The British tell the truth about arson: let the Chinese remember it! Didn't France participate in the burning of the Old Summer Palace?

History also needs one person to sing the good side and the other person to sing the bad side in order to be remembered deeply. I will start by talking about the grandeur of the Old Summer Palace:

The Old Summer Palace was born in the Kangxi period, grew up in the Yongzheng Dynasty, and flourished in the Qianlong era. It inherits the excellent gardening tradition of more than 3,000 years in China. It has both the grace and splendor of palace architecture and the euphemism and variety of Jiangnan water town gardens. At the same time, it also absorbs European garden architectural forms and integrates different styles of garden architecture. As a whole, the overall layout makes people feel harmonious and perfect. It can be said: "Although it is made by humans, it is like it was created by heaven."

It embodies the culmination of thousands of years of outstanding Chinese gardening art and pushes Chinese classical gardens to a new level. At that time, everyone who witnessed its grand occasion said that it was indeed good. Some Westerners started to take a new look at Chinese gardens from the Old Summer Palace. In short, the Old Summer Palace has won honors for China, an ancient civilization, and was once the pride of the Chinese nation!

But now, what is the Old Summer Palace like? There are only a few ruins left, and the glory of the past has turned into a pile of loess.

Who did it? The evil British and French forces.

Now I continue, playing bad guy.

The British and French forces arrived at the Old Summer Palace in October 1860. They first robbed the Old Summer Palace, and then set it on fire. I think all us Chinese know this. But there are many details that many people don’t know.

The first detail,

As described and criticized by the famous French writer Hugo

: One day, two robbers broke into the summer palace , one looted, the other set fire to it. They happily returned to Europe, these two robbers, one named France and the other named England. They "shared" the Oriental treasure house of the Old Summer Palace together and thought they had achieved a great victory!

When talking about the Old Summer Palace, many people say this: "In October 1860, the British and French forces looted the Old Summer Palace and other royal gardens." Is this correct? That's right. However, many people continue to talk about the burning of the Old Summer Palace by the British and French forces in October 1860. This is a slip of the tongue, casual talk without very serious consideration. Most textbooks tell the story that the British and French allied forces plundered the Old Summer Palace, but it was only the British army and not the French army that decided to burn the Old Summer Palace. Although France had the same idea as Britain on the matter of invading China, France opposed the burning of the Old Summer Palace. The reason is that they believe that a treaty with the Qing court can be signed soon, and there is no point in burning the garden.

The second detail is that the British and French forces destroyed the Old Summer Palace twice. According to relevant historical records, on October 7th and 8th, 1860, the British and French forces robbed the Old Summer Palace wantonly, taking away everything they could and destroying everything they could not. This is also known to the world as the British and French allied forces plundering the Old Summer Palace.

In fact, in mid-October, the British troops who had left long ago returned to the Old Summer Palace alone. And they set fire to the Old Summer Palace on a large scale. At that time, the fire was soaring into the sky and the smoke was billowing. The fire burned for three days. In this way, the Old Summer Palace was burned to ashes by the British army. Therefore, the coalition forces looted and burned the Old Summer Palace separately.

The third detail is that the British and French forces destroyed not only the Old Summer Palace, but also the three mountains and five gardens in the entire city of Beijing. In ancient times, Chinese garden architecture focused on three mountains and five gardens, and the Old Summer Palace was only one of the three mountains and five gardens of the royal gardens on the outskirts of the capital. Everyone thought that the British and French forces only destroyed the Old Summer Palace.

Just now we talked about the large area of ??royal gardens and private gardens in the northwest suburbs of Beijing represented by the "Five Gardens and Three Mountains", from the Old Summer Palace to Qingyi Garden to Xiangshan, including Yuquan Mountain. There are many Attractions were also burned. When the British army burned Old Summer Palace, they burned not one Old Summer Palace, but the entire three mountains and five gardens, including Changchun Garden, Old Summer Palace, Qingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, Jingyi Garden, Wanshou Mountain, Yuquan Mountain, and Xiangshan Mountain.

The fourth detail, what was the reason why the British army burned the Old Summer Palace? When I was studying the text "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace", the book said: "After the British and French allied forces looted the Old Summer Palace, they wanted to destroy the evidence of the robbery in order to cover up the evidence of the robbery." Of course, this is only the most convincing view among historians, but there are many different views.

Why did the British army burn down the Old Summer Palace? In fact, the British themselves have a very clear statement. British Commander-in-Chief Grant said: "Because the Qing government killed most of the captured British people, Sir Elgin and I both felt that the Qing emperor must be severely punished and leave some traces of revenge." Jin's personal secretary also said: "The complete burning of the Old Summer Palace will not only leave a trace that is not easy to be wiped out and will be permanently preserved in people's minds, but also can prove that the coalition forces have won the victory and occupied Beijing with great force." This is their own explanation of why they burned the Old Summer Palace. .

The most important reason why the British wanted to burn the Old Summer Palace was to deal the most severe spiritual blow to the Qing government and the Qing emperor, so that the Qing government would completely compromise and surrender to the outside world. This is their most fundamental purpose.

At its root, is this all the fault of the British and French forces? No, it was the weakness and incompetence of the Qing government, and "if you fall behind, you will be beaten"!

The burning of the Old Summer Palace is undoubtedly one of the worst acts of cultural destruction in history, comparable to the burning of Alexander the Great's library and the Gothic tribe's trampling of Rome. The Chinese have not forgotten this lesson and it is still fresh in their minds today. Similarly, the Chinese people remember their humiliation, learn from history, identify gains and losses, and work hard to strengthen themselves. They have stood up and made the Chinese nation stand tall among the nations of the world. They are already a towering "giant"!