Information about Yuanmingyuan

Yuanmingyuan is located in the western suburbs of Beijing and the east of Haidian District. Originally a large-scale royal garden in the Qing Dynasty, it covers an area of about 5,200 mu and has an inverted zigzag layout. Yuanmingyuan consists of Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden, with a total area of 350 hectares.

Its land building area is as big as the Forbidden City, and its water area is equivalent to a Summer Palace. Yuanmingyuan combines the characteristics of several famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River at that time, melts the essence of ancient gardening art in China, and melts poetry and painting into ever-changing scenes with the artistic technique of garden in the garden. The southern part of Yuanmingyuan is the imperial court area, where the emperor handles official business. There are 40 scenic spots in other areas, of which more than 50 scenic spots directly imitate famous gardens in other places, such as the Ten Scenes of West Lake in Hangzhou, not only imitating architecture, but also copying names. More interestingly, Yuanmingyuan also has a western-style garden scenic spot. The most famous "watching water method" is a western-style fountain, a flower maze and a western-style building, all of which have the style of Italian Renaissance. There is also a model of Venice in the lake, and the emperor can enjoy the "water city scenery" thousands of miles away from the mountain on the shore.

Yuanmingyuan is a treasure house, which contains rare cultural relics such as celebrity calligraphy and painting, secret room classics, Zhong Ding treasures, gold and silver jewelry and so on, which condenses the essence of ancient culture. Yuanmingyuan is also a garden of exotic flowers and plants, with millions of rare flowers and trees. Westerners who have witnessed the Yuanmingyuan completely call it the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens". Indeed, if today is the same as 140 years ago, this super giant garden is well-deserved "the king of world gardens". Regrettably, in 1860 and 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance ransacked Yuanmingyuan twice, and the buildings in the park were burned and the cultural relics were looted, leaving the miraculous and mythical Yuanmingyuan in ruins, leaving only broken walls for people to mourn.

The famous royal gardens in Qing Dynasty. In the forty-eighth year of Kangxi (1709), Emperor Kangxi (that is, Emperor Michelle Ye of the Qing Dynasty) gave his fourth son, Yin Zhen, a garden one mile north of Changchun Garden in the northern suburb of Beijing, and personally inscribed the amount of the garden "Yuanmingyuan". In the third year of Yongzheng (1725), Yong Zhengdi (namely Emperor Sejong of the Qing Dynasty, Yin Zhen) built a palace office in the south of Yuanmingyuan, covering an area of more than 3,000 mu from the original 600 mu. From then on, Yuanmingyuan was not only a place for the Qing emperors to rest and visit, but also a place for them to meet foreign envoys and handle their daily affairs. After Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne, he adjusted the garden landscape in Yuanmingyuan, increased the number of architectural groups, and built Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden (Tongzhi renamed Wanchun Garden) in the east and southeast of Yuanmingyuan. These three gardens are all managed by the management minister of Yuanmingyuan, which is called Yuanming Three Gardens.

Yuanming Three Gardens covers an area of more than 5,200 mu, with more than 50 scenic spots/kloc-0. Among them, the most famous ones are Guangming Hall in Zheng Da, Anyou Palace for ancestor worship, high-rise buildings with high water in feast mountains, Pengdao Yaotai simulating pavilions on Fairy Mountain, and Wuling Spring Scenery in Peach Blossom Garden. Some famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, such as the Lion Forest in Suzhou and the Ten Scenes of the West Lake in Hangzhou, are also imitations. Changchun Garden also has a group of European-style buildings, commonly known as the West Building. Yuanmingyuan is also a large royal museum with many treasures, books and artistic masterpieces.

In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), in August, the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing. On October 6th, 65438/kloc-0, Yuanmingyuan was occupied. From the next day, the officers and men began to rob and destroy crazily. In order to force the Qing government to accept peace conditions as soon as possible, British Minister Elgin and British Commander Grant ordered Lieutenant General Mitchell to lead more than 3,500 invading troops to Yuanmingyuan on June+65,4381October +08, 5438, and set them on fire. The fire, which lasted for two days and nights, burned Yuanmingyuan into ruins.

During the Tongzhi period (1862 ~ 1874), the Tongzhi emperor prepared to restore the Yuanmingyuan for the Empress Dowager Cixi to live in. Later, due to financial difficulties, it was forced to stop work and rebuild other buildings. 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, and Yuanmingyuan was destroyed again. After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, some warlords, politicians and bureaucrats stole the building materials of Yuanmingyuan, and the site of Yuanmingyuan was further destroyed.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), it attached great importance to the protection of Yuanmingyuan site. 1979, Yuanmingyuan site was listed as a key cultural relics protection unit in Beijing. After that, the repair work of Yuanmingyuan site gradually began.

