Knowing shame and then being brave, our country will have the hope of re-emerging in the world's national forest.
By some strange coincidence, I walked into Yuanmingyuan for the third time. I have no mind to hang on to the relics of Dashui Law in the future, and I have no interest in going to the so-called maze of flowers, and I have no leisure to go boating in Fuhai. I almost went straight into the exhibition hall of round history without thinking, and stood in front of a photo frame inlaid with two black and white photos for a long time. Because of its age, it was enlarged after being remake from other places. There are quite thick meshes and grains the size of rice grains in the photos. Nevertheless, the outline of the scene and even the movements of the characters in the photo are still clearly discernible. At the bottom edge of the photo, a capital English caption stands out: THEPEACOCK CAGE BEING TORNDOWN, ABOUT 1924.
It was a cloudy and sultry weather, and the air was extremely humid, as if it were about to fall into the water when it twisted. I walked into Yuanmingyuan from the north gate, and I didn't go far, and the huge wreckage of Shuifa stood in front of me. Unconsciously, I walked in the mud and weeds on the ruins, facing pieces of broken walls, columns and limbs for no reason, chewing the humiliation of this nation for nearly a hundred years and swallowing the bitter wine brewed by incompetent and arrogant rulers for future generations. Even though I once had a splendid ancient civilization of 5,000 years, it is now a great civilization of several billion people.
To tell the truth, it's depressing and heavy to watch this exhibition. The only thing that makes people feel amazing and proud is that in that era when almost everything depends on handwork and simple machinery, how smart our nation must be to build a first-class beautiful palace-like garden in human history! Not to mention that we have suffered greatly from it, anyone with a sense of conscience and justice in the world is indignant at the catastrophe of 1860 10+08. Victor hugo, a famous French writer, wrote the following year: "One day, two robbers walked into Yuanmingyuan, one ransacked it and the other set it on fire ... One winner stuffed his pocket full, and the other quickly packed his box; They returned to Europe arm in arm contentedly. This is the history of two robbers. In the judgment seat of history, one robber is called France and the other is called Britain. "
There are three-dimensional panoramic models of Yuanmingyuan before the disaster in the exhibition hall, as well as black-and-white and color atlas materials of buildings before the fire ... Suddenly, I was attracted by two photos in the photo frame. This is obviously a group, so they share the same line of text description. It can be seen that the beginning of this article introduces the line printed in English in uppercase. One of them is the scene in the middle, the main object is a square high platform, which is obviously the architectural relic after robbery-there are three figures on it, which are as small as a silhouette because of the height of the platform, but the outline is still clear and the dynamics are faintly discernible.
I don't know anything about English, and I can't read the subtitles below the pictures, so I have to ask the staff in the exhibition hall. He is a young man and very enthusiastic. He told me that these two photos were taken by Orwell, a German teacher who taught at Peking University. The square platform in the picture is the site of a birdcage. The content in the picture is already very clear. It is the masonry material of some ordinary people in China in the demolition and transportation site.
It turns out that Yuanmingyuan has experienced the catastrophe of 1860, but after all, the scope of the park is too large. There are still many buildings and flowers in the mountain ponds in the northern half of Yuanmingyuan and Changchun Garden, and the gardens are still managed by relevant officials and palace supervisors. In August of Tongzhi 12 (A.D. 1873), Zai Chun took charge and ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to restore Yuanmingyuan after the curtain was removed in the name of supporting the Empress Dowager. At that time, the Qing dynasty had collapsed, the national treasury was exhausted, and the restoration project of Yuanmingyuan could not be carried out, so it had to stop work in the middle of the following year. 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing, and Cixi and Guangxu fled to xi 'an. At this time, the capital is full of chaos. The Eight Banners stationed in the northwest outside the city took the opportunity to collude with the palace supervisor and local bullies, and almost all the wooden buildings in Yuanmingyuan were demolished and sold out. Wang Huaiqing, the general of the Eight Banners, used the wood and stones here to build a private garden for himself. Due to the soaring price of rice, unscrupulous profiteers mixed white stone into rice, encouraging some hungry people to break the white marble in the garden and exchange it for rice at a ratio of six to one. After this looting, almost all the buildings that survived before and were rebuilt later were destroyed. The disaster did not end there. During the rule of Beiyang government and Kuomintang, warlords, bureaucrats and imperialists even brazenly stole and destroyed the remaining buildings. The great warlord Zhang actually removed the building materials from the garden in broad daylight and transported them to build a grave-what a stupid and sad tragedy!
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I was shocked and resentful, no less than the emotion I got from the primary school history teacher. That is an unforgettable hatred, and the latter is an unforgettable hatred! As descendants of the Chinese people, there are all kinds of evils. What words are used to describe these ugly people? Helping others is somewhat flattering; Robbery in troubled waters seems to be underestimated; Villains and rogues also feel that the price is insufficient ... they have cast a layer of eternal shame on the whole nation. Even if these scum with broken ridges are dealt with by the most cruel car splitting punishment in feudal times, it is difficult to understand the hatred in people's hearts! Of course, the scum I am talking about here should not and do not want to include those people in the photos. Even if they are not serious working people, they are also the bottom people. Just like those people who are hungry for white marble carvings in the garden, how can we have the heart to blame them for their food? However, facing the empty face of the owner in the photo, I can't help but feel a burst of terror, a shiver and a tense pain! My heart can't help drowning in sadness and pain. ...
My third visit here coincides with the 30th anniversary of the death of Yuanmingyuan/KLOC-0. I wander in front of the prospect, and I can't help but have mixed feelings. Hatred and anger rose from my heart again. Aren't these many stone pillars that go straight into the blue sky the historical testimony of blood drops in Yuanmingyuan? On the rusty stone surface, all kinds of atrocities of imperialism 100 years of aggression against China were recorded, which soaked the tears of humiliation of the Chinese nation and attracted the ugliness and meanness of all scum. It is also like a great apocalypse held high, which allows people all over the world to think deeply, reflect and then move towards the future. ...
I turned around slowly, but I couldn't tell where the birdcage was in the ruins. The two black-and-white photos with English explanations, the thin piece of white paper and the explanation of the enthusiastic young man came back to my mind. I should thank this exhibition hall and the scientists here. They showed me the other side of history, although it was bad, like an ugly scar. Only when we dare to face the reality, never avoid history and face up to its inferiority can our country hope to rise again in the world's national forest. The so-called shame before courage, that is the truth.
Let us always remember this shameful history of 100 years, together with the two black-and-white photos and the English explanation: THEPEA-COCK CAGE was demolished, about 1924.