Foreign photography of Beijing photos in Qing Dynasty

"On the vibrant lotus pond, there stands a magnificent temple, a glass pagoda stands aside, and there is a poetic epiphyllum pavilion under the cool wind."

This pleasant scenery does not come from any garden today, nor from the movie set, nor from any fairyland.

Only from a photo with a history of 160 years. As for the garden in the photo, it is the deepest pain of China people-Yuanmingyuan.

Even if the photo is black and white, it still can't stop the majestic Yuanmingyuan, where the lake is gurgling.

The French writer Hugo once commented on Yuanmingyuan in "Letter to Captain Butler about the British-French Allied Expedition to China":

"In a corner of the world, there is a world miracle, and this miracle is called Yuanmingyuan."

"Art has two origins, and ideals produce European art; A fantasy produces oriental art, and Yuanmingyuan's position in fantasy art is the same as that of the Parthenon in ideal art ... "

Hugo's words made the world realize that the glory of Yuanmingyuan is not only at the level of beautiful scenery, but also the artistic light it blooms is dazzling.

But it is such a fairyland on earth, but it was set on fire more than 100 years ago, leaving only the fascinating and sad ruins.

As for the photo that caught the world's attention mentioned earlier, it is about an overseas auction on 20 16.

2065438+September 2006, Sotheby's, a world-renowned art auction house, suddenly launched a set of black and white photos after completing the auction of many jewels and cultural relics.

On the stage, the auctioneer briefly introduced that this is a group of photos taken in the late 1950s, which made most of the cultural relics collectors present suddenly lose interest.

Some of them chat with friends, while others play mobile phones by themselves.

Everyone is not interested in this group of old historical photos, only some rich people who are interested in history are waiting for the photos to appear.

But the auctioneer is in no hurry. He has no fluctuating expression, but he has some incomprehensible self-confidence, as if he is not worried about the heat of this group of photos at all.

The next moment, he lit up the big screen behind him, showed some details of this group of photos, and then shouted out a shocking starting price:

"This set of19th century black-and-white photos, the starting price is 1.8 million pounds!"

This inspired many absent-minded bidders. You should know that 6.5438+0.8 million pounds may be a little small to measure jewelry and cultural relics, but if it is used to buy a set of black and white photos, it is also considered "sky-high".

As a result, all the bidders turned their eyes to the big screen and wanted to know what kind of photos could shoot such a "sky-high price".

Because there are twelve photos in a group, Sotheby's auction house did not show all the photos in order to ensure the only right of future buyers to know the contents of the photos.

They only selected the details of a few photos for display, and the contents beyond some details were even deliberately blurred by the auction house, revealing infinite mystery.

But Rao is so, he still can't hide the fairy scenery of the garden in the photo, the palace-style buildings intersecting vertically and horizontally, and the lotus lake dotted with flowers and trees. There is no garden in the world today that can match it.

The presence of bidders said, the in the mind can not help but have some doubts:

"Is this a19th century garden? How does it look a bit like modern computer synthesis? "

Although some people are skeptical about this, the China people and China buyers present at the scene quickly recognized the garden in this group of photos, which is the Yuanmingyuan in the Qing Dynasty.

The combination of Chinese and western landscape design, coupled with the magnificent Chinese style layout, is this not the brilliant scene of Yuanmingyuan?

And the auctioneer's subsequent words also completely "qualitatively" this group of photos:

"These photos are the works of the famous photographer Phyllis Bitter, and they are all real shots ..."

With this preparation, the auction of photos became very rapid, with several bidders bidding, and finally a mysterious buyer took it at a sky-high price of 200 thousand pounds.

200,000 pounds, equivalent to RMB, reached 6.5438+0.76 million yuan, setting a record for the auction price of photos at Sotheby's auction house in Britain.

With the fall of the hammer, the Chinese and China people present also recalled the past years together. ...

Someone once said, "A Yuanmingyuan is half of history of qing dynasty".

Although this sentence sounds a bit exaggerated, it is an absolute fact.

We need to know who is the chief designer of Yuanmingyuan, and whether it is the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. A royal garden built by several emperors is enough to reflect considerable historical weight.

What's more, the construction of Yuanmingyuan is a model of "real materials", which contains not only countless rare flowers and trees, but also countless rare paintings and calligraphy.

Even the building materials are made of real money, let alone decoration. Almost all kinds of gold, silver, jewelry and jadeite can't be found at all

However, such a magnificent Yuanmingyuan was actually just a "small" garden given to his son by his father.

Yuanmingyuan was built in 1707. At this time, Kangxi looked at the newly-built 100-acre garden and deeply felt a new breath. He wrote an inscription for the garden:

"Round and become a god, be a gentleman; Bright and shining, the wisdom of talents is also. "

This sentence is actually an explanation of the words "round" and "bright":

"Round" means perfect moral character, surpassing ordinary people, and "bright" means bright and wise political achievements, agreeing with "aboveboard" written by the emperor shunzhi.

This garden was renamed "Yuanmingyuan" and became an out-and-out royal garden.

It is worth mentioning that in his later years, Kangxi gave the Yuanmingyuan directly to his fourth son, Yong Zhengdi.

In the eyes of a group of old ministers in the DPRK, this is actually "the book is the foundation of the country", which shows Kangxi's love for this "four elder brothers".

This is indeed the case. After Prince Yin Yong was abolished, Kangxi finally chose to spread to Yin Zhen in 1722, and created Yong Zhengdi in the prosperous period of Kang Yong.

After Yongzheng ascended the throne, he did not forget the Yuanmingyuan given to him by his father. As soon as he ascended the throne, he designated Yuanmingyuan as the "Imperial Garden", and then began to expand Yuanmingyuan at 1725.

He first set up the "Ruyi Pavilion" in Yuanmingyuan, specializing in painting design. Because of this, Yongzheng recruited many famous painters all over the country and put them in Ruyi Pavilion.

The daily task of these painters is to turn some of Yongzheng's reverie into reality. According to the current institutional setup, Ruyi Pavilion is like an architectural design institute.

With the help of Ruyi Pavilion, Yongzheng's design of Yuanmingyuan went to a higher latitude, and countless novel garden scenery mostly came from Ruyi Pavilion, making Yuanmingyuan the favorite backyard of Yongzheng.

This is the same as what you see in The Queen of the Palace. Yong Zhengdi will "take his family" to the Yuanmingyuan for the summer vacation in three days, which can be described as "deep love" for the Yuanmingyuan.

So is the official history. With the Yuanmingyuan, Yong Zhengdi is almost the most "home" place for the Qing emperors:

He never traveled south in his life and rarely left Beijing, but Yuanmingyuan is a must-see place every summer.

In order to stay in Yuanmingyuan for a long time, Yongzheng also set up a fair and diligent office in Yuanmingyuan for business, as his father once said.

But after all, one can't compare with the discussion in the Forbidden City, so Yong Zhengdi set up a cabinet, six departments and a duty room of the Ministry of War, and almost set up a small court in the Yuanmingyuan.

With such a complete government office, Yongzheng stayed for a long time every time he entered the park, and even finally entered the Yuanmingyuan. All these show Yongzheng's love for Yuanmingyuan.

After Yongzheng's death, Yuanmingyuan was handed over to his successor, Emperor Qianlong. Maybe this is a memory of his dead father. Qianlong stepped up the construction of Yuanmingyuan.

He personally moved into Yuanmingyuan and presided over the construction of Yuanmingyuan for seventeen years. During this period, the cost was like running water, and millions of dollars were "smashed" into the renovation of Yuanmingyuan.

At the same time, Emperor Qianlong not only upgraded the interior of Yuanmingyuan, but also built Changchun Garden outside Yuanmingyuan, which was later expanded and merged into Qichun Garden, making Yuanmingyuan formally form the scale of what is now called "Yuanming Three Gardens".

In addition, Emperor Qianlong was a designer who was good at summarizing and "transplanting".

When he visited Jiangnan many times, he ordered people to record the designs of some gardens in Jiangnan. After returning to Beijing, he directly rebuilt the recorded landscape in Yuanmingyuan.

Moreover, Emperor Qianlong has been asking Ruyi Pavilion and craftsmen to transplant the landscape to be bigger and more luxurious, so that Yuanmingyuan is not only a national garden, but also the ultimate embodiment of all landscapes. For example, Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan is the best proof.

In addition, Emperor Qianlong was the most "trendy" among all the Qing emperors. During his reign, he was obsessed with western culture, including western landscape design.

During the Qianlong period, he recruited Italian painter Lang Shining, French painter Wang Zhicheng, Michelle benoit and other western professional painters to form a western design team.