Yuanmingyuan can achieve such grandeur, not overnight. It concentrated a lot of financial and material resources of the country, hired ineffective craftsmen, and poured the blood and sweat of millions of working people. It took 100 years to be built and put into operation. Why did the Qing emperor spend so much effort to run Yuanmingyuan for a long time at the expense of work? This is closely related to the living habits of Manchu.

China is a multi-ethnic country. The hardworking and brave Manchu people have lived in this rich and beautiful land in the Northeast Heilongjiang River Basin for generations. /kloc-In the middle of the 7th century, the Qing army, led by its outstanding leader, feudal politician, strategist Huang Taiji and Regent Dourgen, invaded North China on a large scale, completely overthrew the extremely corrupt Ming Dynasty, entered the customs from the northeast as the capital, seized the national political power, and established the last feudal ruling dynasty in history-the Qing Dynasty. Because the Qing rulers lived a nomadic life in the northeast before entering the customs, they did not adapt to the dry and hot climate in Beijing's midsummer after entering the customs. Although the Forbidden City is resplendent and magnificent, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty found it dull and dreary. Especially in the early years of Kangxi, after the fire broke out in the Forbidden City, a high palace wall was built to prevent fire and court riots. The courtyards in the palace set each other off and became interesting. The water in the stream was so gentle that it almost became stagnant water. At that time, the imperial city was once known as the "red wall, green tile and black sewer". This made the emperors a little tired of the palace life surrounded by high walls, so they began to build gardens in the early years of Kangxi, which lasted for more than 200 years. In the western suburbs of Beijing, the endless Xishan Xiufeng: Yuquan Mountain, Wanshou Mountain, Wanquanzhuang, Beihai and other landforms, artesian springs can be seen everywhere, and they converge into large and small lakes and ponds in low-lying places. Yuquan landscape flows into Kunming Lake from west to east, becoming the largest water surface in the western suburbs. Ancient working people lived and worked hard here, and cultivated a large area of paddy fields, forming a natural scenic spot. As early as Liao Dynasty, the feudal emperors chose this place to build Yuquan Mountain Palace. In the Ming dynasty, the natural scenery here attracted more tourists, so some dignitaries occupied the countryside to build villas, and large areas of land were occupied by pieces. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Hou Liwei, the closest relative of the Ming Dynasty, built a lot of buildings here, first of all, the Tsinghua campus, which is known as the "first garden in Beijing" (so it is located outside the western wall of Peking University). Later, Mi led the lake to garden outside the east wall of Tsinghua campus, and managed the elegant and beautiful "spoon garden", which means "Haidian spoon". In the open countryside, pavilions and lakes and mountains complement each other and become a famous garden gathering place in the suburbs of Beijing. In the Qing dynasty, the emperor also took a fancy to the western suburbs, an excellent gardening place. This is how the large-scale construction of gardens began.

In the 28th year of Kangxi (A.D. 1688), Michelle Ye ordered the construction of a 60-hectare Changchun Garden in the former site of Tsinghua campus, where he spent most of the year listening to politics, and the life of the imperial garden in the Qing Dynasty began. However, the status of Changchun Garden did not last long, and it was replaced by the Yuanmingyuan later.

Around Changchun Garden, there are many private gardens left over from the Ming Dynasty. In the early Qing Dynasty, these former private gardens were handed over to members of the Qing royal family and princes and ministers after being returned to the Chen Feng Courtyard of the Ministry of Interior. In the forty-eighth year of Kangxi (A.D. 1709), Yuanmingyuan, as an old garden of the Ming Dynasty, was given to Yin Zhen, the fourth son of Emperor Kangxi. The inscription of Yuanmingyuan was written by Emperor Kangxi. This world-famous garden began its history from scratch and from prosperity to decline from this year. Yin Zhen was the later Yong Zhengdi, and he was very proud of his garden. He explained the meaning of the word "Yuanming" in Kangxi's "Yuanming Yuan Ji": Yuanming has a long-term vision and is not easy to see. He tastes from ancient times and is characterized by the virtue of roundness and brightness. Husband's round face is a fan, and so is a gentleman. The word "round" here means "complete and comprehensive" and the word "bright" means "knowledgeable and wise". Therefore, the name "Yuanmingyuan" is nothing more than the ruling class flaunting its moral cultivation and intelligence. Emperor Kangxi's inscription also expressed his expectation for the Prince.

Yuanmingyuan is located in the north of Guajiatun, about one mile away from Changchun Garden, that is, in the north of today's Peking University and west of Tsinghua University. The Yuanmingyuan in the Kangxi era has water surfaces such as Qianhu and Houhu, and gardens such as "Peony Pavilion" and "Natural Picture Scroll". When Yuanmingyuan was still a princes' garden, the rules could not exceed the emperor's Changchun Garden, so there were not many scenes built and the reputation was not great, which was far less than Changchun Garden. But later, with the master's accession to the throne, the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty came. After more than 60 years of continuous expansion, the most magnificent royal garden in China's history was finally built.