Author Introduction

Victor Hugo (February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885) was a leading representative of French Romantic writers, a representative writer of the active Romantic literary movement in the early 19th century, a bourgeois democratic writer in the history of French literature, and a representative figure of Humanitarianism , opposition to violence, and using love to conquer "evil". He was known as "the Shakespeare of France".

Hugo was born in Besançon, a provincial capital in eastern France bordering Swiss Confederation. His father was a general under Napoleon. In his childhood, Hugo followed his father to the garrison in Spain. He returned to Paris for schooling at the age of 10 and entered law school after graduating from high school, but his interest lay in writing. At the age of 15, he won an award in a poetry competition held by the French Academy. At 17, he won first prize in the "Hundred Flowers Poetry Competition". At 20, he published a collection of poems, Odes et Ballades, which, for its praise of the House of Bourbon Restoration, earned him a reward from Louis-Stanislas-Xavier. He subsequently wrote a large number of poems with exotic themes. Later, disillusioned with both the Bourbon and July monarchies, he became a republican. He also wrote many poetic dramas and plays, as well as several novels with distinctive features that implemented his ideas.

In 1841, Hugo was elected a member of the French Academy. In 1845, he became a peer of France. After the February Revolution of 1848, he served as a representative in the Constituent Assembly. In 1851, when Napoleon III proclaimed himself emperor, Hugo rose in opposition and was forced into exile. During his exile, he wrote a collection of political satirical poems, Les Châtiments, each chapter paired with and satirizing a clause from Napoleon III's political program, contrasting the achievements of Napoleon I with the disgrace of Napoleon III.

In 1870, after the bloodless revolution in France overthrew Napoleon III, Hugo returned to Paris. Hugo was a prolific author throughout his life, covering all fields of literature. Critics believe his creative thinking was the closest to modern thought. Upon his death, France mourned nationally, and he was interred in the Panthéon, which gathers memorial plaques for famous French figures. A romantic episode of Hugo's life fondly recounted by the French is: at the age of 30, he met the 26-year-old actress Juliette Drouet and fell in love. Thereafter, whether together or apart, Hugo wrote her a love letter every single day until his death at 75, a practice he maintained for nearly 50 years without interruption, writing nearly twenty thousand letters.

The dominant idea that ran through Hugo's life activities and creations was humanitarianism —opposition to violence and using love to conquer "evil". Hugo lived through almost all the major events in 19th-century France. He wrote numerous volumes of poetry, novels, plays, various essays, literary criticisms, and political articles during his lifetime, making him an influential figure in France.

Victor Hugo's creative career spanned over 60 years. His works include 26 volumes of poetry, 20 volumes of novels, 12 volumes of plays, and 21 volumes of philosophical treatises, totaling 79 volumes. This constitutes a magnificent Cultural Heritage added to French literature and the treasure trove of human culture.

His representative works include: the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame , Les Misérables , The Toilers of the Sea, The Man Who Laughs, and quatre-vingt-treize ; the poetry collections Les Contemplations and Lettre au capitaine Butler; and the short story The Wreck of the Normandy, among others.

1827: Cromwell (play)

1829: Les Orientales (poetry)

1830: Hernani (play)

1831: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (novel)

1838: Ruy Blas (play)

1853: Les Châtiments (poetry)

1856: Les Contemplations (poetry)

1862: Les Misérables (novel)

1869: The Man Who Laughs (novel)

1859-1883: The Legend of the Centuries (la Legende des siecles) (poetry)

1874: quatre-vingt-treize (Quatre-Vingt-Treize) (novel), etc.

Writing Background

France : Captain Butler intended to exploit Victor Hugo's prestige to have him celebrate the so-called "victory" of the Anglo-French expedition against China. This letter was written on November 25, 1861, during the French Second Empire under the reign of Louis Bonaparte. In June 1848, the people of Paris launched a revolution, overthrowing the July Monarchy and establishing a republic. Initially, Hugo did not understand the revolution, but when the big bourgeoisie conspired to eliminate the Republic, Hugo became a staunch republican. In December 1851, Louis Bonaparte staged a coup d'état, and Hugo participated in the anti-coup uprising organized by the Republicans. After Louis Bonaparte came to power, he established the French Second Empire. He implemented a policy of terror, ruthlessly suppressing resisters. Hugo was also persecuted and forced into exile. Instead of celebrating the expedition, Hugo strongly condemned the banditry of the Anglo-French forces burning down the Old Summer Palace, and pointed out that "the crimes of those who govern are not the fault of the governed; governments can sometimes be bandits, but the people never are."

