The construction of Yuanmingyuan was recorded in 1709. At that time, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty gave Prince Yong (later Yong Zhengdi and Emperor Sejong of the Qing Dynasty), an abandoned villa in the Ming Dynasty north of Guajiatun in Haidian, as a mansion and garden, and named it Yuanmingyuan himself. At that time, the scale of Yuanmingyuan was still small, but some landscapes had begun to take shape, such as Peony Pavilion (later renamed as "Carving the Moon and Opening Clouds"). After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, special officials were set up to manage Yuanmingyuan, and a large-scale construction of Yuanmingyuan was carried out from 65438 to 0725. According to reports, at least 28 of the "Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan" named during the Qianlong period were initially completed during the Yongzheng period. During the Qianlong period, the large-scale construction of Yuanmingyuan began. During the sixty years of Qianlong, there was hardly a day when Yuanmingyuan was not under construction. In particular, the construction of the West Building of Changchun Garden is a great miracle in the history of architecture. Yuanmingyuan (Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden and Wanchun Garden) was built during the Qianlong period, and its scale became larger and larger, reaching its peak. After Qianlong, the garden construction project did not stop until 1860 was burned by the British and French Coalition forces and continued. Yuanmingyuan has been in operation for 1, 5 1 year since it was built and burned down. In this process, the Qing rulers spent countless financial, material and human resources. It is difficult to calculate how much it cost to build Yuanmingyuan. According to the annual renovation in Daoguang period, the cost of restoring Yuanmingyuan at the age of 1, 5 1 was more than 1, and the cost of restoration in Kanggan prosperous period was far more than that in Daoguang period. What's more, new construction and renovation don't need money. At the same time, there are many rare books, celebrity calligraphy and painting, Ding Yi ritual vessels, gold beads and bronze porcelain antiques in the park, and their values cannot be estimated by specific figures.
The total length of Yuanmingyuan is 20 miles, with a total area of more than 5,200 mu, which is 850 mu larger than the Summer Palace, the largest existing royal garden. Yuanmingyuan is mainly composed of Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden and Wanchun Garden. From the overall layout, the buildings of the three parks are basically built on the water network connected by waterways, lakes and ponds. There are many streams in the park, with large and small lakes dotted around, and winding rivers are like cobwebs. If you sail along the waterway, you can visit every scenic spot in the park. The soil excavated from the water system is piled into terraces and hills with pavilions built on them; There are courtyards and gardens in the valley, dotted with rockeries, Taihu rocks, exotic flowers and grasses and lush trees.
Yuanmingyuan is the largest and most scenic of the three gardens. The name of the garden was named by Kangxi, and the temple forehead was inscribed by Kangxi himself. Yongzheng explained the meaning of Yuanming in his "Yuanmingyuan Ji": Yuanming has far-reaching will and is not easy to peep. He tasted the words of ancient books and realized the virtue of roundness. Husband is round and mysterious? When the gentleman is also; When the light shines, the wisdom of talents is also. Yuanmingyuan has more than 40 scenic spots, such as the famous "Fair and Bright". 1744 (the ninth year of Qianlong), according to the example of thirty-six scenic spots in Rehe Summer Resort with four words, forty scenes of Yuanmingyuan were written as a group of four words, and each scene was accompanied by a poem "Qianlong Yu Fu". Besides 40 famous scenic spots, there are algae garden, Wenyuan Pavilion, Acropolis, Santan silver moon, Zibi Mountain House, Broken Bridge and Canxue. Yuanmingyuan has 18 gates and 3 sluices. Its water source originates from Yuquan Mountain, flows into the southwest intake sluice from the racecourse, then becomes lakes all over the park, then flows out of the garden wall from the lake through the Wukong outlet sluice in the north of Mingchunmen, and finally flows into the Qinghe River in the east through the seven-hole outlet sluice in Changchun Garden. Yuanmingyuan is mainly divided into three scenic spots, the western scenic spot, Fuhai scenic spot and the northern narrow scenic spot. The western scenic spot is the largest area and the most concentrated building in the park. In this area, there are more than 30 buildings in the south and many crops in the north. Fuhai in Fuhai Scenic Area is the largest lake in Yuanmingyuan, covering an area of more than 260,000 square meters. It is slightly smaller than Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace, with 65,438+00 small islands along the coast. The shape of the whole Fuhai is an inner and outer circle, similar to the ancient round square hole money. The buildings in the first area of Fuhai are mainly fairy tales, especially the "Pengdao Yaotai" in the middle of the sea, which is more like a fairyland. There is a long and narrow scenic belt from west to east near the north wall of Yuanmingyuan. The main scenic spots are Zibi Mountain House, Broken Bridge Canxue, Flying Fish Flying Kites, Beiyuan Mountain Villa, etc.
