Chinese name: Yuanmingyuan

Opening hours:1June 29, 988

Category: History Museum, Art Museum

Venue: Beijing

Area: more than 350 mu

Destroyed in: 1860 10 month.

2. (Introduction to Gardens)

(1) Yuanmingyuan, located in Haidian District, northwest suburb of Beijing, is a group of large royal gardens in Qing Dynasty. Yuanmingyuan and its affiliated gardens include Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden (later renamed Wanchun Garden). The composition is collectively called "Yuanming Three Gardens". In addition, there are many small gardens in the east, west and south of Yuanmingyuan, surrounded by stars and the moon. Yuanmingyuan, with its large scale, diverse gardening techniques and diverse garden styles, is the pinnacle of China's garden art history. Because the Qing emperor came here every summer to escape the heat and listen to politics to deal with the military and political affairs, it was also called the Summer Palace.

The most famous in Yuanmingyuan is the bronze statue of the animal head of the zodiac.

(2) The bronze statue of the animal head of the zodiac in Yuanmingyuan is also called Yuanmingyuan Animal Head, Yuanmingyuan Bronze Animal Head and Yuanmingyuan Bronze Animal Head. It is a part of the fountain in front of Haiyan Hall in Yuanmingyuan, a former royal garden in China during the Qing Dynasty. It was designed by an Italian court painter and made by a Frenchman Benoit and a court craftsman Jane. 1860, the animal heads of the zodiac were plundered by the British and French allied forces and then scattered around the country. Among them, the mouse head and rabbit head were collected by the French. 20/kloc-April/March, the Pino family in France announced the return of bronze heads of cattle, monkeys, tigers, pigs and horses, while the heads of dragons, snakes, sheep, chickens and dogs collected by China in Poly Art Museum were missing.

(3) Zodiac animal heads are the first choice for people and animals. Refined copper will not rust for a hundred years. /kloc-In the middle of the 8th century, Emperor Qianlong built a luxurious West Garden in the narrow strip east of Yuanmingyuan. Italian court painter Lang Shining is a designer. He designed the Yuanmingyuan and recommended the French priest Michel Benoist to build a human fountain in the center of the garden. 12 Zodiac animals spray water in turn every two hours for 24 hours, commonly known as "hydraulic clock".

(4) The image of the zodiac was originally on the 12 stone platform on the north and south banks of the fan-shaped pool spray platform in front of Haiyan Hall in the west building of Yuanmingyuan. There are Zishu, Yinhu, Chen Long, Wuma, Shenhou and Chigou on the south bank, and Ugly Cattle, Maotu, Sishe, Weiyang, Youyou Chicken and Haizhu on the north bank. These portraits are all animal heads, with hollow bronze heads and connected by water spray pipes. Within two hours, every other hour, the zodiac image representing that hour will spray water from its mouth. At noon, the fountain will spray water from the mouth of the zodiac image at the same time. This is a spectacle.

These bronze zodiac statues are 520 cm high and beautifully carved, making them one of the most exquisite bronzes in the Qing Dynasty.

(5) Changchun Garden

Changchun Garden, located on the east side of Yuanmingyuan in Beijing, was built about ten years ago in Yongzheng. 17 14. This place used to be the pearl of Emperor Kangxi from the former site of Yiyuan, which has a good garden foundation. Two years later, the scenery of Zhongxi Road in the park was basically formed, and the general manager of the park was formally established in the 16th year of Qianlong 1745. The West Tower Scenic Area was built in the north of Ganyuan Garden in the west, and the East Road Scenic Area was built in 1767-1773 (during the thirty-one to thirty-seven years of Qianlong).