China: The Second Opium War was a war of aggression against China jointly launched by Britain and France from 1856 to 1860. In the sixth year of the Xianfeng reign of the Qing dynasty (1856), Britain used the Arrow Incident as a pretext to attack Guangzhou, provoking the war. The following year, Britain and France formed a joint force and captured Guangzhou in December. In May 1858, the Anglo-French fleet, with the support of Russia and the United States, captured the Taku Forts and approached Tianjin. The Qing government sent Gui Liang and Hua Shana as imperial commissioners to Tianjin for negotiations. In June, they signed the Treaty of Tianjin with representatives from Russia, the United States, Britain, and France respectively. In November, they also signed the Sino-British, Sino-French, and Sino-American trade regulations in Shanghai. Taking advantage of the situation, Tsarist Russia used force in May to compel the signing of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Aigun, ceding a large tract of Chinese territory north of the Heilongjiang River and south of the Stanovoy Range. In 1859, Britain, France, and the United States, using the excuse of treaty ratification, sent warships north again and suddenly attacked the Taku Forts in June. Qing forces fought bravely, inflicting heavy losses on the Anglo-French fleet. In 1860, Britain and France formed another joint force to expand the war. In August, 25,000 Anglo-French troops landed at Beitang, captured Taku, occupied Tianjin, and after defeating Qing forces at Bali Bridge in Tongzhou (now part of Beijing City) in September, directly attacked Beijing. Emperor Xianfeng fled to Rehe, leaving Prince Gong Yixin behind to sue for peace. In October, the Anglo-French forces controlled Beijing and looted and burned the Old Summer Palace. Subsequently, Yixin separately signed the Sino-British and Sino-French Conventions of Peking and ratified the Sino-British and Sino-French Treaties of Tianjin with British and French representatives. Tsarist Russia again forced the Qing government to sign the Sino-Russian Convention of Peking , ceding more than 1.5 million Square Kilometers of Chinese territory in the northeast and northwest. The brutal aggression of Imperialism and the compromise and surrender of the Qing feudal rulers led to China losing a significant amount of territory and sovereignty once again following the Opium War.

Introduction

"Letter to Captain Butler" (also known as "Lettre au capitaine Butler") is included in Volume 11 of the Collected Works of Victor Hugo and translated by Cheng Zenghou. It has been selected for inclusion in middle school textbooks such as the People's Education Press edition and the Unified Edition Chinese Textbook Grade 9, Volume 1. The letter condemns the atrocities committed by the Anglo-French forces in burning down the Yuanmingyuan , written in response to Captain Butler.

Original Text of the Work

Introduction to China

On February 26, 1984, Mr. Cheng Zenghou published his Chinese translation of Victor Hugo's "Letter to Captain Butler" in the People's Daily.

Original French Text

Vous me demandez mon avis, monsieur, sur l'expédition de Chine. Vous trouvez cette expédition honorable et belle, et vous êtes assez bon pour attacher quelque prix à mon sentiment ; selon vous, l'expédition de Chine, faite sous le double pavillon de la reine Victoria et de l'empereur Napoléon,est une gloire à partager entre la France et l'Angleterre, et vous désirez savoir quelle est la quantité d'approbation que je crois pouvoir donner à cette victoire anglaise et française.

Puisque vous voulez connaître mon avis, le voici :

In a corner of the world, there existed a World Wonder: this marvel 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. Everything that the imagination of an almost extra-human people could conceive was there. It was not, like the Parthenon, a single and unique masterpiece; it was a kind of enormous model of the chimera, if a chimera can have a model. Imagine some indescribable construction, something like a lunar edifice, 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, there a citadel, put gods in it, put monsters in it, varnish it, enamel it, gild it, paint it, have architects who are poets construct the thousand and one dreams of the Thousand and One Nights, add gardens, basins, jets of water and foam, swans, ibises, peacocks, suppose, in a word, a kind of dazzling cavern of human fantasy with the form of a temple and a palace, such was this monument. It had taken the slow work of generations to create it. This edifice, as enormous as a city, had been built by the centuries, for whom? For the peoples. For what time creates belongs to man. Artists, poets, philosophers, knew the Summer Palace; Voltaire speaks of it. It was said: the Parthenon in Greece, the pyramids in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, Notre-Dame in Paris, the Summer Palace in the Orient. If one did not see it, one dreamed of it. It was a kind of terrifying unknown masterpiece glimpsed from afar in some twilight, like a silhouette of the civilization of Asia on the horizon of the civilization of Europe.

