Occupying Guangzhou was not the ultimate goal of the invaders. In March of the eighth year of Xianfeng (April 1858), warships from Britain, France, the United States, Russia and other countries came north to Dagu one after another. At 8 a.m. on May 20, the British and French forces issued a note to the Qing government, ordering the Qing army to hand over the Dagu Fort within two hours. The Qing government ignored it. Two hours later, the British and French forces brazenly broke into Dagu Pass with dozens of small steamers and sampans and launched a fierce attack on the Dagu Fort. The patriotic officers and soldiers guarding the fort rose up to resist and gave the invaders a head-on blow. However, due to the weak defense and huge disparity in strength, Dagu was captured that day. On the 26th, the British and French allied forces arrived outside Tianjin. The Qing government hurriedly sent Guiliang, a bachelor, and Huashana, the official minister, to Tianjin on the 29th to negotiate with representatives from Britain, France and other countries, and signed agreements on June 26 and 27 respectively. The Treaty of Tianjin. Britain, France and other countries made further progress and prepared to expand the war of aggression against China in the name of going to Beijing in exchange for treaties. In the spring of the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), British and French warships arrived in China one after another, and assembled again outside the mouth of Dagu at the end of July. On August 1, the British and French forces captured Beitang, Tanggu on the 14th, Dagu on the 21st, and entered Tianjin on the 24th. The Qing government hurriedly sent Guiliang and Hengfu to Tianjin to seek peace. However, the aggressors deliberately wanted to capture Beijing. They demanded high prices during the negotiations and kept adding extraneous details, causing the negotiations to fail. The British and French allied forces approached Beijing. On September 18, the British and French forces captured Zhangjiawan and Tongzhou, and on the 21st, they captured Bali Bridge. Emperor Xianfeng was so frightened that he sent his sixth brother, Prince Gong Yiliu, as an imperial envoy to stay in Beijing and preside over the peace talks. In the early morning of the 22nd, Emperor Xianfeng took his concubines, princes, princes and a group of ministers and fled in a hurry to the Rehe Palace (today's Chengde Summer Resort in Hebei Province). On October 5, British and French troops arrived at the gates of Beijing. According to the information provided by Russian diplomat Ignatiev: the Qing defenders were concentrated in the East City, and the North City was the weakest place and should be captured first; it was also heard that the Chinese Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was in the Old Summer Palace in the northwest suburbs. As a result, the British and French forces bypassed the Anding Gate and Desheng Gate, invaded the Old Summer Palace, and looted the Old Summer Palace, creating the "Burning of the Old Summer Palace" incident that shocked both China and the world.
On October 5, the British and French joint invading forces invaded the Deshengmen and Andingmen areas. Later, they thought that Emperor Xianfeng still lived in the Old Summer Palace, and the negotiators captured by Seng Gelinqin were also imprisoned there. In the Old Summer Palace, they took the Old Summer Palace as the target of attack. In fact, Xianfeng had already fled to Chengde Summer Resort. On October 6, the coalition forces invaded Haidian Town, burned and looted everywhere, and invaded the Old Summer Palace that night.
Ten days later, the Allied Forces Command issued an order to loot freely. So, like crazed beasts, the British and French invaders took away the treasures in the garden that they could, and destroyed all the treasures that could not be taken away. At this point, the treasures in the Old Summer Palace are gone.
A reporter from "The Times" said in a communication sent back from Beijing on November 7: "It is estimated that the total value of looted and damaged property exceeds 6 million. Pounds.” Actually, it’s more than that!
Some of the treasures robbed by the Allied officers and soldiers were auctioned on site, some were taken out of the country, and some were presented as gifts to the British King and French Emperor by the invading troops. To this day, many of the Chinese cultural relics collected in British and French museums were looted from the Old Summer Palace. For example, the Tang Dynasty copy of "Admonitions of Women's History" by the great Jin Dynasty painter Gu Kaizhi is in the British Museum in London, and "Forty Scenes of the Old Summer Palace" painted by Shen Yuan and Tang Dai in the National Library of Paris, France.
After the British and French allied forces crazily looted the Old Summer Palace, they were still not satisfied. The British envoy Elgin issued a statement saying: "The only way to burn the Old Summer Palace is to burn it." So the British generals, with the support of their government, issued an order to burn the Old Summer Palace. On October 17, the Allied Cavalry Regiment set fires everywhere in the park.
As for the fire situation, we will give some detailed introduction: In the early morning of October 18, more than 3,500 people from the British Mikel Cavalry entered the garden and set fire to it. Turn off. An invading officer described the situation at that time: "Soon after the order to burn was issued, heavy smoke was seen rising from the trees. Hidden among the trees was a vast ancient palace with a yellow roof inlay. The tiles sparkled in the sunlight, and the scaly roof tiles had a strange structure that only the imagination of the Chinese could conceive of. In an instant, wisps of thick smoke and fog appeared in dozens of places... Soon, These wisps of smoke gathered into clouds of smoke, and then gathered into a huge black cloud. Thousands of flames burst out. The smoke was green and black, covering the sky and all the temples, palaces, and ancient buildings. Considered a sacred and solemn object of the nation, it contained items rich in royal flavor and essence throughout the ages, and these buildings, which had been admired by people for hundreds of years, were no longer visible to human eyes. It is a tribute to the technology and style of the past, and there is nothing in the world that can compare with it. If you have seen it once, you will never see it again."