Going east from Fuhai in Yuanmingyuan, the next spring gate of Yuanmingyuan is Changchun Garden. Its former site is Shuimo Village, and its garden was built in 175 1, which was built when Qianlong expanded Yuanmingyuan. Gan Long said that after returning to politics, he would "support himself" here. The naming of Changchun Garden has two meanings: First, when Qianlong was a prince, he was given the name "Changchun Hall" in Yuanmingyuan and named "Changchun Jushi". Therefore, after Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he often named the bookstore and palace with the word "Changchun". The second is that "Changchun" means never getting old and always being young, which is what emperors of past dynasties yearn for. The construction land of Changchun Garden is about 1 1,000 mu, which is equivalent to 1/5 of the total area of Yuanmingyuan. From the overall layout, the whole park can be divided into four scenic spots. The first area is the entrance of the palace, which is 200 meters from the front of the palace to Yichun Pavilion. The whole area covers an area of about two hectares. The second area is the central area, including a big island and two small islands in the center of the park; The third area is the Outer Ring Scenic Area, which is an annular scenic zone around Changchun Garden. The buildings are distributed in the east, west, south and north directions. The fourth area is the western building area, which is located outside the north wall of Changchun Garden Headquarters. It is a relatively independent and narrow area from west to east. Changchun Garden has more than 50 man-made mountains, including four long rivers and two lakes. The winding water divides Changchun Garden into many landscapes. There are more than 20 classical garden buildings and more than 30 scenic spots in Changchun Garden. Among them, Lion Forest, Ruyuan Garden, Ganyuan Garden, Xiaoyouwang Garden and Jianyuan Garden are among them, which have become unique landscapes in Changchun gardens.
Wanchun Garden, where the Sunset Tower Scenic Area is located, is the smallest of the three gardens and was built at the latest. Before Jiaqing, Qichun Garden was mainly the place where the Qing emperor lived. In the first year of Daoguang (182 1), Empress Dowager Xiao and other concubines entered the park. Since then, Wanchun Garden has become a place to support the concubines of Empress Dowager Cixi. During the Tongzhi period, when Cixi rebuilt Yuanmingyuan, she also wanted to restore the old appearance of this garden as her own residence. Because Wanchun Garden is formed by merging some small gardens, there is no unified planning and layout, and the small gardens are separated by walls and independent. However, these parks are connected into a whole by rivers and lakes. There are more than 50 scenic spots and 30 buildings in the park, which are divided into three scenic spots. There are two main scenic spots in the east, one is the building in Gongmen District; One is the wide lake in the north of the building complex, with the famous Fenglinzhou in the center and Shensendai in the west bank. The central scenic spot is the largest area in the park, and the water area of this area is relatively large. There are several groups of buildings of different sizes on the water island, such as Chunzezhai, Shengdong Room, Solemn Law School, Lu Ying of Zhan's family, Yun Xuan, Siyi Bookstore, Chengxin Hall, Jianbi Pavilion and Zhengjue Temple. After the western scenic spot was merged into Qichun Garden, the main scenic spots were Hanhui Garden, Xiaqingtang, Lvmanxuan and Changhetang.
