuan, precious books and cultural relics such as Sikuquanshu, Quanquanyao, Integration of Ancient and Modern Books, and Chunhua Pavilion Post were not spared. This can reflect from one side that the imperialist invaders burned Yuanmingyuan, which caused great damage to human culture.

Of course, nothing is perfect. As big as the Yuanmingyuan, several emperors have expanded and rebuilt one after another, and the influence of decadent feudal emperors' consciousness is still insufficient from any angle. However, on the whole, Yuanmingyuan is indeed an excellent garden. It can be said that it combines the excellent gardening art of China for thousands of years and pushes the classical gardens in China to a new height. At that time, people who witnessed its grand occasion said it was really good. Some westerners' impressions of China gardens began in Yuanmingyuan. In a word, Yuanmingyuan won the honor for our ancient civilization and was once the pride of our Chinese nation!