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:
“So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)