As a result of the closed-door policy, by the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the country's science and technology had lagged far behind that of the West, and class conflicts became increasingly acute. In 1840 (the 20th year of the Daoguang period), the Western colonialists initiated the war of aggression against China - the First Opium War; and the subsequent outbreak of the domestic rebellion against the Qing Dynasty's rule, the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom". The "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" movement broke out in China against the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
In October 1856, Britain and France jointly launched the Second Opium War. Its purpose was to seize greater colonial interests. They started two wars in Guangzhou, but failed to realize their aspirations. In order to exert direct pressure on the Qing government, they decided to send troops to the capital. The invasion force in May 1858, close to Tianjin, the Qing government was forced to Britain, France, Russia and the United States signed the humiliating "Treaty of Tianjin".
1860 (Xianfeng ten years) in July, the British and French invader army fleet once again broke into the Dagu Kou outside, the British and French Minister to the Beijing exchange of contracts as a front, one side of the force to force, one side of the temptation to "talk and". And again and again, the purpose is to the capital, forcing the Qing court to give in. Corrupt and incompetent Qing government but begged for peace, delayed to determine the strategy of war and defense. The invasion army drove straight to Tongzhou. September 21, Tongzhou Bali Bridge duel Qing army lost, the next morning, the emperor Xianfeng Huang Huang from the Yuanmingyuan fled to Chengde summer resort and go. The name "northern patrol", in fact, put the ancestors of the countryside in disregard of their own life. This caused the capital city without a master, all officials are scattered, the soldiers will be slack, the people fear the crisis situation.
October 6, the British and French forces around the northeastern outskirts of Beijing directly attacked the Yuanmingyuan, at that time, the Sinqlinqin, Ruilin remnants of the city's northern area of resistance, that is, to flee. French troops first, in the afternoon by Haidian, in the evening that broke into the Yuanmingyuan Palace. At this time, in and out of Xianliangmen, there are more than twenty Yuanmingyuan technology brave eunuchs with the enemy to fight. "The difficulties are not afraid, and strive forward", but ultimately outnumbered, the Yuanmingyuan technology brave "eight products leader" Ren Liang and other people died in the line of duty. To 7:00 pm, the French invasion forces captured the Yuanmingyuan. The minister in charge of the garden Wen Feng threw Fu Hai and died.
October 7, the head of the British and French invasion of China broke into the Yuanmingyuan, immediately "sent the British and French members of each three people to discuss the distribution of the treasures in the garden." French commander Montauban wrote to the French Foreign Minister that day: "I order the French commissioners to pay attention to the first to take the most valuable items in art and archaeology. I will dedicate to His Majesty the Emperor (Napoleon III) by your Excellency the very rare objects of France, which will be kept in the French Museum." The British commander Grant also immediately "sent his officers to endeavor to collect the objects belonging to the British." The French and British invasion forces were no longer able to resist the lure of the objects on the second day of their entry into the garden, and officers and soldiers rushed forward in groups to loot the gold, silver and cultural and artistic treasures in the garden.
According to the participation of the British and French officers who witnessed the scene of the looting, priests, journalists described: officers and soldiers, British and French, in order to seize the treasures, from all sides into the Yuanmingyuan, the long Qian wantonly, take what they want, hand and foot, confused and confused. In order to seize the treasure, they beat each other, and even had a fight. Because there are too many treasures in the garden, they do not know what to take for a while, some move away cloisonné orchid vase, some covet embroidery long full, some pick a high-level leather coat, some go to get inlaid with jewels and jade of the wall clock. Some carry large pockets filled with treasures of all colors. Some filled the wide pockets of their tunics with bars and leaves of gold; some had their halves wrapped in brocaded silk; some had their hats filled with rubies, pearls, and crystal stones; some had emerald collars around their necks. In one compartment there was a mountain of fine silks, said to be sufficient for half the inhabitants of Peking, which were carried away in large carts by the soldiers. -An English officer plundered a gold Buddha statue, which could be worth 1,200 pounds sterling, from a temple containing 500 idols. A French officer looted property worth 600,000 francs. The son of Montauban, commander-in-chief of the French army, plundered treasure worth 300,000 francs, filling several wagons. A British army named Hurleys second officer, once that is stolen from the garden two gold pagodas (all three layers, one 7 feet high, one 6.4 feet high) and a large number of other treasures, looking for seven strong man for him to carry back to the barracks. The man for looting in the Yuanmingyuan rich, enjoy life, got a "Chinese Jaime" nickname. The invaders in addition to looting, they have trampled on countless things. There are several houses full of satin clothing, clothes were dragged out of the box and thrown all over the floor, people walk into the house, almost can not cover the knees. The sappers, armed with great axes, smashed all the furniture and removed the precious stones from it. Some smashed the great mirrors, while others amused themselves by shooting fiercely at the great candlesticks. Most of the French soldiers swung sticks in their hands and mashed everything that could not be taken away. When the French army temporarily withdrew from the Yuanmingyuan on October 9, this beautiful garden, has been destroyed to the full extent of the wounds.
