The Old Summer Palace embodies the essence of ancient Chinese gardening art and is the most outstanding large-scale garden at that time. Emperor Qianlong said of it: "This is the area where the real treasures of the earth and the emperor travel, and there is no way to surpass this." It also occupies an important position in the history of world garden architecture. Its fame spread to Europe and it was known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens". The great French writer Hugo made this comment in 1861: "Just imagine that it is a fascinating building like a castle like the Moon Palace. The Summer Palace (referring to the Old Summer Palace) is such a building." People often do this. Say: Greece has the Parthenon, Egypt has the pyramids, Rome has the Colosseum, and the East has summer palaces. ""This is a breathtaking and unparalleled masterpiece."
The Old Summer Palace is not only famous for its gardens, but also a royal museum with extremely rich collections, which can be called a cultural treasure house. Hugo once said: "Even if Even if all the treasures of Notre Dame cathedrals in our country (France) are put together, they cannot compare with the scale and splendor of this Oriental Museum. "The garden has luxurious and exquisite furnishings and a large collection of art treasures. According to descriptions from Westerners who have witnessed the Old Summer Palace, "the splendor and splendor of the garden is beyond description and beyond the imagination of Europeans." All kinds of precious treasures are accumulated in this royal villa, among thousands of households. "The finest carved red sandalwood furniture, exquisite ancient chipped porcelain and enamel bottles, gold and silver brocades, felts, leather goods, gold-plated French clocks, exquisite general map of the Old Summer Palace, and gem-inlaid archery There are pictures, plaques with lifelike landscapes and figures, as well as various other fine art products from China and various bizarre European decorations.
The Old Summer Palace has an extremely rich collection of books and cultural relics, to name just a few. Wenyuan Pavilion is a library built after Fan's Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo. It is one of the famous four royal northern pavilions. It was built in the 40th year of Qianlong's reign. "Sikuquanshu" is the largest comprehensive series of books in ancient my country, with more than 3400 kinds of books, nearly 80,000 volumes, and more than 36,000 volumes. The great spirit of the nation. Because of the vastness of the "Quanshu", the most important ones were selected and compiled into the "Siku Quanshu Hui Yao", with a total of 12,000 volumes. The other one is housed in the "Weifu Study Room" in the east wing of the Han Sutra Hall in the Forbidden City, the Han Sutra Hall. In addition, the Han Sutra Hall also has a famous literary pavilion, the Chunhua Pavilion, which is dedicated to the collection of the famous Dharma calligraphy "Chun Hua Pavilion". "Ge Tie" was originally copied in the third year of Chunhua in Beining (992), and includes the calligraphy works of 99 people including Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi, Cang Jie, Xia Yu, and Confucius. The volume is the first large-scale collection of Tie in my country, and is known as the ancestor of all Tie. During the Qianlong period, based on the "Initial Expansion of the Ge Tie" from the Northern Song Dynasty, it took three years to copy and engrave the stone. By the spring of the 37th year of Qianlong's reign (1772), the 144 imprinted panels were inlaid in the 24 or so cloisters in front of the Chunhua Pavilion. This is the famous "Qianlong's Heavy Engraving of the Chunhua Pavilion". Needless to say, when the Old Summer Palace was destroyed, the precious books and cultural relics collected in the garden such as "Sikuquanshu", "Quanshuhuiyao", "Collection of Ancient and Modern Books", and "Chunhua Pavilion Notes" were not spared. This can reflect from one aspect the huge damage caused to human culture by the burning of the Old Summer Palace.
Of course, nothing is perfect because the Old Summer Palace is so big. It was successively expanded and renovated by the emperors of the dynasty, and due to the influence of the decadent consciousness of the feudal emperors, it still has shortcomings from any perspective. However, overall, it can be said that the Old Summer Palace is indeed an outstanding garden. It is the culmination of thousands of years of excellent gardening art in my country and has pushed my country's classical gardens to a new level. At that time, everyone who witnessed its grandeur said that it was indeed very good. Some Westerners were impressed by the Chinese gardens. It started from the Old Summer Palace. In short, the Old Summer Palace has won honors for our ancient civilization and was once the pride of our Chinese nation!
However, it was this world-famous garden that became famous in the Xianfeng decade. That is, in October 1860, it was brutally looted and burned by the British and French forces, which became a page of humiliation in the modern history of our country.