This western design team built the West Tower Scenic Area of Yuanmingyuan from 1747 to 1760, making Yuanmingyuan the only royal garden that met international standards at that time.

It is worth mentioning that the strength of this western design team is not weak. With their efforts, the West Building Scenic Area of Yuanmingyuan is very westernized, even comparable to the native gardens in the West.

The semi-arched west garden gate, winding stairs on both sides and beautiful European fountain made a visiting French missionary shout loudly:

"It can be compared with the Palace of Versailles in France."

Thus, Emperor Qianlong was extremely determined to expand Yuanmingyuan. In his hands, Yuanmingyuan has made a qualitative leap.

At the same time, the development of Yuanmingyuan also reflects the changes of Kang Yong's prosperous times, from Kangxi's introduction to Yongzheng, to Yongzheng's diligent residence in Yuanmingyuan, and then to Qianlong's huge investment in the renovation of Yuanmingyuan.

Yuanmingyuan is like the Qing Dynasty under san huang: Kangxi created a prosperous time, Yongzheng accumulated national strength and carried forward national prestige.

However, this actually means that the Qing Dynasty will be just like the Yuanmingyuan, just a flash in the pan.

1856, Britain and France launched the Second Opium War against the decadent Qing Dynasty under the pretext of "Yarrow Incident" and "Ma Fu Incident".

Under the cover of naval gunboats, the British and French allied forces attacked Guangzhou and finally occupied it. Later, the weak Qing government was afraid of the attack of the British and French allied forces and quickly sent people to make peace.

In this battle, the British and French allied forces not only captured Beijing, but even went straight to Yuanmingyuan. After defeating the defenders here, they directly occupied Yuanmingyuan.

After that, the British and French allied forces began organized looting.

British and French soldiers searched the garden for gold, silver and jewels, tore up all famous paintings and calligraphy and took them away. Even vases and porcelain have not been spared. When you encounter vases and porcelain that you can't take with you, break them directly on the spot.

The whole Yuanmingyuan is full of torn famous paintings and porcelain fragments, and in some places you can even see gold and silver jewelry scattered all over the floor.

This is mainly because many robbed soldiers have been dazzled. In The Times, there is such an interview report about soldiers:

"No one knows what to take. I lost my silver for gold, and I lost my gold for clocks and watches and jewels inlaid with pearls and jade. Valuable porcelain and enamel bottles are too heavy to transport and are all broken. "

Sometimes, for some treasures, there will be conflicts between allies, which have even risen to the level of fighting.

Moreover, after the British and French allied forces completed the treasure grab, they did not let go of this royal garden. At the behest of British commander Erkin, the British and French allied forces lit the crumbling Yuanmingyuan.

This is an arson to cover up the looting atrocities, and it is also the first fire in Yuanmingyuan. The evil fire burned for three days and nights.

During the three days of burning, burning ashes and residues were blown into the sky, so that the whole city of Beijing was shrouded in a hellish shadow.

Moreover, the fire not only destroyed the grand view of Yuanmingyuan, but also took the lives of 300 maids and eunuchs who stayed in Yuanmingyuan.

However, the British and French Coalition forces do not agree with this. The British commander Erkin who ordered the arson even threatened:

"This move will shock China and Europe, and its effect is far from what people thousands of miles away can imagine."

In his eyes, the burning of Yuanmingyuan is not an evil act at all, but has become their capital with fame and fortune, which is enough to be hated by future generations in China.

However, for Yuanmingyuan, its suffering is still not over. After the British and French allied forces plundered, Emperor Tongzhi ordered the renovation of Yuanmingyuan.

The project started only 10 months ago, and was forced to stop work because of the exhaustion of national financial resources. At the same time, after the restoration work stopped, Eight-Nation Alliance, who heard that Britain and France had succeeded in robbing money, went to Beijing again.

Their first step is to return to Yuanmingyuan, and follow the example of the British and French allied forces to launch a new round of robbery against the newly restored Yuanmingyuan.

After the robbery, even a fire was put out, taking away the last breath of Yuanmingyuan. The most shocking thing is that not all the disasters in Yuanmingyuan came from "outsiders".

After Eight-Nation Alliance's plunder, the Qing Dynasty went to the end completely, and the revolutionary party and warlords fought in melee. Due to the tight war, the 13th Army Division stationed in Yuanmingyuan at that time thought of transporting stones to sell their salaries.

So the lifeless Yuanmingyuan ushered in a "stone robbery". The 13th Division is stealing these stones and making a windfall, which benefits all the troops.

