再论第二次鸦片战争中圆明园被焚毁之因——基于宏观视角的考察

A Re-discussion on the Burning of Yuanmingyuan in the Second Opium War

1860年10月,以圆明园为代表的"三山五园"系统遭到毁灭性破坏。但学界对于圆明园被焚毁的原因存在激烈争论,并没有形成一致性意见。近年来,"迫使清帝尽快投降说"逐渐占据上风。然该说亦含有较大的问题,有进一步探讨的空间。通过对火烧圆明园事件进行宏观性分析,笔者发现其背后隐含了以往被忽略的诸多信息。英法联军物资补给系统存在隐患、1860年10月初京津一带气温的骤降、联军既定战略的演变以及联军内部围绕人质事件惩戒策略产生的矛盾等诸多因素,都对圆明园的焚毁产生了推动作用。而从整体上看,额尔金的个人境况以及人质事件的发生,是导致圆明园遭受焚毁的直接原因;英、法两国国家利益的不同以及联军内部蕴含的问题和矛盾,是导致圆明园遭受焚毁的根本原因。

The Summer Palace was severely damaged from October 18 to 20, 1860. The reason of Yuanmingyuan’s burning has been debated hotly in the academic, which did not get a consensus yet. In recent years, the view “forcing the emperor to surrender as soon as possible” gradually gets an upper hand. However, this view contains a big problem. This paper finds a lot of information ignored by the academy in the past through a macro-analysis on the Yuanmingyuan fire event. Overall, both Elgin’s personal situation and the occurrence of hostage incident were direct reasons of the burning of the Summer Palace; different national interests between Britain and France, along with problems and conflicts in British and French troops were fundamental reasons of the burning of the Summer Palace.