Yuanmingyuan former site
I. Building Yuanmingyuan
The reason for building Yuanmingyuan is simple. Because the emperor stayed in the Forbidden City for too long, he wanted to find a place with comfortable environment and beautiful scenery, and this place more than ten kilometers away from the Forbidden City is very suitable.
As early as before the Qing dynasty, many dignitaries and relatives built new buildings here as their summer resort, but the emperors of the Qing dynasty could not stop this good place. They began to build royal gardens at 1707.
The reason why it is called Yuanmingyuan is because the purpose of this garden was given to his son Yong Zhengdi by Emperor Kangxi, and "Yuanming" is his son's legal name, so he took such a name. The plaque of Yuanmingyuan was inscribed by Emperor Kangxi himself.
Old photos of Yuanmingyuan
Later, his son succeeded to the throne and became emperor. He also expanded the garden on a large scale, transformed it according to his own ideas, and even added a lot of office space, in order to be able to work here for a long time, not just a few days.
Later, Emperor Qianlong liked this place very much, so he rebuilt it according to his own wishes, and built Changchun Garden next to it, merging Wanchun Garden.
In this way, Yuanmingyuan is actually a merger of three parks, so it is also called Yuanming Three Parks, generally referred to as Yuanmingyuan.
location
Second, the Yuanmingyuan, with its grand scale and numerous treasures.
Yuanmingyuan covers an area of 350 hectares, which is 3.5 square kilometers. The figures are simple and not obvious. Compared with a standard football field surrounded by a 400-meter runway, a standard football field is 105 meters long, 68 meters wide and 7 140 square meters in area.
A Yuanmingyuan has an area of 490 standard football fields. You can imagine what a big garden it is, with a building area of 200,000 square meters, and all kinds of office, leisure, entertainment and landscape facilities are available, which is much more comfortable than the place surrounded by the high walls of the Forbidden City.
Because it is comfortable here, emperors like to come here and do not delay their work, so it is also a long-awaited place. Therefore, emperors in past dynasties put a lot of rare treasures, all kinds of antique calligraphy and painting, and all kinds of porcelain. You can't think of it anyway.
"If the dream can have a model. You can imagine a fairyland-like building that you can't describe in words, and that is Yuanmingyuan. " The famous French writer Hugo wrote in the letter to Captain Vattel.
Under the management of the Qing emperor, Yuanmingyuan has been famous all over the world 150 years.
Third, burn Yuanmingyuan.
1860, 10, when the British and French allied forces attacked Beijing, Emperor Xianfeng fled to Jehol, leaving a prince to make peace and let the British and French allied forces do whatever they wanted.
Broken wall
1860 10 10 On October 6th, the British and French allied forces occupied Yuanmingyuan, and everything inside stunned them.
1860, 10 year10.7, the British and French allied command ordered the soldiers to rob freely for three days, and the disaster in Yuanmingyuan began.
I don't know how many treasures they took, and how many treasures they couldn't take away were destroyed by them.
Countless antique calligraphy and painting, antiques, silk, ivory, bronzes, porcelain, jewelry, etc. It's all gone. Now most of them are in foreign museums.
Broken wall
186010 June18, the British and French allied forces who looted this place sent more than 4,000 soldiers and burned the whole Yuanmingyuan. The fire burned for three days and nights, which was the incident of burning Yuanmingyuan.
After the destruction of Yuanmingyuan, Britain and France forced the Qing government to sign the Sino-British Beijing Treaty and the Sino-French Beijing Treaty.
Fourth, what does Zeng Guofan think of burning Yuanmingyuan?
So what did Zeng Guofan do with such a big activity in Beijing?
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-1864) [established by Hong Xiuquan (Hong Xiuquan) as the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
1860, Zeng Guofan was suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. When the British and French allied forces entered Beijing, Zeng Guofan was besieging Anqing. He also received a distress letter from Beijing, but he did not send troops to rescue.
