How many cultural relics were looted by the British and French allied forces in Yuanmingyuan?

In the heyday of Yuanmingyuan, there were no less than 6.5438+0.5 million cultural relics.

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.

How much do you know about the Yuanmingyuan treasure lost overseas?

1860, the British and French allied forces looted the Yuanmingyuan and took away most of the cultural relics.

According to the memories of the British and French invaders who robbed Yuanmingyuan that year, in order to auction the treasures robbed from Yuanmingyuan, they "arranged all the stolen goods to be exhibited in the main hall of Yonghe Palace", including white and green jade articles of various colors, antique enamel porcelain bottles, bronzes and gold and silver Buddha statues; Fur products are also exquisite, many of which are valuable, including mink, otter skin, mink skin, lamb skin and so on; What is particularly striking is that there are two or three imperial robes. Grant, commander of the British army, gave part of his "due" to the soldiers. "The officers gave him a carved red gold hip flask, which is the most exquisite thing among the stolen goods." The Queen of England also got a copy, two beautiful big enamel bottles.

Montauban, the commander of the French army, gave Grant two pieces of gold and jasper, one to the Queen of England and the other to King Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte of France. After returning home, montauban gave Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte many things: two general's decorative sticks, made of gold, with big gems in the middle and at both ends, which were extremely fine in workmanship; Emperor Qianlong's royal armor (now on display at the French Ji Mei Military Museum), with helmet; Gold-plated and glazed copper pagoda; Several gods made of gold and glaze; Many rings, collars, wine glasses, lacquerware, porcelain and thousands of exotic things.

With the passage of time, the looted Yuanmingyuan cultural relics have been scattered around the world through various auctions. But most of them are still preserved in Britain and France.

The Oriental Art Museum of the British Museum has preserved more than 20,000 rare treasures of China. The British army once presented some looted Yuanmingyuan cultural relics to Queen Victoria at that time, and this part of the special cultural relics was collected in the Oriental Art Museum together with the auctioned Yuanmingyuan cultural relics. Gu Kaizhi, a great painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, painted a picture of women's history, which is a rare treasure in ancient scroll paintings in China. 1860 was snatched from Yuanmingyuan by the British and French allied forces. A 3-foot-long and 2-foot-high white horse was stolen from Yuanmingyuan and returned to Yuanmingyuan after being robbed, but it did not escape the fate of being looted.

There is a China Pavilion in Fontainebleau Palace, which was built by Eugénie, Queen of Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte. 1860 After the British and French allied forces looted the Yuanmingyuan, Meng Daobang, commander of the French army invading China, presented the "spoils" snatched from the Yuanmingyuan to Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte and Queen Eugénie. Queen Eugénie built the China Pavilion to collect these cultural relics.

In the most conspicuous position of the China Pavilion, there is a huge stupa, 2 meters high, with gold-plated bronze and emeralds. There are a pair of ivory and a pair of bronze dragons on the left and right sides of the tower, which are the same as those placed in front of the emperor's throne in the Forbidden City and Summer Resort, indicating that the bronze dragons should be placed in front of the emperor's throne in the Guangming Hall of Zheng Da in Yuanmingyuan. A pair of golden jars and A Jin Manza (the temple decoration of Tibetan Buddhism). The golden jar sparkles with wishful patterns, and the gold is inlaid with pearls, turquoise and rubies, which shows how luxurious the decoration in Yuanmingyuan was at that time. There is a rosary in the glass table and cupboard. There are 154 beads * *, which is different from the general 108 beads. This is a rosary of the emperor and two hanging beads of the queen, which were presented by montauban to Queen Eugénie. I didn't expect Queen Eugénie to be dissatisfied, because she had heard that all the officers who went on an expedition to China had returned home loaded with food. She complained that montauban only brought her such a gift, so montauban also gave her three carts of treasure and gave her seven carts all the time, including all kinds of bronzes, jade, porcelain, lacquerware, gold and silver products and cloisonne stolen from Yuanmingyuan. ...

