The bronze statue of the zodiac is just a drop in the bucket among the lost cultural relics in Yuanmingyuan.
Nowadays, in Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park, people can only see semi-abandoned landscapes and broken walls. It is hard to imagine that it once enjoyed the reputation of "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens". In the heyday of Yuanmingyuan, there were hundreds of famous scenic spots. 150 For more than 50 years, several generations of emperors in the Qing Dynasty carefully managed this royal garden which concentrated the western architectural style. Emperor Qianlong commented on Yuanmingyuan and said, "There is no such thing." But nowadays, people can only guess the face of Yuanmingyuan more than 100 years ago by imagination.
How many cultural relics are there in Yuanmingyuan? There are different opinions on this issue so far.
According to Mr. Yang's inference, the number of cultural relics in Yuanmingyuan in that year will not be less than 6.5438+0.5 million. He collected a lot of evidence from the historical archives of the Qing Dynasty, the research articles of the Palace Museum and the furnishings of the Summer Palace:
Emperors Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng lived in Yuanmingyuan for more than half a year every year. Take Emperor Qianlong as an example. According to the records of the Qing internal affairs office, in the 21st year of Qianlong, there were ***393 days (due to the leap moon), 66 days in Rehe Summer Resort and Mulan paddock, 54 days in Qufu, 0/05 days in the Palace (Forbidden City) and 0/68 days in Yuanmingyuan/Kloc. Twenty-four years of Daoguang, 347 days a year. Daoguang Emperor lived in Yuanmingyuan for 274 days, and only lived in the palace for 73 days. Therefore, the furnishings in Yuanmingyuan should be no worse than the Forbidden City.
The garden buildings in Yuanmingyuan reached 200,000 square meters, more than 40,000 square meters more than the total construction area of the Forbidden City. Excluding the unfurnished pavilions, the building area of garden residence, sacrifice, reading, entertainment and warehouse is about 1.9 million square meters. If the number of cultural relics in these buildings is calculated according to the general furnishings and warehouse storage, it should also be no less than the number of cultural relics in the Forbidden City. It is estimated that when Puyi abdicated, there should be at least 6.5438+0.5 million cultural relics in the Forbidden City.
During the Daoguang period, the Ministry of Internal Affairs wrote a memorial, which recorded in detail the inventory of items stored in the Palace and Yuanmingyuan in the 15th year of Daoguang: 569,390 silver coins, including 290,505 in the Palace and 280,694 in Yuanmingyuan; All kinds of ruyi 162 1, including Palace Memory 1 194, Yuanmingyuan 450; There are 50/kloc-0 pieces of jade inkstones and pens, including 42 pieces in Gongzhong/kloc-0 and 337 pieces in Yuanmingyuan. 773 first-class porcelain furnaces, bottles and cans. * * *, of which 337 pieces are in the palace, and 29/kloc-0 pieces are in the Yuanmingyuan ... The collection of Yuanmingyuan can also be seen.