How beautiful was Yuanmingyuan before it was destroyed? The British took a group of photos that year. How much is it worth now?

"In the early spring, the Lingnvfeng Lingtai is colorful." This poem comes from the Eight Auspicious Yuanmingyuan written by Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty. Yuanmingyuan is a garden of ten thousand gardens. Every summer, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty would come to Yuanmingyuan to deal with summer affairs. As a "garden of ten thousand gardens", Yuanmingyuan has a collection of countless treasures.

Unfortunately, after the Yuanmingyuan was burned down, no one could see it anymore. It is precisely because of this regret that people flocked to a black-and-white photo of Yuanmingyuan at Sotheby's auction. In the end, this photo was sold for 6.5438+0.77 million. So how magnificent is the Yuanmingyuan in this photo that makes people so amazed?

Yuanmingyuan was built in 1707, which was built by Emperor Kangxi for his fourth son Yongzheng. And take the "Yuanming" of the fashion prince Yongzheng as the garden name. 1722 After Yongzheng ascended the throne, Yuanmingyuan was expanded on the original basis. It was also from this period that the Yuanmingyuan formed a basic pattern and layout.

Even though Jiaqing, Daoguang and other emperors carried out a series of expansion and repair of Yuanmingyuan, it did not affect its basic pattern. Although many emperors attached great importance to Yuanmingyuan, the emperor's love did not seem to bring shelter to Yuanmingyuan. The name Yuanmingyuan didn't bring it good luck either. 1860101On October 6th, Yuanmingyuan suffered its first disaster.

After the British and French allied forces rudely broke into Yuanmingyuan, they burned, killed and looted everywhere. Yuanmingyuan was badly damaged. At that time, Emperor Tongzhi wanted to repair Yuanmingyuan, but because of the emptiness of the national treasury, there was really no extra money to repair it. Therefore, the restoration project and agenda of Yuanmingyuan were put on hold. 1860, 10 year10.7, the commander of the French army also wrote to tell the French members to take away the most artistic treasures of Yuanmingyuan.

1900, Yuanmingyuan ushered in the second catastrophe. This time, not only Eight-Nation Alliance broke into Yuanmingyuan, but also some bandits and robbers in China took advantage of the chaos to rob. They knocked down the exquisite buildings in Yuanmingyuan and saw the precious ancient trees in Yuanmingyuan. Yuanmingyuan was almost destroyed by these robbers. It took nearly 150 years to clean the room before creating such a world-class garden. But it turned to ashes in a flash.

Such a beautiful garden, now only short columns with broken walls are left. Just when people thought that they would never see the beautiful scenery of Yuanmingyuan again in this life, several photos made a stunning appearance at the auction, which made people ecstatic. It turns out that as early as 1840, a photographer named Felicity came to China and entered the Yuanmingyuan.

He couldn't believe what his eyes saw. What a wonderful paradise on earth it is! While enjoying this visual feast, he did not forget to press the shutter button of his camera. These photos taken by Felize Bite have also become orphans, and many people want to buy these precious influential materials through this auction. Just after everyone rushed to bid, these photos were also taken at a high price of 6.5438+0.7 million. But photos are easy to buy, and beauty is gone. Those amazing times in Yuanmingyuan will never come back.