Information about the Old Summer Palace before its destruction

Information about the Old Summer Palace before its destruction

Everyone knows the information about the Old Summer Palace before its destruction, and the scenery of the Old Summer Palace is relatively good, and it is a unique building in the Qing Dynasty. The Old Summer Palace The loss is very regrettable. Because of the limited technology of that era, the Old Summer Palace did not leave much image data before its destruction. Let’s take a look at the information about the Old Summer Palace before its destruction. Information before the destruction of the Old Summer Palace 1

On October 18, 1860, the Old Summer Palace was set on fire by the British and French forces. Yesterday, it was 160 years since the death of the Old Summer Palace. When people see it today, they only see a pile of broken stones, rubble, and ruins. It is difficult to imagine how magnificent and magnificent it once was. How beautiful was the Old Summer Palace before it was burned down? Hugo used four words to describe it: like a moon palace. Its destruction is a calamity for human civilization and an eternal national pain for the Chinese people.

Please use marble, white marble,

Bronze and porcelain to build a dream,

Use cedar to make the roof trusses,

Cover it with satin , studded with precious stones,

build a temple here, build a harem there,

put statues of gods on them, decorate them with colored glaze,

decorate them with gold, decorate them with powder.

Hire an architect who was a poet

Build a thousand and one dreams from One Thousand and One Nights,

Add gardens and pools,

One eye fountain.

Please imagine a fairyland in human fantasy,

Its appearance is a palace, a temple...

——Victor Hugo< /p>

This extremely gorgeous and dream-like text was written by the French writer Hugo. It describes the grand scene before the death of the Old Summer Palace.

The more beautiful the text, the more heartbreaking the disaster it has experienced.

On October 18, 1860, the Old Summer Palace, known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", was set on fire by the British and French forces. "For two consecutive days, black clouds formed by thick smoke have been floating in the sky over the once prosperous and prosperous hometown. The breeze blowing from the northwest blew the dense black clouds towards Beijing. The thick smoke brought a large number of hot embers. Wave after wave came and fell silently on the streets and alleys. The sunlight was obscured by black smoke and thick clouds, like a long-lasting solar eclipse. The dark red firelight shone on the faces of the soldiers who were busy going back and forth, making them stunned. It’s like a group of devils cheering for the destruction of a unique treasure.”

Now, 160 years have passed. During these 160 years, there are endless regrets, indelible pain, and even more. There is an unforgettable shame and a constant wake-up call.

The ruins are speechless, and I return to my dreams several times.

Technology restores the appearance of the Old Summer Palace before it was burned down

The picture is from the documentary film "Old Summer Palace"

The beauty of the Old Summer Palace

The Old Summer Palace was built around In 1707, the forty-sixth year of Kangxi's reign, it was originally the garden given to Emperor Yinzhen, the fourth son of the emperor. Emperor Kangxi inscribed the "Old Summer Palace" plaque for it and visited the garden many times for banquets.

Starting from Yongzheng, the five emperors of Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng lived in the Old Summer Palace for nearly 140 years.

The Old Summer Palace represents the highest standard of Chinese royal garden art in the 18th century and is known as "the model of all Chinese garden art."

On Qushui Island, there are pavilions and pavilions in a well-proportioned manner.

Spectacular, magnificent, as bright as white jade.

Looking down from the sky, the scenery is full of vast expanse of green.

All of these incredibly beautiful words can be applied to it.

People often say: Greece has the Parthenon, Egypt has the Pyramids, Rome has the Colosseum, Paris has Notre Dame, and the East has the Old Summer Palace. If we say, we have not seen it, but we have dreamed of it. This is some kind of frightening and unknown masterpiece, vaguely visible in the indescribable morning light, like the silhouette of Asian civilization glimpsed on the horizon of European civilization.

——Hugo "Letter to Captain Butler on the British-French Allied Forces Expedition to China"

"The summer palace of the Chinese emperor is very famous. During the expedition, I have been imagining its beauty, and when I was actually in it, its luxury still shocked me... Whether it is an officer or a soldier, everyone feels the same, and there is no other garden that can compare with it. "

"A British officer said that all the royal castles and palaces in France are not worth the size of the Old Summer Palace. "

"The Summer Palace is full of palaces. It is full of antiques, books, silks and various treasures. This is a scene from the One Thousand and One Nights, a fantasy. This is a reality that actually exists before our eyes that cannot be imagined even in wild imagination. There must be a poet who collects it. Only those who are painters, connoisseurs, historians and Chinese scholars can explain and describe.

