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.
The origin of the name
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.
Landscape architecture characteristics
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.
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.
Regrettably, in 1860, the British and French allied forces looted the 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.
Artistic feature
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, and concentrates 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".
The "beauty pageant" in Yuanmingyuan
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. 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. The following is the historical development and related historical events of Yuanmingyuan:
Kangxi period
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".
Yongzheng period
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.
Qianlong period
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.
Xianfeng period
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 for three days and nights.
After tongzhi
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.
People's Republic of China (PRC) period
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
Historical background
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.
The influence of topographic features and buildings of past dynasties on the construction of Yuanmingyuan.
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.
Implementation of Yuanmingyuan Construction
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, its scale could not exceed that of the emperor's Changchun Garden, so there were not many scenes built and its reputation was not great, which was far less than that of 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). 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. There are more than 600 plaques hanging alone.
Modeling characteristics of buildings
There are more than 100 gardens and scenic buildings in Yuanming Three Gardens, which are usually called Hundred Scenery. It integrates various garden buildings such as halls, pavilions, pavilions, halls and corridors, covering an area of about 6.5438+0.6 million square meters. More than the total construction area of the Forbidden City 10000 square meters. The buildings in the park not only absorbed the advantages of the palace-style buildings of past dynasties, but also broke through the shackles of official norms in many aspects such as plane configuration, appearance modeling and group combination, and recruited a wide variety. It has created many rare architectural forms in the north and south, such as Zixuan, Ma Yuexuan, Tian Zi Temple, fan-shaped, bow-shaped, round mirror-shaped, I-shaped, mountain-shaped, cross-shaped, square-shaped, book-shaped and so on. In addition, in the layout of the garden, the scenery changes with the situation; All kinds of scenery in the park are interlocking and distinct, forming a colorful, natural and harmonious overall beauty. Wang Zhicheng, a French missionary, once had an image description. He said: there are many changes in the form of the buildings in Yuanmingyuan, which are uneven and have no stereotypes. Each of its small palaces seems to be made according to a strange model, which seems to be randomly arranged, and none of them is the same as the others. Everything is so interesting that people can't enjoy the scenery at a glance. They must study it carefully bit by bit.
Religious characteristics of architecture
The temple gardens in Yuanmingyuan are also a reflection of the ancient culture of China. Anyou Palace (Hongci Permanent) was built according to the old practice of Jingshan Shouhuang Hall. It is the royal ancestral temple in the park, dedicated to the "Emperor" of Kangxi and Yong Zhengdi. There are nine palaces with a ridge and double eaves and covered with yellow glazed tiles. This is the largest building in the garden. There are two pairs of China watches at the southern end of the central axis, which are surrounded by Qiao Songyan's cover, giving people a sense of solemnity. Fanghu Scenic Area is located in the northeast bay of Fuhai, built according to the imaginary fairy mountain Qiongge. According to historical records, there are more than 2,200 Buddha statues and more than 30 pagodas here. The front base of the building is made of white marble, which is in the shape of a mountain and extends into the water. The whole building is huge and magnificent. Whenever the mist first rises in the morning, the building appears and disappears in the smoke, just like Qiongge Yaotai. The style and momentum of this building are rare among the existing garden buildings in China. The Acropolis is a typical Buddhist building. It is said that it was built by imitating the layout of the capital of Sharo, and it is an ancient Indian bridge. There are 326 temples and houses in this city. Since Kangxi, whenever the emperor and the empress dowager celebrated their birthdays, the Buddha statues presented by princes and ministers were stored here. Among them, there are pure gold, silver-plated, jade carving and copper plastic, and there are hundreds of thousands of them year after year. Yuanmingyuan was ransacked and burned, and the losses caused by this place alone, whether it is economic value or cultural and artistic value, are difficult to measure by numbers.
Architectural evaluation of Yuanmingyuan
Yuanmingyuan, which embodies the essence of ancient gardening art in China, was the most outstanding large-scale garden at that time. Emperor Qianlong said: "There is no better place than this. This is a place of treasure and spirit, and it is also a place where the emperor travels." But also occupies an important position in the history of world landscape architecture. Its reputation spread to Europe, and it was called "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens". Hugo, a great French writer, commented on 186 1: "Just imagine that it is a fascinating building like the castle of the Moon Palace, and the Summer Palace is such a building." People often say: Greece has the Parthenon, Egypt has the pyramids, Rome has the Colosseum, and the East has the Summer Palace. This is an amazing and unparalleled masterpiece.
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 "Ge Tie Chu Tuo", 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!
The disaster in Yuanmingyuan
Historical background
Yuanmingyuan was brutally looted and burned by the British and French allied forces in the tenth year of Xianfeng, that is,1June, 860, which became a humiliating history in China's modern history.
