14 圆明园的毁灭

Lesson Fourteen

The Destruction of the Old Summer Palace

1. The destruction of Old Summer Palace is an immeasurable loss in the history of Chinese culture and the history of world culture!

2. Old Summer Palace was a world-famous royal garden in the northwest suburb of Beijing.

3. It was composed of Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden, Wanchun Garden and Changchun Garden, so it was also called Yuanming Three Gardens.

4. In addition, there were many small gardens, which are distributed on the east, west and south sides of Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden, and all of them surrounded the Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden.

5. In the Old Summer Palace, there were magnificent halls and exquisite pavilions; there were “business streets” symbolizing the lively market, and there were also mountains and villages symbolizing the pastoral scenery.

6. Many scenery in the park were modeled after famous places in various places, such as An Lan Garden in Haining, Lion Forest in Suzhou, Pinghu Autumn Moon in West Lake in Hangzhou; there were also many scenery built according to the poetry and painting of ancient poets, such as Yaotai in Pengdao and spring scenery in Wuling.

7. There were not only national buildings but also western landscapes in the park.

8. Walking in the Palace is like roaming all over the country, enjoying the scenic spots at home and abroad; wandering in the park, it seems that you are in the realm of fantasy.

9. The Old Summer Palace is not only magnificent in architecture, but also houses the most precious historical relics.

10. There were all kinds of rare treasures, such as the bronze ritual vessels in the pre-Qin period, as well as the famous paintings and calligraphy of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

11. Therefore, it was the largest museum and art gallery in the world at that time.

12. On October 6, 1860, British and French troops invaded Beijing and broke into the Old Summer Palace.

13. They plundered everything in the garden that they could take away; those that could not be moved were carried by carts or animals; those that could not be carried away were arbitrarily destroyed. In order to destroy the evidence, more than 3,000 invaders were ordered to set fire to the Palace on October 18 and 19.

14. The fire burned for three days, and smoke clouds enveloped the whole city of Beijing.

15. This treasure of garden art and the essence of architectural art in our country has thus turned into ashes.