"Only the Zhengda Guangming Palace has not been burned. . Because there were troops living inside... It was already three o'clock, and we had to march back to Beijing as a team, so we issued an order to burn them all. In an instant, we found the materials to start the fire, and a few agile riflemen immediately started to set fire to it. This majestic and glorious palace was set on fire. It was a solemn and luxurious place, and it was once the palace of noble pilgrims. The flames that swallowed it all turned into smoke."
It has been in operation for more than 150 years. , which combines the achievements of Chinese and Western architectural arts, gathers ancient and modern art treasures and books and classics from all dynasties, and is a rare and magnificent palace and garden in the world. It was reduced to nothing after being looted by the invading army. The burning of the Old Summer Palace made the Chinese people extremely angry. Some of the invaders who participated in the burning felt disgraceful. “It was really a cruel act to destroy so many rare, beautiful and valuable buildings.” “And they felt it was uncivilized. behavior".
The great French writer Hugo also wrote to a French officer in China, expressing his extreme indignation at the burning of the Old Summer Palace. Hugo wrote:
"We, Europeans, We always think that we are civilized people. In our eyes, the Chinese are barbarians. However, this is how civilization treats barbarians.
When we are handed over to the judgment of history in the future, another robber will appear. Called France, the other - called England. However, I would like to raise this protest here, and I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to make my protest. The crimes committed by the rulers must not be implicated in them. The faults of those who rule are lumped together. It is always the government that commits robberies, but the people of each country never commit robberies.
The French Empire has misappropriated half of the treasures. Now, it is so shameless that it even takes out these ancient cultural relics from the Summer Palace in the Summer Palace for public display. I believe that one day, France, which has been liberated and has washed away its filth, will return its stolen goods to the robbed China. ”
To this day, conscientious British and French people have not forgotten the shame left by their ancestors in the history of world civilization. The June 1988 issue of "Architecture" magazine published the British Mr. Sullivan An article titled "Reconstruction of the Old Summer Palace" is interesting because the author cleverly uses the word "Restitution", which can be translated as "restore" or "reconstruct", or it can also be regarded as meaning "return". This is the author's good intention. He wants to appeal to the British and French governments to "return" the Old Summer Palace, which was burned by a few invaders of his ancestors, to the Chinese people! According to the author, there was once a book published in Chinese, English and French! The beautifully bound booklet details the reconstruction plan proposed by the group led by French Michel. The author profoundly points out that "Look at France and whether we in Britain should also have a gesture that something should be done to cleanse our ancestors." What about the mistakes? You know, many of our national and private collections in the UK are filled with treasures stolen from the Old Summer Palace! "
The Old Summer Palace was burned, but a few buildings survived and were preserved. This land is still listed as a royal forbidden garden and people are sent to guard it. The 12th year of Tongzhi was Cixi's 40th birthday. In the name of supporting the Empress Dowager of the East and West Palaces, Tongzhi ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to rebuild the Old Summer Palace. At that time, more than 3,000 palaces were planned to be restored, and drawings and models (models) were made. However, the Qing government's financial resources were exhausted. Work had to be stopped.
At the end of the 19th century, the anti-imperialist patriotic struggle of the Boxer Rebellion broke out in northern China. In 1900, eight imperialist countries including Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Italy and Austria invaded. In the name of protecting overseas Chinese and suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, the Chinese Allied Forces invaded Beijing. Cixi, Guangxu and their relatives fled to Xi'an. The Eight-Power Invading Army plundered Beijing and slaughtered the people. The Old Summer Palace was once again catastrophic, and only a few trees remained in the garden. The building was destroyed again, leaving only the ruins of the white stone building in the Xiyang Building area. Later, these remaining stone sculptures were removed by individuals and units. Today's Orchid Pavilion eight-column posts, stone railings, and Taihu stones in Zhongshan Park; Beijing. The Chinese watch, the dragon and phoenix Danbi step stones, the white jade unicorn, the water fountain in the "Hai Banquet Hall" of the Western-style building on the university campus; the stone lions and stone tablets in the courtyard of the Beijing Library, the Danbi step stones in front of the East Palace of the Summer Palace and the copper in front of the Renshou Hall Pixiu and so on were all moved from the Yuanmingyuan.
“The Yuanming Dynasty twice destroyed Kunming, and the crane could not bear to return after thousands of years. A sad song can't be played out, and the remaining ashes are like smoke flying in the evening. "
This is a poem written by Li Dazhao, one of the founders of the Communist Party of China, in memory of the Old Summer Palace. It was published in "People's Daily" on October 27, 1979. The poem is in order:
"In the shadow of the setting sun, amidst the sound of eggplant and drums, my friends and I looked up at the old site of the Old Summer Palace from a high hill. We saw only broken walls and ruins among the desolate smoke and vines. I sighed and expressed my condolences. "
In 1976, with the care and support of the government and relevant departments, the Old Summer Palace Management Office was established. They carried out work such as building some roads, bridges and culverts, and at the same time, held an exhibition on the history of the garden. In 1980, Soong Ching Ling 1,583 people have jointly signed the initiative to protect, renovate and utilize the Old Summer Palace ruins.
Today, the Old Summer Palace ruins, which record China’s national humiliation, are still standing. It has become a monument with special significance, which seems to be telling a story. Recalling the disaster and catastrophe more than a hundred years ago, we tell people: those who fall behind will be beaten!