Beijing, the capital of the Ming and Qing dynasties, has not only the magnificent Forbidden City, but also two famous royal gardens: the Summer Palace and the Yuanmingyuan. Both of these gardens have been damaged to varying degrees in modern times. Sadly, the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao and the Chinese Communist Party dealt another heavy blow to both gardens.
When the Cultural Revolution began in May 1966, the wind of “breaking the Four Olds” swept across China, and monasteries, Taoist temples, Buddhist statues and famous monuments, paintings and antiques became the main targets of destruction by the Red Guards as “feudal, capitalist and revisionist”. The Summer Palace and Yuanmingyuan were naturally no exception, and became the “Four Olds”.
Summer Palace was hung Mao’s statue, the precious Buddha statue was destroyed
The Summer Palace, formerly known as the Qing Ripple Garden, is a famous royal garden built by the Qing dynasty, once belonged to the western suburbs of Beijing in the Qing dynasty “three mountains and five gardens” one of the adjacent Yuanmingyuan, there are promenades, stone boats, Buddha incense Pavilion, 17-hole bridge and other ancient Chinese architectural treasures. Empress Dowager Cixi lived here for a long Time, dealing with military and state affairs and giving orders, and the Summer Palace became the political center of the time. The Summer Palace is famous for its skillful combination of man-made architecture and natural landscape, and is a representative of the peak of Chinese garden art, and was named a World Heritage Site in 1998.
The Summer Palace suffered some damage during the invasion of Beijing by the Eight-Power Allied Forces in 1900, and after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the Republican government nationalized the still-excellent Summer Palace and turned it into a national park. After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, the Summer Palace became the first place of leisure for the CCP leaders who entered Beijing. A special park management committee was set up to repair the Summer Palace.
However, such a garden, which carried the atmosphere of royalty, did not escape the Cultural Revolution. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards from colleges and universities near the Summer Palace, such as 101 High School, ran to the Summer Palace and “wanted to sweep everything and smash it completely”, and also proposed to “dig up Wanshou Mountain and fill in Kunming Lake”. The first thing to be destroyed was the famous promenade paintings in the Summer Palace. The Red Guards took large white powder and painted the figures in the paintings of the promenade, and demolished the three Buddha statues in the Buddha Fragrance Pavilion. And there are a thousand glazed relief statues of Buddha on the top of Wanshou Mountain, by “breaking the Four Olds”, it is surprising that all the features are incomplete, none of them intact.
In addition, in the Summer Palace East Gate, the Red Guards also set up scaffolding, ready to demolish the East Palace Gate outside the pagoda, but was later stopped.
Even more frighteningly, the Red Guards filled the Summer Palace with portraits of Mao Zedong and hung political slogans everywhere. Renshou Hall and Leshou Hall became rooms of big-character posters of the Cultural Revolution. In the radio stations, Mao quotations were played in an almost roaring voice. It was not until 1969 that Zhou Enlai ordered that “there is no need to make Mao statues in the front pagodas of the Buddha Fragrance Pavilion and the Paiyun Hall” and “remove the quotations from the promenade”. In 1970, the circular stone flower platform in front of the East Palace Gate was demolished.
Some people also recalled: before the Cultural Revolution to visit the Summer Palace, Wanshou Mountain wisdom overseas wall niche inlaid a small Buddha statue all intact, but during the Cultural Revolution to go back to the Summer Palace, but found wisdom overseas wall against the bottom 4 rows of Buddha’s head was smashed off, some of the Buddha body was also broken. The reason why all the Buddha statues above the 4 rows survived was because the Red Guards could not reach them.
However, about this history, the garden did not mention a word, which also led many people do not know this tragic history.
