Was the Old Summer Palace burned down by the British and French forces?

The Old Summer Palace, also known as the Three Gardens of the Old Ming Dynasty, is a large royal garden of the Qing Dynasty, it is located in the northwest suburbs of Beijing, adjacent to the Summer Palace, composed of the Old Summer Palace, the Changchun Garden and the Qichun Garden, so it is also called the Three Gardens of the Old Ming Palace. In addition, there are many small gardens, distributed on the east, west and south sides, surrounded by stars and moons.

It covers an area of square kilometers, with a construction area of 200,000 square meters and more than 150 scenes, and is known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens". The Qing Emperor came here every midsummer to escape the summer, listen to the government, and deal with military and political affairs, so it was also called the "summer palace".

The Old Summer Palace was founded in 1709 (the 48th year of Kangxi), and was originally a gift from Emperor Kangxi to Yinzhen, the fourth son of the emperor. After Yongzheng ascended the throne in 1722, he expanded the original garden, and added the Zhengda Guangming Hall and the Qinzheng Hall in the south of the garden, as well as many duty rooms of the cabinet, the six ministries and the military aircraft department, hoping to "avoid the noise and listen to the government" in summer. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, in addition to the partial addition and reconstruction of the Old Summer Palace, he also built a new Changchun Garden in the east and merged it into the Wanchun Garden in the southeast.

3] The pattern of the Three Yuan Ming Gardens was basically formed. In the Jiaqing Dynasty, the Qichun Garden (Wanchun Garden) was mainly repaired and expanded, making it one of the main garden places. During the reign of Emperor Daoguang, the state affairs were declining day by day, and the financial resources were insufficient, but he would rather withdraw the furnishings of the "three mountains" of Wanshou, Xiangshan and Yuquan, and do not give up the reconstruction and decoration of the Three Gardens of the Old Ming Dynasty.

On October 6, 1860, the British and French troops ransacked the Old Summer Palace, looted cultural relics, burned them, and wanted to restore them when the Tongzhi Emperor wanted to restore them, but due to financial difficulties, they were forced to stop and rebuild other buildings. After the Eight-Nation Alliance, it was attacked by bandits and finally turned into ruins.

The Old Summer Palace, founded and operated by the Qing Dynasty for more than 150 years, has been famous for its grand regional scale, outstanding construction skills, exquisite architectural scenery, rich cultural collection and profound national cultural connotation, and is known as "the model of all gardening arts", and was praised as "the model of ideals and art" by the French writer Victor Hugo.

Excerpt from Encyclopedia.

The Old Summer Palace is a large royal garden in the Qing Dynasty, which was built in 1707, that is, in the 46th year of Kangxi, in 1860, the British and French troops sacked the Old Summer Palace and burned it. The Old Summer Palace existed for a total of 153 years, and every emperor of the Qing Dynasty would expand the Old Summer Palace or add some treasures to the Old Summer Palace. Therefore, by the time of destruction, the construction area of the Old Summer Palace had reached 200,000 square meters, with more than 150 scenes, and at least more than 1.5 million treasures in the garden.

So what damage did the Old Summer Palace suffer? In fact, the Old Summer Palace was completely destroyed, a fire burned for three days and three nights, and in the end all that was left was a ruin. In fact, after the British and French forces burned down the Old Summer Palace, the Tongzhi Emperor also wanted to restore the Old Summer Palace, but because of the financial constraints, the repair silver was stopped a few days later.

So how much damage did the British and French forces loot and burn the Old Summer Palace at that time, and caused China more? First of all, the Old Summer Palace was founded and operated by the Qing Dynasty for more than 150 years, and its scale is very large, even not losing to the Forbidden City, which is not only the painstaking efforts of several generations of emperors, but also a museum of treasures all over China. But in the end, they were all snatched away by the British and French forces, and according to Kuanbo, many soldiers of the British and French forces at that time, after snatching these treasures from China, returned to China and became rich directly.

In this regard, many experts have also done special research, after the burning of the Old Summer Palace, the loss of the house alone is as high as 6 million taels**, of course, this does not include the treasures in the Old Summer Palace. Because many of the treasures in the Old Summer Palace are priceless, they can't be measured by money at all. At present, these treasures are scattered all over the world, some are collected by wealthy Western merchants, and some may be in museums.

All in all, it's impossible to recover these things, at least for now. It is understood that among these lost treasures, there are bronzes from the Western Zhou Dynasty, porcelain vases from various dynasties, and various celebrity calligraphy and paintings. Especially during the period of Emperor Qianlong, because Qianlong was particularly fond of celebrity calligraphy and painting, he hid a lot of calligraphy and painting in the Old Summer Palace at that time.

I didn't expect these precious cultural relics to eventually fall into the hands of the Western powers, and what is even more hateful is that the Western powers directly smashed some cultural relics that could not be taken away, and finally set fire to the Old Summer Palace.

Speaking of the cowardice of the late Qing Dynasty and the barbarism of the imperialist powers, there is one thing that is the most representative, and this incident is the burning of the Old Summer Palace by the British and French forces. In 1709, this courtyard began to be established, because Kangxi rewarded Yongzheng's garden, after Yongzheng ascended the throne, the scale of the garden expanded step by step, in the Qianlong period, the Wanchun Garden was incorporated, and then after various dynasties, there were repairs, and finally there was the title of the garden of ten thousand gardens.

Zodiac animal head.

This kind of garden, whether it is economic, cultural or historical value, is unparalleled, and to a certain extent, the Old Summer Palace is already a world heritage site, and people all over the world should not destroy it. However, as a royal mausoleum, after the decline of the Qing Dynasty, it became a place for looting by imperialist powers, and in 1860, after Emperor Xianfeng took Cixi Ci'an to the summer resort, the Old Summer Palace became a place for self-collection of gold, silver and jewelry in front of the robbers.

However, for some unknown reason, the British and French forces were angered, and after they looted countless gold, silver and jewelry, they also burned down the Old Summer Palace on October 18, which can be called a great loss of human heritage. This century-old cemetery was burned down, and to this day, countless Chinese sons and daughters feel sad and sorry for it, and even some foreigners feel sorry for it.

<>So, what was the Old Summer Palace, which is known as the first garden in the world, before it was destroyed? In fact, before the destruction of the Old Summer Palace, there was a British photographer who photographed the precious Old Summer Palace before the destruction, although the technology at that time could only be black and white, but once announced, it still made people feel shocked, and the architectural style and characteristics inside all made people sigh exquisitely.

Before the destruction of the Old Summer Palace, the starting price was 200,000 pounds at Sotheby's auction. It is really impressive, in 1860, the British and French forces obtained a lot of treasure by looting the Old Summer Palace, and more than a hundred years later, they were able to make a lot of money by auctioning off the ** before the destruction of the Old Summer Palace, and the Old Summer Palace, which was completely built by the Chinese, became a cornucopia of those who destroyed the Old Summer Palace.

<>And those restored **, people will only increase their pain and regret when they see it.

The Old Summer Palace is an architectural museum that integrates the essence of all the major civilizations in the world, and the main building is a series of civilization fusion buildings built on the basis of the Jiangnan garden, which I think can be the capital of the earth.

It was burned down by the British and French forces in 1860.