From the architectural features, Yuanmingyuan not only absorbed the advantages of China's palace architecture in previous dynasties, but also had many unique features in the form of palace architecture. At the same time, European Baroque architecture, gardens and fountains are introduced with more characteristics, and Jiangnan gardens are moved into the park, forming the style of gardens everywhere and buildings everywhere. After six trips to Jiangnan, he fell in love with the gardens in Jiangnan. In order to revisit the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River without leaving the capital, Qianlong once ordered craftsmen to copy the patterns and copy them in Yuanmingyuan. Ten scenic spots in the garden, such as watching fish, reflecting on the moon in Santan, autumn moon in Pinghu, clouds and mist in Xifeng, sunset at Leifeng, midnight in Nanping, wind and lotus of Qu Yuan, songs of willow waves, spring dawn in Su Causeway, broken bridge and broken snow, are all modeled after the scenery of West Lake in Hangzhou, while the lion forest in Changchun Garden is like a garden. The architectural structure and layout of these gardens are almost the same as those of the imitated places of interest. In the process of construction, all the strange peaks, rocks and timber that are not found in the north are transported from the south to the north, which costs a lot. There is also a European-style palace-style scenic spot in Yuanmingyuan, collectively known as the "West Building". From about1747 to1760, it was carefully built by China craftsmen under the supervision of Italian painter Lanzining and French missionary Michel Benoit. These buildings were the baroque style prevailing in Europe at that time, built with stones and decorated with carvings. There are several big fountains in front of the palace. The surrounding plants are arranged in rows, neatly trimmed hedges and geometrically patterned flowers. Considering the national conditions of China, the spray tower of the West Building was made into the shape of China stupa, and the western nude portrait was replaced with the image of birds and animals. Some stone carvings are decorated with porcelain patterns.
Yuanmingyuan has many types of buildings and complete functions, which can not only satisfy the emperor's amusement and leisure, but also meet various activities such as dealing with government affairs, worshipping ancestors, worshiping Buddha and reading. There are six courts at the main entrance of Yuanmingyuan, and there is a justice hall at the second palace gate, where the emperor listens to politics at the court. The Qingyan area in Kyushu is the place where the emperor receives guests. Yong Zhengdi reigned in 13, and lived in Yuanmingyuan every spring and summer, which was passed down from generation to generation. After the ceremony in the suburbs of Xinzheng, they moved to the garden, lived there until the eve of the winter solstice sacrifice, and then returned to the palace in the city. After the ceremony, they returned to the garden. Two-thirds of the year is spent in Yuanmingyuan, and the palace has just become a place for ceremonies. Of the six emperors from Kangxi to Xianfeng, only 1 died in the palace, Kangxi died in Changchun Garden, Yongzheng and Daoguang both died in Yuanmingyuan, and Jiaqing and Xianfeng died in Jehol Palace. At that time, many foreigners were invited to Yuanmingyuan, and foreigners who had seen it with their own eyes praised it as "the garden of ten thousand gardens".
Yuanmingyuan is not only beautifully built and beautiful in scenery, but also luxuriously decorated and beautifully furnished, and has collected precious cultural relics, treasures and books from all over the country. However, such a rare garden building was plundered and completely destroyed by the British and French allied forces in the Second Opium War. Magnificent buildings, magnificent gardens and their gold, silver, jewels and treasures are all gone. What is more regrettable is that a large number of historical relics collected here are still living abroad. 1900 Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, and the Yuanmingyuan in the ruins was looted again. All the furnishings in Tongzhi and Guangxu years were looted. This group of robbers wantonly destroyed Yuanmingyuan and the Forbidden City in Beijing, and robbed countless properties. Since then, nearby corrupt officials, soldiers of fortune and refugees have been in the park for a long time, stealing stones, selling bamboo materials and trees by burning charcoal, making Yuanmingyuan a completely abandoned garden.
In 1950s, Yuanmingyuan was gradually cleaned and protected. Today's Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park has lush trees, fragrant flowers and beautiful scenery. It is not only a tourist attraction, but also a place for patriotism education.