”

——Quoted from the documentary film "Old Summer Palace"

The Tragedy of Old Summer Palace

On October 6, 1860, the British and French forces invaded the northwest suburbs of Beijing. The remnants of the Qing army fled without a fight, and the invading army rushed directly to the Old Summer Palace. When the French army arrived at the Old Summer Palace, Emperor Xianfeng had already fled to his summer resort more than 200 kilometers away. All the imperial troops had fled, and only a few eunuchs stood up to resist. .

Starting from October 7, the British and French invaders poured into the Old Summer Palace and looted it. Hundreds of millions of cultural relics were looted, and those who could not take them were destroyed.

October 18. On the 19th, more than 3,000 British officers and soldiers set fire to the Old Summer Palace for two consecutive days. The fire did not go out for three days and nights. The reason why this kind of destruction was particularly cruel and humiliating was that it burned down. Because it was not even destroyed by nature, accidents, or force majeure, but by others.

But it was destroyed by others. In the eyes, this plunder turns into naked showoff. In Hugo’s words, “This is the story of two robbers. ”

The British and French light infantry, artillery, North African cavalry, Queen’s Dragoons, even Indian soldiers and coolies, as well as local bandits who heard the news, everyone’s eyes widened. Burning with greed, countless voices are whispering, the most precious thing has been taken away, we have to go in, it's our turn, isn't it!

A bugle created complete panic, Everyone rushed forward, pushed aside the sentries on guard, and began to search for their favorite things... There were crowds of people, cheering and shouting in various languages, and some people were immersed in the queen's red-painted jewelry boxes. Others were almost drowned in the pile of silk and brocade. Some people had big strings of pearls hanging on their chests, and put those rubies, sapphires, and crystal stones into their pockets, underwear, and military hats. Some people picked up the clocks and wall clocks and walked out. The engineers used axes to remove the gems embedded in the furniture. Some small fires were caused. Some people shouted, "Fight the fire!" The mink skin was used to extinguish the flames without hesitation, what a crazy dream!

——The diary of the French officer Count Elisson

We burned the fire. It was the emperor's summer palace in the Old Summer Palace.

Listen, it took 3,500 people two full days to complete the fire. A concrete concept?

Hundreds of buildings were burned to ashes.

I collected a few beautiful things from the Old Summer Palace, I think. Everyone can get a gift.

I also have a luxurious trophy: the emperor's imperial seal! I will tell you more about these things when I get home. Information before the destruction 2

The first photo of Beijing was taken in 1860. In the 40 years to 1900, the British, French, and Germans all took photos of Beijing, but the only ones that can be found so far. There are only about 500 photos, but Xie Manlu only stayed in Beijing for four years and took more than a thousand photos on his own. This is an astonishing number in an era when glass negatives were expensive. Being able to take so many photos at will is inseparable from his prominent family background. Xie Manlu's real name is Robert de Semaille, and Semaille is his family name. This family is very famous, and there is a family in France. The town was named after his family.

In 1880, he reluctantly came to China as a diplomat, and his four years of experience were recorded in his book "Beijing." "Memoirs of Four Years", but there are only a few words about photography in the book. Except for the photos used in the memoirs, other negatives have not been mass-produced into photos and widely distributed.

From this auction. It can be seen from the photos that during his stay in Beijing, he often traveled with his friends and took pictures everywhere. His works cover the French people in China at that time, a large number of architectural landscapes in Beijing, the royal gardens in the western suburbs, and the temple scenery outside Beijing. and the Catholic Church, among others.

Around 1882, Xie Manlu bought the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, horse and pig among the twelve animal heads in the Old Summer Palace. However, during the transportation back to China, the pig, rabbit, rat and The head was stolen and lost, and only the head of an ox, a tiger, a horse and a dragon were taken back to France. As Xie Manlu's family successively sold his collection, these images taken in the 19th century gradually came into view.

Compared with some commercial photographers at that time, Xie Manlu’s photos have more research value. Taking advantage of his position, he could always take pictures that others could not access. Coupled with the original printing, the clarity was extremely high and a large number of details were clearly visible. He inadvertently left many architectural "firsts" for Beijing. and the "only" image.

Among Xie Manlu’s works, the most precious ones are undoubtedly the photos of wooden buildings in the Old Summer Palace. When I came into contact with these photos, it was like an astronomy researcher discovering photos of rabbits jumping on the moon. It felt like something that could only exist in theory has finally been implemented.

Before the discovery of this group of photos, the academic community had always believed that, under the circumstances at that time, although the Old Summer Palace was destroyed, it was still a forbidden royal area and Western photographers could not set foot in it. Their scope of activities could only be within Western-style building area. But Xie Manlu not only entered the Old Summer Palace area, but also had a large number of entourage (at least six people).