Just when the Qing government on the invaders on bended knee concessions, promised to accept all the "peace" conditions, choose a day to sign the contract, the British invasion of China leader Elgin, Grant, in order to give its invasion of China to leave the impression of "Huran severe", but also on the pretext of its captured personnel Being mistreated, brazenly ordered the Yuanmingyuan to be burned down. on October 18th and 19th, three to four thousand British troops set fire to all parts of the country, and the fire was not extinguished for three days and nights. The world's unrivaled garden masterpieces, rare Chinese and foreign art treasures, was torched. Afterwards, according to the Qing officials, the large Yuanmingyuan only twenty or thirty pavilions and temples, official door, value room and other buildings survived, but the doors and windows are not Qi, indoor furnishings, a few cases have been looted. At the same time, Wanshoushan Qingyi Garden, Xiangshan Jingyi Garden and Yuquanshan Jingmingyuan part of the building was also burned.
According to relevant materials, on October 18, the British invasion forces burned Anyou Palace, because they came suddenly, the eunuch in charge of the Anyou Palace door is locked, so, at that time, there are eunuchs, maids, craftsmen and other ****300 people, was burned alive in Anyou Palace.
Yuanmingyuan into a sea of fire, Erjin proudly declared: "This will make China and Europe alarmed shock, its effect is far from the miles away from the people can imagine". The masters of the fire regarded this act as a remarkable achievement, while decent people all over the world were outraged by this barbaric crime. Victor Hugo wrote in 1861: "One day two robbers entered the Yuanmingyuan, one robbed and the other set fire to it. As if they had won the war, they could engage in robbery ....... In the face of history, these two robbers, one called France, one called England". This passage represents the voice of millions of decent people.
Yuanmingyuan is still burning, ordered to stay in Beijing Prince Gong Yi, all committed to all the conditions of the invaders. Soon that was with Britain, France, Russia, respectively, exchanged the text of the Treaty of Tianjin, signed the Treaty of Beijing. In this way, the imperialist powers occupied the Kowloon Peninsula and a large part of the northern part of the territory of China, and extorted 16 million taels of silver as compensation for the huge military expenditures.
Why did the British and French forces burn the Yuanmingyuan? Or what reason or excuse did the British and French forces use to burn down the Yuanmingyuan?
On the one hand, it is believed to be: the nature of imperialism's foreign expansion of blood and fire determines their barbaric behavior wherever they go.
On the other hand, it is the "kowtow diplomacy" caused. At that time, Britain and France asked to negotiate with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, "Beijing stationed envoys, inland travel, the Yangtze River," that is to say, people want to come to you to establish diplomatic relations, the mutual establishment of embassies and consulates. Foreigners can travel to the interior of China, as well as trade with China.
At that time, the British and French requirements on the above three points and China's negotiations, in accordance with the current understanding, the British and Chinese disputes, in the relationship between countries is very normal, should be resolved through bilateral negotiations.
However, the Chinese emperor that China is the center of the world since ancient times, the emperor for the world **** Lord, all countries are China's vassal, all people see the emperor must kowtow to show submission. The traditional theme of Manchu diplomacy was to get the barbarians to kowtow, and this led to the establishment of a complete diplomatic model that Fei Zhengqing called the "tribute system". So the trouble was that the barbarians refused to kowtow, and they had to stay in Beijing for a long time. Minister in Beijing will inevitably lead to see the emperor, and the emperor does not kneel will be contrary to their own in the "unity of the world" concept, the Anglo-French allied forces at the time asked to negotiate with the Manchu, to negotiate to see the emperor; see the emperor, according to the tradition of the foreign envoys have to see the emperor kneeling, that is, in order to kowtow or not to kowtow.
The main culprit in the burning of the Yuanmingyuan was the British Earl of Elgin (James Bruce, the 8th Earl of Elgin). Elgin ordered the burning of the Yuanmingyuan in retaliation for the Qing government's arrest of ministers and poor treatment of prisoners of war. in September 1860, British Minister Harry Parkes and Elgin's private secretary Henry Loch went to Tongxian to negotiate with the Qing government under the white flag of truce, and were arrested by Jaiguan and Singhalese. With a group of British and French soldiers who had previously been ambushed and captured alive, they were taken to Beijing and imprisoned for more than a month. The Manchu emperor and the government has been looking at the British and French forces Ba Xia Li supreme commander, according to the "capture the thief first capture the king" traditional scheme, they negotiated in Tongzhou before the plan to capture Ba Xia Li, Ba Xia Li captured, the expectation that Ba Xia Li after the British and French forces, the leaderless, must be chaotic, and then take advantage of the opportunity to move in to the annihilation, a sure victory. During their imprisonment, the men were tortured and abused. 20 of the 39 prisoners died in custody, including Thomas Bowlby, a reporter for The Times of London.