By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the science and technology of the whole country had fallen far behind the West, and class contradictions were becoming increasingly acute. 1840 (20 years of Daoguang), western colonialists provoked the war of aggression against China-the first opium war. Then the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement against the rule of the Qing Dynasty broke out in China.
1856 10, Britain and France jointly launched the second opium war. Its purpose is to grab greater colonial interests. First, they started the Guangzhou War twice, but both failed to meet their expectations. In order to exert direct pressure on the Qing government, the capital of Chen Bing was decided. The invading army approached Tianjin1May 858, and the Qing government was forced to sign the Tianjin Treaty with Britain, France, Russia and the United States respectively.
1860 (the tenth year of Xianfeng) In July, the fleet of British and French aggressor troops rushed out of Dagukou again, and under the guise of exchanging contracts between British and French ministers in Beijing, they forcibly pushed forward and lured them to "make peace". However, it has repeatedly created troubles with the aim of forcing the capital of Chen Bing to yield. However, the corrupt and incompetent Qing government made up its mind to beg for peace, and it was too late to decide the strategy of war and defense. The invading army went straight to Tongzhou. On September 2 1 day, the Qing army lost the decisive battle at Bali Bridge in Tongzhou. The next morning, Emperor Xianfeng fled from Yuanmingyuan to chengde mountain resort. It's called "Traveling to the North", but in fact, it runs away regardless of its ancestral home. As a result, the capital has no owner, and all the officials are scattered, and the soldiers are afraid of the people.
Yuanmingyuan was stolen.
1860, 10 On June 6, the British and French allied forces bypassed the northeast suburb of Beijing and went straight to Yuanmingyuan. At that time, the remnants of Monk Qin and Rui Lin resisted in the north of the city for a while and then fled. The French army went first, passed Haidian in the afternoon and arrived at the gate of Yuanmingyuan Grand Palace in the evening. At this time, more than 20 skilled eunuchs in Yuanmingyuan were fighting with the enemy at the entrance to Jindemen. "Don't be afraid of being killed, and strive to advance", but in the end, Ren Liang, the "eight-product head" of Yuanmingyuan, and others died because they were outnumbered. At 7 pm, the French invaders captured the Yuanmingyuan. Wenfeng, Minister of Landscape Management, died in Fuhai.
65438 10/7, the leader of British and French aggression against China broke into Yuanmingyuan, and immediately "sent three members of the British and French Committee to discuss the distribution of treasures in the garden." On the same day, French Army Commander Montaubon wrote to the French Foreign Minister: "I ordered French members to pay attention to the most valuable objects in art and archaeology first. Yu Xinghui dedicated the rare things of France to His Majesty the Emperor (Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte) and kept them in the French Museum. " British commander Grant immediately "sent officers to collect things that should belong to the British." The day after the British and French invaders entered the park, they could no longer resist the temptation of things. The officers and men rushed forward in droves to snatch the treasures of gold and silver and cultural and artistic treasures in the park.
According to the descriptions of British and French officers, priests and journalists who witnessed the looting, officers and men, British and French people flocked to Yuanmingyuan from all directions in order to seize the treasure, and they were eager to take whatever they wanted. They beat each other and even fought for the treasure. Because there are so many treasures in the garden, they don't know what to take at the moment. Some of them moved cloisonne porcelain bottles, some coveted embroidery, some chose high-grade leather clothes, and some went to get wall clocks inlaid with pearls and jade. Some carry big bags, which are full of all kinds of treasures. Some people put gold bars and leaves in the big pockets of their coats; Some are wrapped in brocade; Some hats are filled with rubies, pearls and crystals; Some people wear jade collars around their necks. There is a mountain of high-grade silks and satins in one wing, which is said to be enough for half of Beijing residents, and all of them are carried away by soldiers in carts. A British officer plundered a golden Buddha from a temple with 500 Buddha statues, with a value of 1 200. A French officer robbed property worth 600,000 francs. The treasure plundered by the son of Montaubon, commander-in-chief of the French army, was worth 300 thousand francs and filled several carriages. A British private named Hollis once stole two golden Buddha pagodas (all three stories, one 7 feet high and the other 6.4 feet high) and a lot of other treasures from the garden, and found seven strong men to carry them back to the barracks for him. This man got the nickname "China Zhan Mu" because he plundered and enjoyed his life in Yuanmingyuan. In addition to robbery, the invaders destroyed countless things. Several rooms were full of silks and satins, and clothes were dragged out of the box and thrown all over the floor. People can almost cover their knees when they walk into the room. The engineer with a big axe smashed all the furniture and took the jewels from it. Some people break big mirrors, others shoot candlesticks for fun. Most French soldiers waved sticks and smashed everything they couldn't take with them. 654381October 9 When the French army temporarily evacuated Yuanmingyuan, this beautiful garden was destroyed.