(6) The garden landscape before Changchun Garden was only painted by a court painter during the Qianlong period. 1860 The whereabouts of the garden were unknown after the British and French allied forces burned it. 199212 Comprehensive improvement of mountain water system in Changchun Garden from February to September 1994. Changchun Garden is not a simple expansion and internal addition of Yuanmingyuan, but a new garden with an area of about 1000 mu on the east side of Yuanmingyuan. Different from Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden is a work carefully planned and designed in advance, and it is a garden masterpiece created by Emperor Qianlong. After the completion of the Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan, Emperor Qianlong's enthusiasm for architecture temporarily faded. However, less than a year later, his enthusiasm for gardening was rekindled. This time, according to Emperor Qianlong himself, he wanted to build a banquet hall for himself after his abdication, even though he was only a young man of thirty-four. Therefore, providing for the aged and leisure has become the biggest theme of Changchun Garden. It can be said that Changchun Garden is an elderly activity center built by Emperor Qianlong himself.

(7) Wanchunyuan

Qichun Garden was completed in the middle of Qianlong period, and the main building work was completed in Jiaqing period. Wanchun Garden was summarized as "Thirty Scenes of Wanchun Garden". After the early years of Daoguang, it mainly became the garden residence of Empress Dowager Cixi in Qing Dynasty. In the early days, Qichun Garden was named Jiaohui Garden by Yun Xiang, Prince of Qingyi. In the middle of Qianlong period, the garden was renamed as "Spring Garden" by Fu Heng, a great scholar. During the Jiaqing period, many small parks on the west side of Qichun Garden were incorporated into it for repair and construction. At this time, Qichun Garden reached its heyday, and it could not be compared with Yuanmingyuan Garden and Changchun Garden in terms of quality and scale.

Qichun Garden is located in the southeast of Yuanmingyuan. It was originally called He Chun Garden in Qianlong period. In the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong, 1772 expanded several small gardens in the southeast of Yuanmingyuan into Qichun Garden. In the 14th year of Jiaqing (1870), the small western garden was expanded and merged into Zhuyuan, Hanhui Garden, Xishuang Village and Hechun Garden. Qichun Garden covers an area of 54.3 hectares, slightly smaller than Changchun Garden. After Daoguang, Qichun Garden was mainly used as the residence of Empress Dowager and Toffee.

(8) After the destruction of Yuanmingyuan, during the Tongzhi period, when Yuanmingyuan was ready to be rebuilt, it was planned to overhaul Qichun Garden and change its name to Wanchun Garden, but it was abandoned due to financial constraints. Later generations often refer to Qichun Garden as Wanchun Garden, but Wanchun Garden was named only for reconstruction and never really appeared.

(9) The destruction of Yuanmingyuan

1860 65438+1From 5 to 7 October, the British and French allied forces arrived at the gates of Beijing. According to the information provided by Russian diplomat ignatieff, this is the weakest place in the east and north of the city where the defenders of the Qing army are concentrated, and should be captured first. I also heard that the Qing emperor of China was in Yuanmingyuan in the northwest suburb. So the British and French allied forces bypassed Andingmen and Deshengmen invaded Yuanmingyuan and looted it, creating a "burning Yuanmingyuan" incident that shocked China and foreign countries.

(10) French invaders broke into Yuanmingyuan first. They rob everything they see. The treasure in each French soldier's pocket is worth 30,000 to 40,000 francs. They returned empty-handed and loaded. French military camps are full of precious clocks, colorful silks and satins and precious works of art, worth 30 million francs. Although the British invaders came a little late, their pockets were full of gold and silver. What's more, they smashed the big porcelain bottles and enamel bottles that could not be moved.

After the British and French invaders looted the Yuanmingyuan, in order to cover up the crime, the British Minister Plenipotentiary Erkin, with the support of British Prime Minister Pa Max Don, ordered the Yuanmingyuan to be burned. Large-scale burning * * * twice. The first time was from 181October 6 to1June 7, which mainly burned Yuanmingyuan. The fire burned for three days and nights, turning this world-famous garden into a scorched earth. Hugo, a famous French writer, described and criticized the catastrophe: one day, two robbers broke into the Summer Palace. One robbed, the other set fire. Victory can be a robber.

The destruction of Yuanmingyuan is an immeasurable loss in the cultural history of the motherland! This is an inestimable loss in the history of world culture!