Chapter 60 3. Qingyi Yihe

The Qingyi Garden of "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" is the Summer Palace, which has experienced wind and rain for more than two hundred years.Why do you want to build this garden?Emperor Qianlong's "Longevity Mountain Kunming Lake Story" has three purposes: one is to repair water conservancy, the other is to train sailors, and the third is to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager.In the fourteenth year of Qianlong (1749), Emperor Qianlong built Qingyi Garden, changed Weng Mountain to Longevity Mountain, and changed West Lake to Kunming Lake.The lake was also expanded, so that the Dragon King Temple, which was originally on the East Causeway, was located on Nanhu Island.There is a nine-story pagoda on the site of the Buddha Fragrance Pavilion. Along the shore of the Houhu Lake, there are market houses modeled on the water town of Suzhou in the south of the Yangtze River. Lama Temples and Tibetan watchtowers are built on the Houshan Mountain.The waterways in the northwest suburbs were also comprehensively sorted out, leading the water from the lake out of the gate and into the city along the long river.The emperor of the Qing Dynasty could go out of the palace by chariot to the Yihong Hall near the Gaoliang Bridge outside Xizhimen, abandon the chariot and board a boat, and travel up the Changhe River to Qingyi Garden.Dredging and rectifying the waterway of the Changhe River was a major achievement of Beijing in the Qing Dynasty besides harnessing the Yongding River.After renovations during the Qianlong period, the scenery of Qingyi Garden became more beautiful: "Where is Yanshan the most pleasant, and the unparalleled wind and moon belong to Kunming."

However, when the British and French allied forces invaded, Qingyi Garden was burned and plundered, and a tragedy occurred: Yuquan swallows Kunming fortress sadly, only the copper rhinoceros guards the thorns. Foxes cry at night in Qingzhixiu, and fish cry under Xiuqi Bridge. Later, during the Guangxu period, Cixi rebuilt the garden to celebrate her birthday, with more than 3,000 buildings of various types, and renamed it the Summer Palace.How much silver did Cixi spend to build the Summer Palace?Some people say 30 million taels, while others say 80 million taels.No matter which number is accurate, the cost is extremely staggering.

Let's expand the map of the Summer Palace, the whole garden can be divided into five parts: The first is the palace area.The East Palace Gate is the main entrance, and the Renshou Hall is the main hall.The hall is covered with gray tiles and no yellow glazed tiles.The courtyard is dotted with turquoise and flower beds are built to coordinate with the garden style.There is a throne in the center of the Hall of Renshou. The Empress Dowager Cixi sat behind the throne when she began to govern, and then sat in the center of the throne. Emperor Guangxu sat on the right side of the throne.Empress Dowager Cixi reigns alone on the throne, ruling the world.

The second is the inner court area, which is composed of Leshou Hall, Yulan Hall and other courtyards, connected by fifty or sixty corridors.Leshoutang is adjacent to Kunming Lake in the south, Wanshou Mountain in the north, Deheyuan theater building in the east, and a promenade connecting it with Qianshan Scenic Area in the west.Empress Dowager Cixi lives here from the beginning of April to the beginning of October of the lunar calendar every year.In the hall, the East Nuan Pavilion is where Cixi eats and rests, and the West Nuan Pavilion is Cixi's bedroom. The phoenix bed, curtains, yellow pillows, and bedding are still the same as they were back then.There are multicolored glass chandeliers hanging in the room, which were replaced by electric lights in the 29th year of Guangxu (1903).

