During the Second Opium War, the British and French allied forces arrived at Deshengmen and Andingmen in Beijing on June 6, 1980/KLOC-0. The soldiers of Sengqin and Rui Lin retreated to the Yuanmingyuan area one after another, so the British and French allied forces chased them to the Yuanmingyuan. At first, Allied soldiers warned not to enter the garden, fearing that China would ask for the lost property in the future. But soon after dusk, thousands of French troops rushed into Yuanmingyuan, and the officers and men guarding the park were outnumbered. Seeing that the French army was robbing, the British commander Grant allowed the British army to enter the park. Allied soldiers plundered the treasures and furniture in the garden. According to British officials' estimation afterwards, the value of cultural relics and treasures (gold, silver, precious stones, silks and satins, antique furnishings, etc.). ) The looted property amounted to 6 million pounds, as well as priceless rare books, pagodas, porcelain and furniture. Destroyed because they don't know their value or are inconvenient to handle. Because the Qing court negotiators arrested British Ambassador Parkes and his party and imprisoned them in Yuanmingyuan, the British army found the dismembered body of the Times reporter in the garden. British commander James Bruce, the eighth earl of Elgin, ordered the garden to be set on fire on June+10/October 18, 65438, as a punishment for the Qing court. The first British Army Corps set fire to all parts of the garden from June 10 to June 18. At the same time, teams were sent to burn down nearby royal gardens such as Jingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, Qingyi Garden and Changchun Garden. The Yuanmingyuan fire lasted for two days, and more than 300 eunuchs and maids were killed in the fire.
French writer victor hugo once strongly condemned this, calling it "the victory of two robbers" [5]. According to official historians in China, the reason why Yuanmingyuan was burned down was that the British and French allied forces set fire to cover up its barbaric plunder. There are also some people who believe that it is because the Qing Dynasty did not abide by the diplomatic etiquette pursued by the West for a long time. Since the Qianlong period, it has treated the monarchs and their envoys of western countries with contempt and inequality. In this incident, all the British and French negotiators were detained, resulting in 26 of the 39 people being tortured to death. After the British and French allied forces entered Beijing, they discovered this situation and took the strategy of burning Yuanmingyuan out of revenge for the Qing emperor. The reason why the British and French allied forces chose to burn Yuanmingyuan is mainly because the Forbidden City (now called the Forbidden City) is a symbol of state power, and Yuanmingyuan is the emperor's private garden. Count Erkin wanted to punish Xianfeng, the emperor at that time, in order to burn the Yuanmingyuan. The book that holds this view is the Opium War by Travis hanes III.
After the Yuanmingyuan was burned down, some scenic spots survived. According to the investigation report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the 12th year of Tongzhi (1873), the existing buildings in the park include Kuanggong, Zibishan House, Yuyue Feiteng, Gengyuntang, Shen Xiu Siyong, Tang Zhiguo, Kenongxuan, Shunmutian, Chunyuxuan, Xinghua Chuntang, Wenchang Pavilion, Kuixingge, Pengdao Yaotai, Wanfang 'an, Cross and so on. In the 12th year of Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Tongzhi planned to rebuild Yuanmingyuan. They planned to restore Qian Chao District and Jiuzhou District of Yuanmingyuan and a few scenic spots to the north and west of Fuhai, and renamed Qichun Garden "Wanchun Garden" as the residence of Empress Dowager Cixi. However, after 1 1 month, the plan was finally abandoned due to lack of financial resources. Since then, some scenic spots in the park have undergone small-scale maintenance. Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu visited the park many times. At this time, in addition to the remaining buildings, Yuanmingyuan still retains a large number of precious flowers, trees, mountains and rivers, and building foundations. Most bridges, roads, garden fences and gates are intact.
1900, Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing, and the Qing court fled again. In the chaos, Yuanmingyuan was robbed by nearby troops and bandits. Except for the new palace gate (the palace gate of Qichun Garden), all the other buildings in the park were demolished by bandits, selling bricks and wood. Old and famous trees, single-plank bridges and building foundation stakes in the park were all robbed and transported to Qinghe Town nearby for sale.
In the decades after the demise of the Qing Dynasty, the site of Yuanmingyuan continued to be looted. Square bricks, strips, stones, white marble carvings, Taihu stones, and bluestones in the park were transported away by warlords and bureaucrats to build private gardens and tombs, and the tiger-skin stone fence in Yuanmingyuan was demolished to build roads. In addition, some cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan were placed in public places, such as the bronze unicorn at the entrance of Changchun Garden, the pen stone in Anyou Palace and the bright stone tablet in Shui Mu. These cultural relics were moved from 19 10 to 1937 in the Summer Palace. The Hua Biao of Anyou Palace, Lin Shiqi, Xingfa Bridge of Xiyanglou, Fan Weishiyu, Shi Mei Monument, Yanhua Monument and Wenyuan Pavilion Monument were moved to the old libraries in yenching university and Beijing respectively. Precious Taihu stones such as Lanting Monument and utpala were moved to Zhongshan Park on 19 15; The stone lion in the east gate of Changchun Garden and its pedestal moved to Zhengyangmen and xinhua gate. The white marble and bricks at the site of Xiyanglou were also transported away by warlords and bureaucrats, or bought by various stone workshops and carved into other stones on the spot. 1928, the stone of Dashuifa site was demolished to build a memorial for the soldiers killed in Suiyuan. During the Japanese occupation period, some sites in the park were filled with lakes by Pingshan under the slogan of "rewarding agriculture" and changed into paddy fields.
In the 1950' s, it was planned to choose a site for Beijing Botanical Garden of China Academy of Sciences. However, in the 1960 s, most of the land in the garden was changed into farmland by the nearby production team, and a large number of people poured in rapidly. Remaining buildings such as Fuhaishi revetment in Yuanmingyuan, residual wall of Acropolis, three-hole bridge in Wanchun Garden, material door and seven-hole door in Changchun Garden were demolished one after another, and all the remaining garden walls were cut down. Especially after 1975, many units leveled earth mountains, filled lakes, cut down trees, built factories, pig farms and chicken farms in parks, and the original mountain water system and the remaining ancient tree vegetation of Yuanmingyuan site completely disappeared.