TRAVEL AND BREATH IN CHINA

admin 29 May 2009 Chinese History and Culture 507 views One Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Burning Yuanmingyuan was never a lesser crime, it was a very important building complex for the Imperial family, I don’t think it is any lesser than the forbidden city. the forbidden city symbolised imperial power, but the gardens especially Yuanmingyuan manisfested imperial glory and opulence. Qian Long spent a lot of time there, more so than in the forbidden city in his 59 years as emperor, i think that speaks a lot of its significance, not to mention the lavish architecture and all the treasures they held, more so than the forbidden city. In fact, most Qing emperors lived outside the forbidden city most of the time, except perhaps the incarcerated Pu Yi.

Perhaps the british and french burnt it as retaliation, but not before they cleaned off all the booty prior to the conflagration.

But why do we see the british and french actions different from any act of plunder, loot and destruction in any war or conflict since time immemorial?

Tongzhi emperor tried to organise a rebuilding of the Yuanmingyuan for Ci Xi and Ci An to retire but the fact was Qing government simply did not have the funds to do it. To highlight its importance, Tong Zhi sacked all his cabinet, 20 over officials including his uncle Prince Gong when they begged him to reconsider going ahead with the huge project. So the next best thing was to renovate Yiheyuan, which by no means were any less straining on the imperial coffers.

Yuanmingyuan was never rebuilt thereafter as the government was to indulge in foreign and domestic events that led to the end of the dynasty and did not have any funds to expend on luxury.

Garden building and improvement were always top priority in the beginning of new reigns and throughout the reign of a Qing emperor especially the latter ones, they took great pride in rebuilding and renovating these ancestral properties and to see the destruction of Yuanmingyuan as a by-product of war is understating the significance of the loss (at least on the Chinese perspective), it was arguably the greatest humiliation heaped on the Qing court up till that time.