Yuanmingyuan was “earth robbery”
Crowned as the “Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens”, Yuanmingyuan was a royal palace built by five generations of Qing emperors, incorporating various garden styles, using a variety of gardening techniques to reproduce a poetic and picturesque mood. Today, even from its sketches and remains, we can still see the elegance of its East-meets-West architecture. The Yuanmingyuan was also the favorite of Yongzheng, the famous and diligent emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who lived in the garden for 168 days in one year at most. For why “Yuanming Yuan”, Yongzheng’s explanation is: “Yuanming” the meaning of the word is “round and into the gods, the gentleman of the time also; Ming and universal illumination, the wisdom of the people also”, and self-named He called himself “Yuanming Jushi”.
After the outbreak of the First Opium War, the British and French allied forces entered Beijing in 1860 in retaliation for the Qing government’s seizure and killing of hostages, set fire to the Yuanmingyuan, and stole numerous treasures. The only surviving ancient building complex in the Yuanmingyuan that was not set on fire was the Zhengjue Temple. Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong all believed in Tibetan Buddhism and worshiped here.
However, the Zhengjue Temple, which escaped the fire, did not escape later destruction. The fourth volume of the Yuanmingyuan, edited by the Yuanmingyuan Society of China, had included an article by Mr. Zhao Guanghua, the former director of the comprehensive office of the Beijing Municipal Planning Bureau and an expert on the Yuanmingyuan, entitled “Examples of the Late Destruction of the Yuanmingyuan and its Affiliated Gardens”. In this article, Mr. Zhao Guanghua has examined and specifically described what happened to the Zhengjue Temple, dividing the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan into four periods: 1. the lightning plunder and burning in 1860; 2. the “wood robbery” in 1900; 3. the “stone robbery” after the Xinhai period; 4. “4. the “earth robbery” that has been going on since around 1940 until today.
The “wood robbery” in 1900 refers to the fact that after the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered Beijing, the German troops stationed in Long Run Park often came to Zhengjue Temple to tear down the decoration of the main hall and its doors and windows for fuel. The bell tower of the temple, cast in bronze, surrounded by Sanskrit, cast very fine, was also pulled by German soldiers into the west gate of Long Run Park.
After the Xinhai “stone robbery” refers to Yan Huiqing, who was the acting state premier of the Beiyang government, used Zhengjue Temple as a private villa, so the building was remodeled and the Buddha statue was removed and placed in the empty room.
Several Yuanmingyuan experts agree that the “earth robbery,” which continued from around 1940 until the turn of the century, did the most damage to the Yuanmingyuan and Zhengjue Temple. Zhao Guanghua writes: “After some years, this house and the surrounding ancient wood Berlin, and all changed hands to Tsinghua University. The school has been used as a single staff dormitory. At that time, the ancient cypress forest, landscape and lotus ponds, less wind and dust in spring, summer times cool, until the 1960s, still very well maintained. Later, when Tsinghua University withdrew, Haidian Machinery Repair Factory (note: the present Beijing Great Wall Boiler Factory) entered. Especially from 1975 to 1977, the two or three years, a large number of factory buildings and living quarters were built and demolished indiscriminately, so far 90% of them have been destroyed, and nearly 100 pine and cypress trees were cut down. So far, a fruit Han survived the only complete remains of the Yuanmingyuan, and announced the annihilation of ……”
Obviously, Haidian mechanical repair plant before and after the Cultural Revolution, the period of indiscriminate cutting, should be because these are the “four old” reason, naturally, there is no protection, and no one dared to stand up for the beaten intellectuals to speak.
It was not until the 1980s that the Chinese Communist Party began to protect the Yuanmingyuan, and the Zhengjue Temple was restored, but there were no more Buddha statues or incense burners inside.
Conclusion
What happened to the Summer Palace and the Yuanmingyuan is just a microcosm of what happened to ancient Chinese architecture. In Beijing alone, for example, other buildings destroyed include the Ming Dynasty Longfu Temple, the bronze Buddha in the Yanshou Temple, the Hancheng in the Qing River, with 108 miles of the Great Wall …… Sigh, how deep is the sin of the Chinese Communist Party!
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