The old photos of Yuanmingyuan taken by 1882 were first made public. What is the Yuanmingyuan under the lens?

The management office of Yuanmingyuan held a press conference on the top floor of Zhengjue Temple and released 365 old photos of Zhang Zhengui. Most of the photos are shown to the public for the first time, and the full-body photo of Manjusri Bodhisattva in Manjusri Pavilion of Zhengjue Temple, which was taken at 1920s, was also discovered for the first time.

Yuanmingyuan was burnt down by the British and French allied forces in 1860. Since then, Yuanmingyuan has gradually become a ruin and lost its former glory. /kloc-during the 0/60 years, Yuanmingyuan experienced from a garden of ten thousand gardens to ruins, from royal gardens to villages where ordinary people lived, and then to the first batch of national archaeological sites parks. Before these changes, there were not many written records. However, in the 100 year after the death of Yuanmingyuan, many photographers photographed the site with the most advanced photographic equipment at that time, including China and Hongkong photographer Afong Lai, German photographer Olmo, Frenchman Xie Manlu and Swede Xi Long Ren. These early images have also become the historical testimony of the vicissitudes of Yuanmingyuan in the past century.

The old photos released by Yuanmingyuan this time cover the related buildings of Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden. These rare old photos were collected by Liu Yang from all over the world. At the press conference, Liu Yang donated an old electronic photo of Manjusri Bodhisattva in Manjusri Pavilion of Zhengjue Temple to the Yuanmingyuan Management Office, which was collected by the Yuanmingyuan Archives.

It is said that Emperor Qianlong was often honored as Manjusri Bodhisattva by foreign princes and envoys because of his outstanding martial arts in Wenzhi, and Qianlong himself respected Manjusri Dojo, so he built a Manjusri Pavilion in Zhengjue Temple of Yuanmingyuan to worship Manjusri Bodhisattva. It can be clearly seen from this old photo that Manjusri Bodhisattva is riding the green lion statue in the pavilion, which has been three feet high. There are two children standing around, the lion slave on the left and Wei Tuo on the right, both eight feet tall. Manjusri Bodhisattva and its background light are all made of gold-plated wood, while the lion and two children are all made of gold, bearing the platform of white marble. This photo is one of the four remaining photos in Zhengjue Temple, which can verify the accuracy of historical records and make up for academic gaps. This has important reference value for the research and restoration of Manjusri Pavilion in Zhengjue Temple.

1882 or so, Xie Man Road bought seven of the twelve animal heads, including rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, horses and pigs. However, in the process of transporting back to China, the pig head, rabbit head and rat head were stolen and lost, and only the cow head, tiger head, horse head and faucet were brought back to France. Xie Manlu took photos of them respectively and discovered the image of the dragon head for the first time. This is also the earliest photo of Tang Haiyan's animal head found so far.

In addition, this conference also released for the first time the photos taken by Xie Manlu around 1882 before the wooden buildings in Yuanmingyuan were completely destroyed, including Shunmutian in Yuanmingyuan, Beiyuan Villa, Yuyue Feiyue, Acropolis, Lianxi Concert Hall, Fang Hui Academy (broken bridge and broken snow stone bridge), Hongci Permanent, Kuixing Building, Changchun Palace and so on. These old photos clearly show the situation of these buildings before they were completely destroyed, breaking the way that the China buildings in Yuanmingyuan only stayed in documents or paintings in the past, and letting people see the splendid features of the royal gardens.