Burning Yuanmingyuan
Just as the Qing government bowed to the invaders and promised to accept all the conditions of "negotiation and peace", on the other day, when signing the contract, British leaders Erjin Palace and Grant brazenly ordered the burning of Yuanmingyuan on the pretext that their prisoners were abused in order to give people the impression that their aggression against China was "extremely bad". 65438+1October 18 and 19, three or four thousand British troops set fire everywhere in China, and the fire didn't go out for three days and three nights. This unique garden masterpiece, a rare artistic treasure at home and abroad, was burned together. Afterwards, according to the official investigation of the Qing Dynasty, there were only 20 or 30 temples, pavilions, temples, official doors, value rooms and other buildings in the huge Yuanming Three Gardens, but many doors and windows were uneven, and the indoor furnishings and several cases were looted. Since then, some buildings of Qingyi Garden in Wanshou Mountain, Jingyi Garden in Xiangshan Mountain and Jingming Garden in Yuquan Mountain have also been burned down.
According to relevant records, when the British invaders burned Anyou Palace on June 6th, 10, the eunuch in charge of Anyou Palace locked the gate, and 300 people in Anyou Palace, including eunuchs, maids and craftsmen, were burned alive.
When Yuanmingyuan fell into a sea of fire, Erjin proudly declared: "This move will shake China and Europe, and its effect far exceeds the imagination of people thousands of miles away." . The main emissary of the fire regarded this behavior as a great achievement, and upright people all over the world were angered by this barbaric crime. Hugo wrote in 186 1: "One day, two robbers walked into Yuanmingyuan, one robbed something and the other set fire. It seems that if you win the war, you can engage in robbery. In the face of history, these two robbers, one is called France and the other is called Britain. " This passage represents the voice of millions of upright people.
When Yuanmingyuan was still burning, Prince Gong, who was ordered to stay in Beijing, agreed to all the conditions of the invaders. Soon, the Tianjin Treaty text was exchanged with Britain, France and Russia, and the Beijing Treaty was signed. In this way, the imperialist powers occupied China's Kowloon Peninsula and a large area of northern territory, and extorted huge military compensation of162,000 silver.
Historical reasons for "burning Yuanmingyuan"
On the one hand, people think that the blood and fire nature of imperialism's external expansion determines the barbarity wherever it goes.
On the other hand, it is caused by "kowtow diplomacy". At that time, Britain and France asked for negotiations with the Manchu, "Beijing embassy, mainland exchanges, Yangtze River trade." In other words, people will establish diplomatic relations with you and set up embassies and consulates with each other. Foreigners can travel to Chinese mainland and trade with China.
At that time, Britain and France requested to negotiate with China on the above three points. According to the current understanding, various disputes between China and Britain are very normal in state-to-state relations and should be resolved through bilateral consultations and negotiations.
However, Di Hua believes that China has been the center of the world since ancient times, the emperor is the master of the world, all countries are vassals of China, and everyone kowtows when they see the emperor. The traditional diplomatic theme of the Manchu Dynasty was to make Yidi kowtow, which established a complete diplomatic model called "Tribute System" by Fei Zhengqing. Therefore, the trouble is that Yidi refuses to kowtow, and they will stay in Beijing for a long time. When an envoy enters Beijing, he is bound to see the emperor, but the ceremony of not bowing to the emperor will violate the concept of "the world is unified." At that time, the British and French allied forces demanded to negotiate with the Manchu, and if they wanted to negotiate, they had to see the emperor. Meeting the emperor, according to tradition, foreign envoys kneel down when meeting the emperor, that is, kowtow instead of kowtow.
The culprit in the burning of Yuanmingyuan was James Bruce, the eighth Earl of Elgin. Erjin ordered the Yuanmingyuan to be burned in retaliation for the Qing government's arrest of ministers and mistreatment of prisoners of war. In September, 1860, Harry Parkes, the British envoy, and Henry Locke, the private secretary of Erjin, went to Tongxian County to negotiate with the Qing government under the white flag of truce, and were arrested by Zai Yuan and Sengqin. He was taken to Beijing with a group of British and French soldiers who were ambushed and captured alive, and was imprisoned for more than a month. The Manchu emperor and government always regarded Parkes as the commander-in-chief of the British and French allied forces. According to the traditional strategy of "catch the thief first, then capture the king", they planned to capture Parkes before the Tongzhou negotiations, expecting that after Parkes was captured, the British and French allied forces would be leaderless and chaotic, and then seize the opportunity to suppress it on a large scale, which would undoubtedly win. During their imprisonment, these people suffered all kinds of torture and humiliation. Of the 39 prisoners, 20 died in custody, including Thomas Balbi, a reporter from The Times of London.