The third is the former mountain area.Adjacent to Longevity Mountain in the north and Kunming Lake in the south, there are 273 promenades near the lake with a length of 728 meters. Each bay is painted with more than 14,000 colored paintings. long gallery.Passing through the Paiyun Gate and Paiyun Hall, leading to the Foxiang Pavilion, until the top of the mountain is the world of fragrances and the sea of ​​wisdom. From bottom to top, it is resplendent and magnificent, forming a magnificent picture.The wharf in front of the archway is the wharf for dragon boats to get on and off the lake for festivals such as Duanyang and Mid-Autumn Festival.Empress Dowager Cixi once received congratulations from hundreds of officials in Paiyun Hall.The Empress Dowager Cixi enjoyed the authority of the world, but she failed to fulfill her historical responsibilities.The Foxiang Pavilion on the hall has three floors and four eaves on eight sides, and is 40 meters high. It is the tallest building in the garden.In the pavilion, eight iron pear trees are used to make Optimus Prime, which has a complex structure and stands majestically.Baoyun Pavilion on the west hillside of the pavilion, also known as "Tong Pavilion", has a double-eaved roof and a treasure temple on it.The copper pavilion is 7.55 meters high and weighs 207,000 kilograms. It is a world cultural treasure together with the Wudang Mountain Golden Palace.There is a glazed pavilion in the middle of the Fragrance Realm on Longevity Hill, named "Sea of ​​Wisdom", which has no beams and is embedded with Buddha statues on the walls, occupying the highest place in the garden.According to statistics, there are 15,120 Buddha statues in the park.There are more than 20 pavilions and pavilions on the hillsides on both sides, including Tingli Pavilion.The Tingli Hall was originally a theater garden, so why is the stage facing south and north?Legend has it that Emperor Qianlong composed and performed Kunqu opera for the Queen Mother. The emperor had to face south, so the stage was like this.This is where Empress Dowager Cixi watched a play.Now Tingli Restaurant has become a famous restaurant imitating court dishes.

Speaking of Foxiang Pavilion, there is a story.The original Buddha Fragrance Pavilion enshrined a thousand-handed Avalokitesvara bronze Buddha, which disappeared after the British and French allied forces invaded.When Empress Dowager Cixi rebuilt it, she made clay statues of Buddha.It has been destroyed for a long time. In 1989, when the Foxiang Pavilion was overhauled, it was learned that a huge Buddha statue was found in the wall of a temple in Xicheng, Beijing, which was similar to the Avalokitesvara statue in the Foxiang Pavilion in the records.After several twists and turns, this five-meter-high, twelve-faced, twenty-four-armed, bronze statue of the giant Buddha, weighing ten thousand catties, was finally placed in the Buddha Incense Pavilion.The tall Buddha pavilion is a perfect match.But there should be a small Buddha on the top of the Avalokitesvara statue, called Hua Buddha, which was lost at that time, only the base remained.At this time, someone remembered that there was still a small bronze Buddha in the warehouse of the Summer Palace, which was discovered when the Kunming Lake was dredging.The staff placed the small Buddha statue on the pedestal above the head of the big Buddha, which fit perfectly and seamlessly.This centuries-old romance between the two Buddhas has become a cultural relic of the Summer Palace.

The fourth is Nanhu District.Looking down from the air, Kunming Lake looks like a longevity peach.Legend has it that Emperor Qianlong used the lake as a peach to celebrate his mother's birthday.There is a Dragon King Temple on Nanhu Island in the middle of the lake.Between Nanhu Island and Dongdi, there is a stone bridge imitating Lugou Bridge. The bridge is 150 meters long, 8 meters wide, and has 17 holes. It is commonly known as "Seventeen-Arch Bridge". ).There is a copper bull in the east of the bridge, which is exquisitely crafted and vivid.The West Causeway and Six Bridges in the west of the lake were built in imitation of Su Causeway and Six Bridges in Hangzhou West Lake.The Harmonious Interest Garden in the park was built in imitation of Wuxi Jichang Garden.The Garden of Harmony is centered on the pool, and the "August 1 landscape" surrounding the pool, "one hall, one pavilion, one floor, one studio, one pavilion, one bridge, one path, and one hole", is also a reference to the garden scenery in the south of the Yangtze River.

The fifth is the Houshan District.Along the northern foot of the mountain, flowers and trees are planted, and rocks are adorned, making the scenery around the back mountain and lake quiet and beautiful.A Suzhou Creek (Houhu) was opened, a shopping street along the river was set up, and various shops were set up. Whenever the emperor and the empress were lucky, the eunuchs would dress up as merchants and customers, bargaining and buying and selling, and it was extremely noisy to win the favor of the empress. The Summer Palace is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the scenery outside the garden is ingeniously combined with nature and architecture, palaces and gardens.Palaces and pavilions in the garden, halls and pavilions, pavilions, bridges, towers and temples, famous flowers and trees, strange peaks and strange rocks - this is the largest remaining royal palace garden in the capital, which concentrates the essence of ancient Chinese architectural art. It has become a masterpiece of world garden art and is listed as a "world cultural heritage".