He listened to the idea of Li Hongzhang, who was still under his command at that time, and wrote back to Beijing, saying that he would send troops to save him. In fact, this is a plan to delay the troops.
Because Zeng Guofan thought that the purpose of the British-French Coalition forces going to Beijing was only to teach the Qing government a lesson, and that was only a little benefit, because the killing of several of their messengers at that time did not hurt the foundation of the Qing government.
These people in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are different. They want to overthrow the Qing government for different purposes. Besides, they were in a hurry. If they withdraw their troops, the preliminary work will be in vain.
In addition, Zeng Guofan is also a person who has more contact with foreigners. He was also the promoter of the Westernization Movement, which could not be separated from cooperation with foreigners.
Zeng Guofan's thoughts are reflected in his later notes:
"Ten years in August foreigners into Beijing, don't hurt my ancestral temple. Now they are helping me fight bandits in Shanghai and Ningbo, all for my own good. I don't forget the big ones in China and complain about the small ones. "
The meaning of this passage is clear. Although the British and French allied forces entered Beijing in August of Xianfeng 10 and burned the Yuanmingyuan, it was wrong, but it did not destroy our ancestral tablets and shake the foundation of our Qing society. This is still worthy of recognition.
Moreover, at present, they are helping us to fight the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Shanghai, Ningbo and other places, all of which are helpful to us and good for me.
We China people can't forget their great kindness, but care about their minor mistakes.
This is Zeng Guofan's attitude towards the Yuanmingyuan incident!
# Zeng Guofan #
5. Left hates foreigners.
Compared with Zeng Guofan's attitude, Zuo hated foreigners for this.
According to historical records, Zuo was "outraged and couldn't sleep" after learning that Yuanmingyuan was destroyed, but because he was only a minor celebrity in Hunan at that time, he had no right to be without soldiers, so he was so angry that he had to sleep. There is no other way.
Later, relying on his own military talents, Zuo grew up slowly, and because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement made its mark, it broke the Taiping Army that besieged Hangzhou and became the governor of Zhejiang.
At that time, the Qing government set up a Sino-French mixed army, with French as the majority and advanced weapons, all of which were foreign guns to help pacify the Taiping Army.
When young
This is also Zeng Guofan's record of "helping me to attack bandits in Shanghai and Ningbo today".
Zuo always opposed this practice, but he couldn't stop it, so he let more French soldiers receive their training, use their weapons and learn their advanced points. Later, the Sino-French mixed army was dissolved in 1864.
Later, Zuo was promoted to "Governor of Two Rivers" and visited Shanghai. At that time, Shanghai was full of foreign concessions, and they were also very powerful. Many people in China are bullied.
In the eighth year of Guangxu, Zuo made his first inspection tour of Shanghai. At that time, foreign concessions said that if we wanted to pass through our concession, we must inform us in advance and get our consent, otherwise we were not allowed to bring weapons in.
But Zuo Gong didn't care. He led hundreds of Qin Bing, and when he passed through the concession, he specially ordered his men to draw their swords and load them. We come from China, and walking on the land of China is to be mighty. It depends on your foreigner's face and jokes!
In this way, foreigners in the concession are also afraid of leftism, dare not order it to be stopped, and even ask them not to provoke leftism and their people.
Zuo Tang Zong
Not only foreigners in Britain and France dare not provoke the left, but also foreigners in Russia dare not. When Zuo led troops to recover Xinjiang, Russia demanded the cession of Ili and signed the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty. Later, due to the opposition of the Left, Russia actually agreed to delete and modify many unequal treaties.
According to the draft of Qing history, Zuo went to Beijing to continue his post, because Zuo Gong's attitude towards foreigners has long been well known, and foreigners in Beijing have heard about it. When they heard about it, they demolished many privately built chapels overnight, "all because they were afraid of offending Zuo Gong."
Zuo is such a China strategist and politician who scares foreigners.