The Old Summer Palace bronze animal head statue is also known as the Old Summer Palace bronze animal head statue of the twelve zodiac animals, and the Old Summer Palace bronze animal head bronze statue of the twelve zodiac animals. The bronze animal head statue in Yuanmingyuan was originally part of the fountain outside Haiyan Hall in Yuanmingyuan. It was a red bronze statue made during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In 1860, the British and French allied forces invaded China and burned the Old Summer Palace. The bronze statues of animal heads began to be lost overseas. Only a few have been recovered, so they have become a symbol of the lost cultural relics of the Old Summer Palace overseas.
The Haiyan Hall, a historic site in the Old Summer Palace,[1] was built in 1759 (the 24th year of Qianlong's reign). The word "Haiyan" means "the river is clear and the sea is peaceful, the country is peaceful and the people are safe". "Wenyuan Yinghua" Tang Zhengxi's "The King of Japan and China": "The river is clear and the sea is Yan, the time is harmonious and the year is prosperous" River, Yellow River; Yan, calm. "Heqing Haiyan" is also called "Haiyan Heqing", which means that the water flow of the Yellow River is clear and the sea is calm. This term is used to describe peace in the world and has an auspicious connotation of praising world peace. This is also where the name of the ornamental and practical building "Haiyan Hall" in the Yuanmingyuan, the Chinese royal garden, comes from. The essence of this architectural complex - the twelve zodiac bronze statues tell the time with water, which is world-famous.
The design of the bronze statue of the animal head in the Old Summer Palace
The designer of the bronze statue
The bronze statue of the animal head in the Old Summer Palace was built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The bronze statue of the animal head in the Old Summer Palace was designed by the European missionary Italian Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), the Frenchman R. Michel Benoist (1715-1744) designed and supervised it, and was produced by Qing court craftsmen.
Originally, Castiglione wanted to build a nude female sculpture with Western characteristics. However, Emperor Qianlong felt that this was against Chinese ethics and morals, so he ordered a redesign. Later, this bronze statue of the twelve zodiac signs was created. Another problem is that after the design was completed, Castiglione discovered that no craftsman in the Qing Dynasty knew how to make bronze wares. Later, he and other craftsmen consulted the classics, which was time-consuming and laborious and finally completed.
The shape and structural principles of the bronze statue
The Haiyan Hall, a historic site in the Old Summer Palace, was built in 1759 (the 24th year of Qianlong's reign). The word "Haiyan" means "the river is clear and the sea is peaceful, the country is peaceful and the people are safe". "Wenyuan Yinghua" Tang Zhengxi's "The King of Japan and China": "The river is clear and the sea is Yan, the times are prosperous and the years are prosperous" River, Yellow River; Yan, calm. "Heqinghaiyan" is also called "Haiyanheqing", which means that the water flow of the Yellow River is clear and the sea is calm. This term is used to describe peace in the world and has an auspicious connotation of praising world peace. This is also where the name of the ornamental and practical building "Haiyan Hall" in the Yuanmingyuan, the Chinese royal garden, comes from. The essence of this architectural complex - the twelve zodiac bronze statues tell the time with water, which is world-famous.
The twelve zodiac bronze statues were designed by the European missionary Castiglione and produced by the craftsmen of the Qing court. They are art treasures that showcase the blend of Chinese and Western cultures and have extremely high artistic and appreciation values ??internationally. The designer fully considered Chinese folk culture and replaced the human body sculptures commonly used in Western fountain designs with seated figures of the twelve zodiac animals. The body of the zodiac bronze statue is a stone sculpture wearing a robe, and the head is a realistic style. The casting is fine, and the wrinkles, down, and other details on the animal head are clear and lifelike. The material used to cast the animal head was red copper refined by the Qing Dynasty at that time. It has a deep color on the outside and a polished interior. It has lasted for hundreds of years without rusting, which is a unique feat. According to research, the bronze statues of the twelve zodiac animals were arranged in a figure-eight shape on both sides of a pool in front of Haiyan Hall in Yuanmingyuan. They were called "hydraulic clocks" by people at the time. Every day, the twelve zodiac bronze statues will spray water in turn, representing different times of the day. At noon, the twelve statues will spray water at the same time. The Haiyantang Twelve Zodiac Fountain is a fountain clock designed according to the twelve Chinese zodiac signs. Every hour, the zodiac clock belonging to that hour will automatically spray water. At twelve o'clock at noon, the twelve zodiac signs will spray water at the same time. The design Extremely sophisticated. The main building of Haiyan Hall faces west, with eleven rooms at the top and bottom. There are stacked fountains on the left and right of the door. There is a large fountain under the steps. On the left and right of the pool, there are bronze statues of human bodies and animal heads of the twelve zodiac animals arranged in an "eight" shape. At twelve hours every day and night, the twelve zodiac signs take turns spraying water, commonly known as the "water clock".
The portraits of the Twelve Lives were originally placed on the 12 stone platforms on the north and south sides of the fan-shaped pool fountain in front of Haiyan Hall in the Western Tower of Yuanmingyuan. On the south bank are the rat, tiger, dragon, horse, monkey, and dog; on the north bank are the ox, the rabbit, the snake, the sheep, the rooster, and the pig. These portraits all have animal heads and human bodies. The head is made of copper and the body is made of stone. The hollow is connected to a water spray pipe. Every other hour (two hours), the portrait representing that hour will spray water from its mouth; at noon, ten The two portraits have fountains of water gushing out of their mouths at the same time, creating a spectacle. These bronze zodiac statues are 50 centimeters high and are exquisitely carved. They are the finest bronzes of the Qing Dynasty.
In the middle of the pool is a stone clam sculpture about two meters high. There are 6 stone seats arranged in a figure of eight on both sides of the pool. Each stone is carved with an animal-headed human figure wearing a robe. The animal head is made of copper and the human body is made of stone. They are arranged according to the rules of the Chinese zodiac. Every other hour (two hours today), the animal head representing that hour sprays water from its mouth, and the water pours into the pool in a parabola shape, that is, Zi hour (23 o'clock to 1 o'clock the next day). At Chou hour (1 to 3 o'clock), a bronze statue with a rat head sprays water from its mouth; at Chou hour (1 to 3 o'clock), a bronze statue with an ox head sprays water from its mouth. At 12 o'clock at noon, in addition to the horse's head continuing to spray water, the mouths of the other eleven animal bronze statues also sprayed water jets together, and the scene was extremely spectacular in an instant. Therefore, as long as people see the water jet coming from the mouth of the zodiac avatar, they can know the current time.
This group of fountains is a huge and unique water conservancy clock.
The loss of bronze statues
During the Second Opium War, the British and French forces invaded China, captured Beijing, and looted countless treasures in the Old Summer Palace, including twelve bronze statues. The animal heads caused these national treasures to be lost overseas for more than a hundred years.
The portraits of the Twelve Lives are artistic treasures that show the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, and have extremely high artistic and appreciation value internationally. When the invading army robbed it, they also treated it as the most precious treasure. Those who get them are also people with special status.
In 1860, the British and French allied forces burned down the Old Summer Palace, and the twelve zodiac bronze statues in the Old Summer Palace were lost overseas since then, becoming a microcosm of the loss of Chinese cultural relics - in the more than a hundred years after the Opium War, due to war, looting, and theft As many as one million pieces of Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas.