1900 Fire
The Academy and its library were severely damaged in a fire during the siege of the Foreign Legations in Beijing in 1900. On June 24 the fire spread to the Academy:
| “ | The old buildings burned like tinder with a roar which drowned the steady rattle of musketry as Tung Fu-shiang's Moslems fired wildly through the smoke from upper windows. | ” |
| “ | Some of the incendiaries were shot down, but the buildings were an inferno and the old trees standing round them blazed like torches. | ” |
| “ | An attempt was made to save the famous Yung Lo Ta Tien, now spelled Yongle Dadian, but heaps of volumes had been destroyed, so the attempt was given up. | ” |
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—Eyewitness Lancelot Giles, son of Herbert A. Giles |
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Many ancient texts were destroyed by the flames.
The Academy operated continuously until its closure during the 1911 Xinhai Revolution.
Read more about this topic: Hanlin Academy
Famous quotes containing the word fire:
“Man, became man through work, who stepped out of the animal kingdom as transformer of the natural into the artificial, who became therefore the magician, man the creator of social reality, will always stay the great magician, will always be Prometheus bringing fire from heaven to earth, will always be Orpheus enthralling nature with his music. Not until humanity itself dies will art die.”
—Ernst Fischer (1899–1972)