The Burning of Yuan Ming Yuan

The story of the burning and looting of Yuan Ming Yuan is well known in China. It was one of the most shameful moments in Chinese history and many Chinese still feel the pain and indignity of losing such a historical and cultural treasure. Yuan Ming Yuan, also known as The Old Summer Palace, was first built by the third emperor of the Chinese Qing dynasty, Kang Xi in 1707 as a private retreat near the Forbidden City and yet outside city limits. The palace kept expanding as later emperors continuously added pavilions, buildings, and visitas according to their own aesthetics and visions. By the 1750s, it had been expanded to 3.5 square kilometers (860 acres), almost five times the size of the Forbidden City grounds and eight times the size of the Vatican City. There were 4 gardens in total: The Garden of Perfect Brightness (圆明园), The Garden of Eternal Spring (长春园), The Garden of Elegant Spring (绮春园), and The European Garden (西洋楼). The Old Summer Palace was home to countless collections of architecture, gardens, art collections, and historic treasures. Robert McGee, chaplain to the British forces that later invaded the palace, described it as "arguably the greatest concentration of historic treasures in the world, dating and representing a full 5,000 years of an ancient civilization."

In 1860, during the Second Opium War, the British and French sent their armies to force Chinese imperial rulers to open up their country further to Western trade and influence. After 19 western delegates were taken hostage, tortured, and killed by Qing generals, Lord Elgin, in command of the British army, ordered the deconstruction of Yuan Ming Yuan. The western world had long been tantalized by The Old Summer Palace, and all they needed was an excuse to initiate the invasion. What happened next shook the entire world: the soldiers looted the entire palace, freely taking whatever they saw, and destroying whatever they could not carry. Many such treasures dated back to the Shang, Zhou and Han dynasties and were up to 3,600 years old. Prior to the invasion, the emperor had fled the palace with all his governors and armies, and the palace was only occupied by civilians. With no weapons to defend themselves, all the palace’s residents were killed, including children and infants. Women were raped. To be sure that nothing was left behind, the armies were ordered to burn the palace down, which took three days and three nights.

I had the chance to visit the ruins of Yuan Ming Yuan in Beijing when I was 10. The only things left were the stone columns from the European Palace. Since all the other palaces were made of wood, they did not survive the fire. I could never forget what it felt like to be on the ground of what once was the Versailles of China, but now its former glory could only be seen in pictures, paintings, and digital reconstructions. Standing in front of the ruins, I felt like a part of the history of my culture was forcefully taken away from me.

Even today, many Chinese art pieces in European collections, both public and private, were taken by soldiers in 1860. Yet few westerners know about the looting and burning of Yuan Ming Yuan. To cover up this dark part of the history, British and French museums would list “The Elgin family” as the source of their Chinese artifacts, but purposefully avoid explaining how the Elgin family had acquired those items. The most symbolic stolen artifacts are the 12 animal bronze heads taken from the zodiac fountain in the European Palace. 7 of them had been bought with high prices (the highest being 8.9 million USD) at auctions and brought back to China. The whereabouts of five of the animals remain unknown—the dragon, snake, goat, rooster and dog.