After learning of the Qing government's atrocities, Erjin was determined to retaliate. Erskine was ready to burn down the Forbidden City, but after a few days of deliberation, he chose the Yuanmingyuan as the target of his revenge. Elgin's decision to burn down the Yuanmingyuan instead of the Forbidden City had a different meaning. Elgin believed that the Forbidden City was the seat of the Chinese government (at that time, Britain and France were negotiating the Treaty of Beijing with the Qing government), while the Yuanmingyuan was a royal garden, privately owned by the Chinese emperor. By burning the Yuanmingyuan, Erskine wanted to send the message that it was the Chinese emperor and his lackeys, not the Chinese people, who were responsible for the arrest of ambassadors and the mistreatment of prisoners. A few days before the retaliation, Erskine ordered the following proclamation to be posted all over Beijing, declaring the purpose of the burning of the Yuanmingyuan: "No one, no matter how high in rank, after committing fraud and atrocity, can escape responsibility and punishment; the Yuanmingyuan will not be burned to the ground. escape responsibility and punishment; the Yuanmingyuan will be burned on the 18th (of October, 1860) as a punishment for the treachery of the Chinese Emperor; only the Imperial Government of the Qing Dynasty should be held responsible for this, and the people who have nothing to do with the atrocity need not fear harm." (
The detention and killing of British and French diplomats was not only a violation of Western international law in Lord Elgin's view, it was also a violation of China's ancient code of conduct, "When two countries are at war, they do not kill the envoys". The damage caused by the burning of the Yuanmingyuan was not only the crime of the British and French forces, but also the historical cause of the pedantry and incompetence of the Manchu emperor and government.
After the Yuanmingyuan was destroyed, it remained a royal forbidden garden. Tongzhi years in the Empress Dowager Cixi's authorization, has tried to choose to repair. At that time, the proposed scope of repair for more than 20 * * * more than 3,000 halls, mainly concentrated in the Yuanmingyuan in front of the area, the back of the lake area and the west, the northern area, as well as the Wanchunyuan Palace Gate area, Shixing Chun Hall mouth of the Hall of Qingxia and other places. But less than 10 months of construction was forced to stop repair due to financial exhaustion. Thereafter, although the Empress Dowager Cixi repaired the Summer Palace, but did not completely give up the repair of the Yuanmingyuan, until the twenty-second to twenty-four years of Guangxu, but also had repaired the Yuanmingyuan Double Crane Zhai, class of the Nongxuan and other scenic group. 1900 (Guangxu 26 years), the Eight-Power Allied Forces invasion of Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi hostage to the Guangxu Emperor fled to Xi'an, the order of the capital city in great disarray, eight banners of the soldiers, bandits, that is, to take advantage of the fire to the garden remnants of the basic and the successive Repair *** about nearly 100 buildings, are demolished and robbed, so that the Yuanmingyuan buildings and old trees were completely destroyed.
Subsequently, the Yuanmingyuan's relics, and long-term bureaucrats, warlords, and merchants of the plunder, and even the government authorities of the organized destruction. The Beiyang government's powerful nobles, including some of the Yuanmingyuan ruins of the protection of the responsibility of the person, are relying on the power, have from the garden to transport a large number of stone carvings, Taihu Lake stone, etc., in order to repair its garden house. Such as the Garrison Commander-in-Chief Wang Huaiqing, parade (later bribed for the President of the Republic of China) Cao Kun, infantry commander Nie Xianfan, Beijing Military Police Commander Che Qingyun, the Secretary General of the Office of Wang Lanheng, etc. have such bad deeds, only Beijing Zhaoyi (the equivalent of the mayor of Beiping) Liu Menggeng a person, in the fall of 1922, within 25 days, forcibly transported Changchunyuan Taihu Lake stone 623 car, Qichunyuan cloud slice of stone 104 large car. At that time, successively stationed in the Xiyuan area of the Army 13th Division, 16th Division, the National Army 11th Division, the Northeast Army 53rd Army, Song Zheyuan 29th Army and so on. All had forcibly dismantled the Yuanmingyuan wall, private sale of masonry, or used to circle building Xiyuan playground. Summer Palace, Zhongshan Park, Yanjing University, Beiping Library, etc., also transported a large number of stone pieces. early 30s, in the renovation of high Liangqiao through the Haidian to Yuquanshan stone ballast highway, approved by the special government of Beiping City, the south side of the Yuanmingyuan (4,800 meters) and the east side of the tiger skin stone fence all rows of dismantled, smashed into stone ballast used to pave the road. Prior to this, but also many times in the public sale of the garden of the city bricks, tiger skin stone and cloud slice stone, and even the marble columns of the remnants of the Western building, so that the Yuanmingyuan was reduced to a ruin.
The Yuanmingyuan was destroyed in the hands of the British and French invaders, but also destroyed in the Qing government's corruption and incompetence. Its destruction, both the Western invaders barbaric destruction of human culture witness, but also the ancient civilized countries will be backward beaten proof.