When Erkin learned of the atrocities committed by the Qing government, he decided to take revenge. Erjin will burn the Forbidden City. Later, after several days of deliberation, he chose Yuanmingyuan as the target of revenge. Erjin's decision to burn Yuanmingyuan instead of the Forbidden City has another meaning. Erkin believed that the Forbidden City was the seat of the China government (Britain and France were negotiating the Beijing Treaty with the Qing government at that time); Yuanmingyuan is a royal garden, privately owned by Emperor China. Erkin wanted to send a message by burning Yuanmingyuan: It is the Emperor China and his minions who should be responsible for the atrocities such as arresting officials and abusing prisoners, not the people of China. A few days before the retaliation, Erkin ordered the following announcements to be posted all over Beijing, declaring the purpose of the British and French allied forces to burn the Yuanmingyuan: "No one, no matter how high his position, can escape responsibility and punishment after committing fraud and atrocities; Yuanmingyuan will be burned on (1860 10) 18 as a punishment for the treachery of Emperor China; Only the Qing imperial government should be responsible for this, and people who have nothing to do with atrocities do not have to worry about being hurt. " (translated from English)
The detention and mistreatment of British and French diplomats not only violates the Western international law as viewed by Lord Elgin, but also violates China's code of conduct of "the two countries should hand in their troops and not cut their envoys" since ancient times. The destruction caused by the burning of Yuanmingyuan is not only the crime of the British and French allied forces, but also the historical reason caused by the pedantry and incompetence of the Manchu emperor and government.
After the disaster
After the destruction of Yuanmingyuan, it is still a royal forbidden garden. During the Tongzhi period, he was ordered by Empress Dowager Cixi to try to rebuild it. At that time, it was planned to restore more than 20 temples, mainly in Qian Chao District, Houhu District, West District and North District of Yuanmingyuan, as well as Gongmen District of Wanchun Garden and Xiaqing Hall at the entrance of Fuchun Hall. However, less than 10 months after the project started, it was forced to stop work for maintenance due to the exhaustion of funds. Since then, Empress Dowager Cixi has repaired the Summer Palace, but she has not completely abandoned the restoration of Yuanmingyuan. Until Guangxu 22-24, she also restored Shuanghezhai and Jinongxuan in Yuanmingyuan. 1900 (in the 26th year of Guangxu), Eight-Nation Alliance went to Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled to xi 'an with Emperor Guangxu, which led to chaos in both capital city. Eight Banners soldiers, bandits and local ruffians took advantage of the fire to rob, and nearly 100 buildings that remained in the park and were basically restored were demolished and robbed one after another, which completely destroyed the buildings and ancient and famous trees in Yuanmingyuan.
Later, the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan were plundered by bureaucrats, warlords and profiteers for a long time, and even destroyed by government authorities in a planned way. The dignitaries of Beiyang government, including some people responsible for the protection of Yuanmingyuan site, relied on their power to transport a large number of stone carvings and Taihu stones from the park to repair their gardens. Such as Wang Huaiqing, Commander-in-Chief of the Garrison in Gyeonggi, Cao Kun, the Governor's Ambassador (who was later bribed to be elected President of the Republic of China), Nie Xianfan, Commander of the Bujun Army, Che Qingyun, Commander of the Gendarmerie in the capital, and Wang Lanheng, Secretary-General of the Government, all have such misdeeds. Only Jing (equivalent to the later mayor of Beiping) Liu Menggeng forcibly removed 623 cars of Taihu Stone from Changchun Garden within 25 days of 1922. At that time, the 13th Division of the Army, the 16th Division of the National Army, the 11th Division, the 53rd Army of the Northeast Army and the 29th Army of the Song Dynasty were stationed in Xiyuan area successively. They have forcibly demolished the walls of Yuanmingyuan, sold bricks and stones privately, or used them to build a playground in Xiyuan. The Summer Palace, Zhongshan Park, yenching university, Beiping Library and other places also carried away a large number of stone chips. In the early 1930s, when the high beam bridge was rebuilt on the ballasted road from Haidian to Yuquan Mountain, with the approval of the Beiping Special Government, all the tiger-skin stone fences in the south (4,800 meters) and east of Yuanmingyuan were demolished and smashed into ballasts to pave the way. Prior to this, it also publicly sold bricks, tiger skin stones, mica flakes, and even the remaining marble columns of the West Building for many times, which turned the Yuanmingyuan into ruins.
The destruction of Yuanmingyuan, a famous garden of a generation, is not only a witness to the brutal destruction of human culture by western invaders, but also a proof that ancient civilization will be beaten if it falls behind.