Using photos as clues to analyze, it was found that around 1882, they entered through the palace gate of Changchun Garden and took photos of Western-style buildings. Moving westward, the shooting range almost ran through the entire Old Summer Palace. They took many photos of wooden buildings. Although these buildings escaped the "fire disaster" by the British and French allied forces, they did not escape the "wood disaster" after the "Gengzi Incident" in 1900. Therefore, Xie Manlu’s photos have become the only basis for studying the destruction and changes of these buildings. Even for those legendary and controversial buildings, his photos have become irrefutable "ironclad evidence".

What’s rare is that Xie Manlu was not only interested in the Old Summer Palace, but also conducted research before taking pictures. He only took pictures of famous buildings and Chinese gardens that were not destroyed. These photos were precisely what other photographers had never taken. of.

Under his lens, the Old Summer Palace, which in the past was only seen in documentary records or paintings, is presented more delicately and with details. Those Chinese-style wooden buildings that have not been burned come into view. Among the carved beams and painted buildings, they show the style and model that a royal garden should have. Information before the destruction of the Old Summer Palace 3

In 1860, in order to obtain more interests in China, Britain and France dispatched 18,000 coalition troops and launched the Second Opium War. At this time, nearly 20 years had passed since the First Opium War, and the Qing government was still complacent and unwilling to make progress, leading to another disastrous defeat. The picture shows the Dagukou Fort captured by the British and French forces in 1960.

The Qing government organized a defense near Bali Bridge in Tongzhou. Seng Gelinqin led 21,000 Mongolian cavalry. Shengbao organized a green camp army of 10,000 to resist. In the end, the 30,000 Qing army was wiped out, leaving only seven men and six horses. After the negotiation broke down, Emperor Xianfeng fled to Jehol in a panic, and the British and French forces invaded Beijing. The picture shows the front of Tiananmen Square in Beijing in October 1860, full of weeds.

The picture shows the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City in 1860. The mottled city wall is a true portrayal of the precarious Qing Dynasty. After occupying the Forbidden City, the British and French forces immediately burned down the Old Summer Palace. Burning the Old Summer Palace refers to the burning of the Old Summer Palace in a narrow sense. In a broad sense, the scope of burning is not just the Old Summer Palace, but also the three royal mountains and five gardens in the west of Beijing. The scope and extent of its burning are much larger than the Old Summer Palace, including Qingyi Garden, Jingyi Garden, etc. Ming Garden, Jingyi Garden, Changchun Garden.

The predecessor of the Summer Palace was Qingyi Garden, which was one of the five gardens of the Old Summer Palace. After the British and French forces left, Empress Dowager Cixi tried to rebuild the Old Summer Palace, but 10 months after the project started, funds ran out and she had to give up. They chose to build Qingyi Garden, which was not severely damaged, and renamed it "Summer Palace". However, it did not completely give up on repairing the Old Summer Palace. It was repaired many times until 1900, when the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered Beijing and the three mountains and five gardens of the Imperial Garden in the west of Beijing were destroyed again. The Qing government gave up repairing the Old Summer Palace. The picture shows the Epiphyllum Pavilion in Qingyi Garden the day before the Old Summer Palace was destroyed.

The picture shows the city gate of Wenchang Pavilion in Qingyi Garden. The pavilion has three floors. The big clock on the roof points to 6:30. It is speculated that this photo was taken on the day the pavilion was destroyed in 1860 or the day before. The existing Wenchang Pavilion was rebuilt during the reign of Cixi. It was reduced to two floors and has a simple shape. Compared with the previous one, it is not at the same level.

The Duobao Glazed Pagoda in the Huacheng Pavilion of Wanshou Mountain in Qingyi Garden is 16 meters high and has a seven-story structure with eight sides. It was built by Emperor Qianlong to celebrate his mother's 60th birthday. The pagoda is extremely exquisite and took 60 years to complete. It is now located on the back hill of the Summer Palace.

Qingyi Garden Wanshou Mountain Sea of ??Wisdom. The existing glazed Buddha statues on the lower outer wall of the Summer Palace's Longevity Hill were all smashed, and the ones you see now were rebuilt later. The fire in the Old Summer Palace lasted for three days. In the Anyou Palace alone, nearly 300 eunuchs, maids, and craftsmen were killed in the flames. Many people threw themselves into the lake. The greatest building complex in human history was destroyed, and 1.5 million cultural relics were plundered. It was the first atrocity in the history of modern world civilization.