東方的凡爾賽宮－－圓明園 銀幕重現
【Two robbers breaking into a museum, devastating,
looting and burning, leaving laughing hand-in-hand
with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers
is called France and the other Britain." Victor Hugo】
圓明園正大光明殿
Yuan Ming Yuan, or 圓明園, was the Old Summer Palace, known in
China as the Gardens of Perfect Brightness. Its initial construction
began in 1707, during the reign of Emperor 康熙, and it was on a
much smaller scale. In 1725, under Emperor 雍正, the Imperial
Gardens were greatly expanded. 圓明園 introduced the waterworks
of the gardens which created some of the lakes, streams and ponds
which greatly complemented the rolling hills and grounds. By
Emperor乾隆's reign, the second expansion was well underway. 乾隆
personally took interest and directed the expansion works. He also
increased the number of scenic spots in the gardens to 50. By the
middle of the 19th century, the Imperial Gardens had undergone
expansion in one form or another for over 150 years.
Unfortunately, as everybody knows, in 1860, during the Second
Opium War, the British and French expeditionary forces marched
inland from the coast, reached Beijing and destroyed the entire place
of 圓明園.
Victor-Marie Hugo, the French poet, novelist, and human rights
activist, strongly protested against the British and French troops
for their barbaric act and looting in 圓明園. In a letter dated
November 25, 1861, addressed to Captain Butler of Anglo-French
expedition army, he wrote as follows:
" To Captain Butler
Hauteville House,
25 November, 1861
You ask my opinion, Sir, about the China expedition. You consider
this expedition to be honourable and glorious, and you have the
kindness to attach some consideration to my feelings; according to
you, the China expedition, carried out jointly under the flags of Queen
Victoria and the Emperor Napoleon, is a glory to be shared between
France and England, and you wish to know how much approval I feel
I can give to this English and French victory.
Since you wish to know my opinion, here it is:
There was, in a corner of the world, a wonder of the world; this
wonder was called the Summer Palace. Art has two principles, the
Idea, which produces European art, and the Chimera, which produces
oriental art. The Summer Palace was to chimerical art what the
Parthenon is to ideal art. All that can be begotten of the imagination
of an almost extra-human people was there. It was not a single,
unique work like the Parthenon. It was a kind of enormous model of
the chimera, if the chimera can have a model. Imagine some
inexpressible construction, something like a lunar building, and you
will have the Summer Palace. Build a dream with marble, jade, bronze
and porcelain, frame it with cedar wood, cover it with precious
stones, drape it with silk, make it here a sanctuary, there a harem,
elsewhere a citadel, put gods there, and monsters, varnish it, enamel
it, gild it, paint it, have architects who are poets build the thousand
and one dreams of the thousand and one nights, add gardens, basins,
gushing water and foam, swans, ibis, peacocks, suppose in a word a
sort of dazzling cavern of human fantasy with the face of a temple and
palace, such was this building. The slow work of generations had been
necessary to create it. This edifice, as enormous as a city, had been
built by the centuries, for whom? For the peoples. For the work of
time belongs to man. Artists, poets and philosophers knew the
Summer Palace; Voltaire talks of it. People spoke of the Parthenon in
Greece, the pyramids in Egypt, the Coliseum in Rome, Notre-Dame in
Paris, the Summer Palace in the Orient. If people did not see it they
imagined it. It was a kind of tremendous unknown masterpiece,
glimpsed from the distance in a kind of twilight, like a silhouette of
the civilization of Asia on the horizon of the civilization of Europe.
This wonder has disappeared.
One day two bandits entered the Summer Palace. One plundered,
the other burned. Victory can be a thieving woman, or so it seems.
The devastation of the Summer Palace was accomplished by the two
victors acting jointly. Mixed up in all this is the name of Elgin, which
inevitably calls to mind the Parthenon. What was done to the
Parthenon was done to the Summer Palace, more thoroughly and
better, so that nothing of it should be left. All the treasures of all our
cathedrals put together could not equal this formidable and splendid
museum of the Orient. It contained not only masterpieces of art, but
masses of jewelry. What a great exploit, what a windfall! One of the
two victors filled his pockets; when the other saw this he filled his
coffers. And back they came to Europe, arm in arm, laughing away.
Such is the story of the two bandits.
We Europeans are the civilized ones, and for us the Chinese are the
barbarians. This is what civilization has done to barbarism. Before
history, one of the two bandits will be called France; the other will be
called England. But I protest, and I thank you for giving me the
opportunity! the crimes of those who lead are not the fault of those
who are led; Governments are sometimes bandits, peoples never.
The French empire has pocketed half of this victory, and today with
a kind of proprietorial naivety it displays the splendid bric-a-brac of
the Summer Palace. I hope that a day will come when France,
delivered and cleansed, will return this booty to despoiled China.
Meanwhile, there is a theft and two thieves.
I take note.
This, Sir, is how much approval I give to the China expedition.
Victor Hugo "
Our NTUMC classmate Wei thought Victor Hugo's description of
圓明園 very poetic and she translated (意譯) his paragraph of the
description into Chinese. Another classmate D.J. thought her
translation surpassed the original Victor Hugo's description of 圓明園.
I have the honor to obtain her permission and post it in my blog:
圓明園 by Wei Hsueh
千年古國夢中園 白玉欄杆彩瓷磚
雪松為頂琉璃瓦 青銅為柱絲錦懸
黃金雕刻七彩獸 珍寶燦爛缀屋間
後宮神殿錯落致 菩薩慈容供壇前
奇花異卉香陣陣 石山流水聲潺潺
孔雀天鵝綠茵草 拱橋寶塔碧湖蓮
紫燕黃鶯鳴翠柳 藍鳬白鷺戲清泉
一千一夜神話境 一千一夜夢魂牽
雕樑玉砌應猶在 英法入侵化塵煙
如今荒草埋幽徑 斷柱殘垣兩茫然
Yeh Tze