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, has a handle of Kangxi Jade Ruyi, carved with precious white jade, with green in white and carved into the shape of porous fungus. The inscription on the top of the handle is "Yu" and the inscription on the bottom is: "I wish you many years, Xian Yi on earth. Minister Wu came in and said that the description of the exhibits showed that this exquisite jade ruyi was looted by the British and French allied forces and bought at the Paris auction. ...

Will the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan return one day?

The staff of Yuanmingyuan Management Office has been inquiring about the whereabouts of lost cultural relics. With their efforts, some bronze sculptures of Yuanmingyuan scattered among the people in China have clues. For example, Mr. Yang told reporters that a unit in Beijing has a pair of bronze lions. It is said that this place used to be the Italian Consulate in China, and the bronze lions were shipped back from somewhere in Xishan (or Yuanmingyuan) around 1900. According to Mr. Yang's understanding, the bronze lions were made during the Jiaqing period. During the Jiaqing period, there were no big garden buildings in Xishan except Qichun Garden. Qichun Garden is an integral part of Yuanmingyuan. The palace gate of Qichun Garden was completed in Jiaqing period. This pair of bronze lions should be the bronze lions at the entrance of Qichun Garden.

A year or two ago, a woman surnamed Niu donated two vases and a mirror handed down by her ancestors to Yuanmingyuan. According to preliminary research, two vases, one from Guangxu period and one from Jiaqing period, are all Yuanmingyuan items that Prince Gong brought with him during the renovation of Jietai Temple.

However, after all, there are few cultural relics left in Yuanmingyuan in China, and a large number of precious cultural relics are lost overseas. It is not a long-term solution to buy them only by capital contribution. Mr. Yang said helplessly: "The key problem is the lack of relevant international laws and conventions." Although China has acceded to several international conventions on the protection of cultural relics, the retrospective effect and contracting parties of each international convention are very limited.

"However, we should constantly appeal to and negotiate with the countries concerned. At an appropriate time, UNESCO will join other countries to introduce relevant laws to return the cultural relics illegally acquired by various countries to the returned countries." Mr. Yang said.

In recent years, Mr. Yang's Department of Literature and History has been devoted to collecting the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan lost overseas, hoping to prepare for the cultural relics to go home one day. They hope that anyone who sees the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan in foreign museums can bring back an introduction.

Finally, Mr. Yang said that the cultural information carried by historical relics can only have the greatest effect on its "origin". Historical relics that leave the cultural matrix are just lonely furnishings. Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park began to declare world cultural heritage. If the declaration is successful, then according to the relevant provisions of UNESCO on the protection of world cultural heritage and the spirit of the principle of "protecting cultural heritage at the place of origin", the countries concerned should not "rely on" the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan.

From the 10th year of Qianlong to the 24th year of Qianlong, the Qing court absorbed the baruch form of western architecture and built ten scenes of Dashuifa at the northern end of Changchun Garden, commonly known as "West Building", which lasted 14 years. The West Building was designed and supervised by Italian Lang Shining, French Michel Benoit and Wang Zhicheng according to the orders of Emperor Li Hong, and was built by China craftsmen. Western-style palace architecture is a pioneering work of China gardens. Haiyan Hall is the largest building in the West Building. There is a fountain in front of the building, and you can climb to the second floor along the east-west ramp. There are water garages on the east and west sides of the building, which are I-shaped, and there is a reservoir in the middle, which can store water 180 tons.

1860, 10 In June, the British and French allied forces broke into the Yuanmingyuan and carried out an appalling robbery. The invaders burned this rare art treasure house at home and abroad on June, 2008 10+08 to cover up their barbaric atrocities of trampling on human civilization.

/kloc-in 0/900, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Yuanmingyuan, and the other ten scenic spots were looted. The robbers plundered a lot of art treasures in the park. The statue of the zodiac in Dashuifa was robbed, stone carvings were smashed, bronze animal heads and famous bronzes in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, ancient ceramics, ancient celebrity paintings and calligraphy, the imperial seal of the Qing Dynasty, as well as jade ruyi, clocks and watches, golden towers and jade archways. Precious cultural relics such as Si Ku Quan Shu, Quan Shu Hui Yao, Integration of Ancient and Modern Books, and Chunhua Ge Tie Manuscript have not been spared.