Old Summer Palace
Yuanmingyuan is located in the northwest of Beijing, covering an area of more than 5000 mu. It is mainly composed of Yuanmingyuan Garden, Qichun Garden and Changchun Garden, so it is also called Yuanming Three Gardens. Yuanmingyuan was originally the manor given by Emperor Kangxi to his fourth son, Yin Zhen. Since then, successive emperors have expanded and repaired Yuanmingyuan to varying degrees. After 0/50 years' construction and operation by the Qing royal family/KLOC-,the construction of Yuanmingyuan has reached its peak.
There are more than 150 scenic spots in the whole park, covering an area of more than 5,200 mu. It has the characteristics of large-scale construction, superb construction skills and rich cultural collections. Because of its profound national cultural connotation, it is famous all over the world, and has the reputation of "garden of ten thousand gardens" and "model of gardening art"
Yuanmingyuan enjoys unique natural scenery. There are continuous mountains in the west, including Wanshou Mountain and Yuquan Mountain, surrounded by artesian springs. The spring water flowing from Yuquan Mountain flows into Kunming Lake from west to east. As early as the Liao Dynasty, the royal family at that time built Yuquan Mountain Palace here. Later, more Ming royal families took a fancy to this treasure trove of geomantic omen and built many gardens here.
Later, after the Manchu entered the customs and seized the political power of the Central Plains, the royal family of the Qing Dynasty continued to build gardens because they could not adapt to the hot and dry climate in Beijing. In the actual construction process of Yuanmingyuan, except for the overall planning of the chief designer Lei Jinyu, they actually built it according to the emperor's ideas, and Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong personally guided its construction.
In addition to the exquisite 150 scenic spots with Chinese and western characteristics, Yuanmingyuan was a world-famous treasure at that time. According to historical records, the Wen Yuan Pavilion in Yuanmingyuan, as one of the four royal libraries in China, has collected countless rare treasures, paintings and calligraphy of many famous artists in past dynasties, kept many rare animals in captivity and planted countless precious flowers and trees.
This should be an important treasure for later scholars to study culture. The national historical wealth shared by people all over the world was destroyed by the greed of western colonialists. The disaster has passed 150 years.
The biggest disaster
1856 10 At the beginning of the year, with the support of the United States and Russia, the British and French allied forces jointly launched the Second Opium War, and on the 6th of that month, several guards were outnumbered and died. From the next day, the British and French allied forces burned and looted the treasures and artistic treasures in the garden, and everywhere they went, nothing grew.
In the process of plundering Yuanmingyuan, the greed and bad looks of the invaders are outrageous. During the robbery, there were many fights within the army, some of whom carried big bags full of various jewels. Some hats are stuffed with crystals, pearls, rubies and sapphires, and jade collars are worn around their necks. They kept stuffing gold bars into their coat pockets for fear of taking less than others.
Among them, the treasure robbed by the son of Montaubon, commander-in-chief of the French army, filled several carriages with a total value of more than 300 thousand francs; A British second-class officer named Harris specially hired seven people to transport the looted treasure back to the barracks; Armed with axe, the soldiers smashed all the furniture with precious stones, picked up the precious stones and walked away, or destroyed everything that could not be taken away with wooden sticks.
Subsequently, the British and French allied forces sent troops to rob Yuanmingyuan several times in a row. 10, 18 In June, more than 3,000 British troops rushed into Yuanmingyuan and set fire to it. The fire burned for three days and nights, including more than 300 ladies-in-waiting, eunuchs and craftsmen. Smoke hung over the whole city of Beijing for a long time, witnessing the ugly atrocities of the western invaders.
Later, the rare birds, animals, precious flowers and trees in Yuanmingyuan were reduced to ashes in the fire, and the cultural treasures created by the Qing royal family after hundreds of years of ingenuity were destroyed. These robbers returned to Europe arm in arm after filling their pockets and boxes.
The rest of my life after the disaster
For a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of China, domestic academic circles did not carry out archaeological restoration of the broken Yuanmingyuan. Until 1996, the Yuanmingyuan was destroyed 150 years later, due to the increasingly mature archaeological detection and restoration technology, the domestic expert group became a special archaeological team to carry out archaeological restoration work, and the archaeological team conducted three archaeological excavations, especially 2065438+.
Experts involved in the restoration said that the achievements in the archaeological stage were surprising. So far, more than 50,000 cultural relics have been found in the site of Yuanmingyuan. According to the analysis of archaeological experts, it is mainly because many cultural relics fell into the water during the war and survived a fire disaster. Among the more than 50,000 cultural relics, there are both severely damaged and well-preserved, but the largest proportion is the components of cultural relics.
Among them, the most surprising thing is a gold-plated elephant head excavated by the archaeological team in the river beside the site of Dagongmen in 20 14. Its carving technique far exceeds the bronze head of the zodiac. Experts found that the elephant should be embedded in the surface of the object, but it accidentally fell into the bottom of the river during transportation and has been sleeping in the mud at the bottom of the river ever since.
Now, this precious elephant head is also well preserved in the museum, which provides opportunities for future generations to learn and appreciate, and also provides valuable historical materials for scholars in the industry. In addition to this elephant head, the archaeological team also found several well-preserved porcelain and jade articles in the site, which provided valuable physical materials for the research of relevant scholars. Their excavation and restoration are of great significance.
After repeated raids and arson in Yuanmingyuan, the archaeological team was able to find more than 50,000 cultural relics and treasures in the ruins, which is really surprising, but it also shows from the side that perhaps in the heyday of Yuanmingyuan, the number of treasures hidden in it was one of the best in the world. The author believes that remembering the past, being a teacher for the future, remembering history, remembering scars and living in the present are the greatest respect and love for a peaceful life.