By James Griffiths
Imperial bronze lion sculptures in the ruins of the Old Summer Palace, Beijing, China, 1869. The Palace, formerly the residence of emperors of the Qing Dynasty, was destroyed by British and French forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.
As the world watched in horror at pictures of the Notre Dame burning, people in China saw another story in the flames: that of retribution.
"I might be sympathetic to refugees in Lebanon, but the blaze of the Notre Dame only reminds me of the flames of the Old Summer Palace," wrote one user on social media.
"Everything has consequences, heavenly cycles, retribution. This applies to both people and country! I only feel awe for karma, and it has nothing to do with morality."
French and British troops burned the Summer Palace to the ground during the Second Opium War in 1860 and it has since become a key element in the "Century of Humiliation" narrative taught in Chinese schools.
During the 19th century, foreign powers, chief among them the UK, invaded the Qing Empire and imposed "unfair" treaties on it after defeat, seizing Hong Kong and forcing open various "treaty ports," such as Shanghai, to foreign trade.
Chinese could not help but point what they saw as historical parallels, even a bit of justice.
A "Summer Palace" hashtag on Chinese social platform Weibo attracted close to 100 million views, with many comments about karma or the importance of remembering China's own experience.
Imperial residence
Built in the 1700s on the outskirts of Beijing, the 350-hectare (864 acres) Summer Palace was a secondary residence and capital for the Qing emperors away from the Forbidden City.
It was particularly favored by the Xianfeng Emperor, who spent much of his time there in the lead up to the Second Opium War, when a British and French force marched towards Beijing to put pressure on the closed-off Qing Empire to expand foreign trading rights.
Envoys met with Qing officials, but after talks broke down they were seized and held hostage.
Furious, the UK's Lord Elgin ordered his forces to advance on Beijing.
Tourist look at the ruins of the Guanshuifa Fountain which was built in 1759 during the period of Qing Emperor Qianlong, at the Old Summer Palace, also called Yuanmingyuan, in Beijing on February 24, 2009.
"I might be sympathetic to refugees in Lebanon, but the blaze of the Notre Dame only reminds me of the flames of the Old Summer Palace," wrote one user on social media.
"Everything has consequences, heavenly cycles, retribution. This applies to both people and country! I only feel awe for karma, and it has nothing to do with morality."
French and British troops burned the Summer Palace to the ground during the Second Opium War in 1860 and it has since become a key element in the "Century of Humiliation" narrative taught in Chinese schools.
During the 19th century, foreign powers, chief among them the UK, invaded the Qing Empire and imposed "unfair" treaties on it after defeat, seizing Hong Kong and forcing open various "treaty ports," such as Shanghai, to foreign trade.
Chinese could not help but point what they saw as historical parallels, even a bit of justice.
A "Summer Palace" hashtag on Chinese social platform Weibo attracted close to 100 million views, with many comments about karma or the importance of remembering China's own experience.
Imperial residence
Built in the 1700s on the outskirts of Beijing, the 350-hectare (864 acres) Summer Palace was a secondary residence and capital for the Qing emperors away from the Forbidden City.
It was particularly favored by the Xianfeng Emperor, who spent much of his time there in the lead up to the Second Opium War, when a British and French force marched towards Beijing to put pressure on the closed-off Qing Empire to expand foreign trading rights.
Envoys met with Qing officials, but after talks broke down they were seized and held hostage.
Furious, the UK's Lord Elgin ordered his forces to advance on Beijing.
Tourist look at the ruins of the Guanshuifa Fountain which was built in 1759 during the period of Qing Emperor Qianlong, at the Old Summer Palace, also called Yuanmingyuan, in Beijing on February 24, 2009.
The British cavalry and French infantry "set out for the Summer Palace, where they still expected to find the emperor in residence," Stephen Platt writes in "Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War."
Instead, they found it empty and swiftly set to looting the place.
Outgunned by the foreigners, the Qing released the negotiators, who told of how they had been subjected to torture, abuse and constant threats of execution.
Of 26 men seized by the Qing, 15 had died during captivity, including a reporter for the London Times.
Elgin was determined to punish the Qing for their mistreatment of hostages.
But he was also keen for the UK not be seen to be taking action against the Chinese people -- only their rulers.
And so he instructed the British army to burn the Summer Palace to the ground.
Notre Dame Cathedral fire
Notre Dame
The burning of the Summer Palace inspired numerous comments on social media that the fire at Notre Dame was a form of karmic justice.
For many young Chinese, another link between the burning of the Summer Palace and the fire at Notre Dame exists through the words of Victor Hugo, whose comments on the destruction of imperial garden feature in numerous Chinese textbooks.
A quote of his is also engraved under a bust of the writer at the site of the palace in Beijing.
Hugo, whose novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" helped spark renewed interest and a restoration of the old cathedral in 1830, was one of more high-profile Europeans appalled by the actions of their army in China.
"We call ourselves civilized and them barbarians," Hugo wrote of the burning of the Summer Palace. "Here is what Civilization has done to barbarity."
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