This move made other garrisons jealous, so everyone joined the stone-stealing operation. With the prosperity of the army, all walks of life gradually joined in.

For example, Wang Lanting, secretary-general of the government, and Liu Menggeng, a politician from Beiyang, openly sold stones from Yuanmingyuan.

For a time, the ruins of Yuanmingyuan were like a stone factory, and all kinds of forces were mining stone.

Even today, after 1940, Yuanmingyuan was still ravaged by the Japanese invaders.

On the one hand, the Japanese army plundered the last stones and wood; On the other hand, in order to solve the food crisis, the puppet Manchukuo encouraged local farmers to open up wasteland in Yuanmingyuan.

The landscape of Yuanmingyuan Lake has suffered a disaster, which is no longer the grand scene of that year.

It was not until the People's Liberation Army entered Beijing that Yuanmingyuan was finally protected.

But when the Yuanmingyuan was protected, it was already in ruins.

Rare flowers and trees and treasures of the past have disappeared, which is an immeasurable loss for our country.

When Puyi announced his abdication, there were as many as 6.5438+0.5 million cultural relics in the Forbidden City. According to this estimate, the Yuanmingyuan in Kang Yong, which has been renovated by three emperors, has no less than 6,543,800 pieces.

However, after the founding of New China, only 500 pieces of Yuanmingyuan cultural relics have been preserved in China, not even a fraction of 6,543,800+0.5 million, which means that a large number of cultural relics have been lost overseas.

This is indeed a fact. In today's British Museum, the Oriental Art Museum is set up for China cultural relics.

Many of these cultural relics are from Yuanmingyuan. These are all "gifts" given to the Royal Queen after the looting by the British army.

In addition to the British Museum, there are many collectors in Britain who keep the treasures of Yuanmingyuan, the most prominent of which is Fangshan Residence in southwest England.

William baker Ford, a British rich man and collector at that time, used his money to collect many China cultural relics on the market and kept them in parks.

This makes the word "mountain residence" almost synonymous with the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan in Britain.

In addition to Britain, Queen Eugénie of France also used these looted cultural relics to build a "China Pavilion" in Fontainebleau Palace. Among them, nearly a thousand cultural relics are all from Yuanmingyuan.

Undoubtedly, a series of actions by Britain and France have made our country deeply feel the difficulty of recovering cultural relics.

However, as a new China, Yuanmingyuan is an indispensable part of China culture. Therefore, no matter how hard it is to recover, we must continue.

In the restoration of cultural relics, the most striking thing is the restoration of animal heads in the zodiac.

First, Poly Group, a central enterprise, took back the monkey head, the cow head and the tiger head by auction, so that the motherland could welcome the first batch of Yuanmingyuan cultural relics back.

Later, Stanley Ho, the "gambling king of Macau", bought back the horse's head and pig's head directly on his own, and donated them all to the motherland, so that China won five of the twelve zodiac signs.

Finally, the French Pino family bought a rabbit head and a mouse head in the auction, and donated two songs to China for free, so that China finally collected seven zodiac signs. This also makes us more confident in the recovery of cultural relics.

Today, although the whereabouts of these five zodiac signs are still unknown, China has made up his mind to spare no effort to bring them all home.

At the same time, in the reconstruction of Yuanmingyuan, China will also introduce cultural and scientific factors.

First of all, in the construction of ruins, China advocated keeping "ruins" to warn future generations of the dangers of decadent dynasties and let everyone in China remember this blood debt forever.

Then the Yuanmingyuan was rebuilt, and the Beijing municipal government decided to adopt digital reconstruction to reproduce cultural propaganda and grand scenery.

Nowadays, the digital reconstruction of Yuanmingyuan has made great progress.

I believe that in the near future, the panorama of Yuanmingyuan will meet you again in the form of simulated 3D, so that the world can pay tribute to it again. This set of garden culture is "a garden through the ages".

As a descendant of China, everyone in China should always remember this humiliating history.

We should bear in mind the truth that "we will be beaten if we lag behind" and devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the construction of the motherland, so that China can maintain its upward vitality in all walks of life.

Because only in this way can we ensure the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, let Chinese culture have a long history and let future generations continue to maintain this enterprising spirit.

Under this dynamic trend, the Chinese nation will finally usher in a great rejuvenation and let the world hear the "voice of the giant dragon" from the East.