Regarding Qingyi Garden and the Summer Palace, I will tell three stories. first story.Emperor Qianlong did not spend the night in Qingyi Garden.According to records, he visited the garden 132 times.However, Emperor Qianlong never lived in the garden overnight.why?Emperor Qianlong once said that building gardens was a waste of money and people, but he built Qingyi Garden.For this reason, he blamed himself: "Although the garden is completed, I go there in the morning and return at noon. I haven't spent the night. It's still the original intention, or I can forgive you." That is to say, every time I go in the morning and return after noon, I have never spent the night in the garden, and through self-discipline and reflection, I may get the world's understanding of myself.

second story.The Yulan Hall on the east side of Le Shoutang was originally the residence of Emperor Guangxu.But after the "1898 Coup", when the Empress Dowager Cixi lived in the Summer Palace, she imprisoned Emperor Guangxu in Yulan Hall.In order to prevent Emperor Guangxu from escaping, he was ordered to build a high wall outside the hall and strictly guard it; inside the hall, walls were built to block the windows; the queen lived in the backyard and could not come and go: Yulan Hall became a top-level cage.This is just Cixi's "Yi", not the "harmony" of mother and child.That's why I say "Yihe is not in harmony".

third story.Empress Dowager Cixi was a fan of theater.The Qing court specially set up a royal opera troupe, the Shengping Department, which first performed Kunqu opera and then Beijing opera.In the fifty-fifth year of Qianlong (1790), opera troupes from other places came to Beijing to perform, and then absorbed the strengths of other dramas to form a new type of opera that emphasized both singing, reading, acting, and fighting—Beijing opera.The Changyin Pavilion Theater was built in the Forbidden City, the Tongyuan Theater was built in the Old Summer Palace, the Qingyin Pavilion was built in the Summer Resort, and the Deheyuan Theater was built in the Summer Palace.According to the statistics of Zhang Tian's "The Past and Present of Old Beijing Theater Buildings", the large theater buildings in the imperial palaces of the Qing Dynasty include: the Changyin Pavilion Theater Building in the Ningshou Palace in the Forbidden City, the Dehe Garden Theater Building in the Summer Palace, and the Tongyuan Theater Building in the Yuanmingyuan (no longer exists). , Qingyin Pavilion Theater Building in the Summer Resort (no longer exists) and Shouan Palace Theater Building (no longer exists).There are also the largest single-story stage in the palace of Chonghua Palace Shufangzhai in the Forbidden City and the Fengyacun small stage in the back hall, the stage of Changchun Palace and the small stage of Yiqing Shushi, the small stage of Lijingxuan in Chuxiu Palace, and the interior of Jingqi Pavilion in Ningshou Palace. Small stage, Juanqinzhai stage in Qianlong Garden, Ruting small stage, Tingli Pavilion theater building in Summer Palace, Yiniandian stage and Chunyizhai stage in Xiyuan Zhongnanhai (both repaired), Beihai Qinglan Huayun stage (now imitated Zenfanzhuang Restaurant).There are also Nanfu (Shengping Department) Theater (in the former Beijing No. 6 Middle School and No. 28 Middle School) and so on.The Shufangzhai Theater in the Forbidden City, during the century from Jiaqing to Xuantong, performed too many excerpts and court operas. Folk artists and folk troupes outside the palace also entered the palace many times to perform here, until Puyi married Mei Lan Fang also performed "A Dream in the Garden" here.The Deheyuan theater building is the same as the Changyinge theater building. It has three floors and is equipped with a patio and a well. Hall to watch a play.Every second day after Cixi arrives at the Summer Palace, the play begins.When she celebrates her birthday, she has to perform a big show for nine days in a row.On her 50th birthday, she spent 110,000 taels of silver just to make costumes.There are photos of Cixi wearing costumes, which shows that she is really fascinated by the drama.She also said that there are more than 3,000 boxes of treasures and costumes she wears in the Summer Palace alone.However, the Empress Dowager Cixi used military expenditures and squandered recklessly, what is the result?It not only deepened the disaster of the Chinese nation, but also accelerated the demise of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing emperor hunted to practice martial arts with horses and archers, but the Iron Cavalry of the Eight Banners was defeated by the heavy artillery of the British ships; dredging Kunming Lake to train the navy, but the Beiyang navy was defeated by the Japanese navy.Both Britain and Japan came from the sea, but the Qing Dynasty ignored the development of the sea.The Qing emperor spent huge sums of money on the construction of "three mountains and five gardens", but neglected to strengthen the national defense - there have been scenes of historical tragedies: man is a sword, I am a fish.