This marvel has vanished. One day, two bandits entered the Old Summer Palace. One pillaged, the other set fire. Victory, it seems, can be a thief. A grand devastation of the Old Summer Palace was carried out jointly between the two victors. Mixed up in all this is the name of Elgin, which has the fatal property of recalling the Parthenon. What had been done to the Parthenon was done to the Old Summer Palace, more completely and thoroughly, so that nothing remained. All the treasures of all our cathedrals combined would not equal this formidable and splendid museum of the Orient. There were not only masterpieces of art, there were heaps of gold and silverware. A great exploit, a fine haul. One of the two victors filled his pockets; seeing this, the other filled his coffers. And they returned to Europe, arm in arm, laughing. Such is the story of the two bandits.

We Europeans are the civilized ones, and to 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 occasion! 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 displays, with a kind of proprietor's naivety, the splendid bric-a-brac from the Old Summer Palace. I hope the day will come when France, delivered and cleansed, will return this loot to despoiled China.

In the meantime, there is a theft and two thieves. I note this fact.

Such, Sir, is the measure of approbation I grant to the expedition to China.

Victor Hugo, letter to Captain Butler

Hauteville House, November 25, 1861

Translation

Sir, you ask my opinion on the expedition to China. You consider it honorable and brilliant. Thank you for valuing my thoughts. In your view, the expedition to China under the dual banners of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon is a glory shared by France and England, and you wish to know how much praise I would accord to this victory of England and France.

Since you wish to know my view, then please read on:

In a corner of the world, there existed a World Wonder. This wonder was called the Old Summer Palace. Art has two sources: one is Idealism, which gives birth to European art; the other is Fantasy, which gives birth to Oriental art. The Old Summer Palace holds a position in the art of fantasy akin to that of the Parthenon in the art of idealism. It represents the utmost achievement that the imagination of an almost superhuman race could produce. Unlike the Parthenon, it is not a singular, unique masterpiece; it is a colossal exemplar of fantasy, if fantasy can indeed have an exemplar. Picture a structure beyond words, a structure akin to the Moon Palace—this was the Old Summer Palace. Imagine constructing a dream using marble, jade, bronze, and porcelain; using cedar for its framework, adorning it from top to bottom with Gem, draping it in silks and satins; building temples here, palaces there, erecting towers, placing within them statues of deities and mythical beasts, decorating with colored glaze, enamel, and gold, applying cosmetics; let the architect, who is also a poet, build the thousand and one dreams of the Arabian Nights, then add upon gardens, ponds, fountains, and flocks of Swan, ibises, and Peafowl. In short, envision a dazzling grotto of human fantasy, whose exterior is that of a temple, a palace—this was that famous garden. To create the Old Summer Palace, the prolonged labor of two generations was expended. This edifice, vast as a city, was the crystallization of work across generations. For whom was it built? For the peoples of all nations. For everything created by time belongs to humanity. Artists, poets, and philosophers of the past knew of the Old Summer Palace; Voltaire himself spoke of it. It is often said: The Hellenic Republic has the Parthenon, The Arab Republic of Egypt has the pyramid, Rome has the Colosseum, Paris has Notre-Dame, and the Orient had the Old Summer Palace. If one had not seen it, one had dreamt of it. It was a kind of astounding, nameless masterpiece, glimpsed indistinctly in an ineffable dawn, like a silhouette of Asia civilization perceived on the horizon of European civilization.

This wonder has vanished.

One day, two bandits from Europe broke into the Old Summer Palace. One bandit looted the treasures, the other set fire to it. It seems that after victory, one can indulge in theft. They carried out a massive plunder of the Old Summer Palace, and the spoils were divided equally between the two victors. We see that this whole affair is also connected with the name of Lord Elgin, a name that inevitably brings to mind the Parthenon. What they once did to the Parthenon, they have now done to the Old Summer Palace, only more thoroughly and splendidly, leaving nothing behind. If we were to gather all the treasures from all the great cathedrals of Europe, they might still not equal the splendor of this magnificent museum of the Orient. There were not only works of art, but also vast quantities of gold and silver. A glorious feat! A bountiful haul! One of the two victors filled his pockets—this was visible—the other filled his coffers. Arm in arm, laughing, they returned to Europe. Such is the story of these two bandits.

We Europeans are the civilized ones; the Chinese are, in our eyes, the barbarians. This is what civilization has done to barbarism.

These two bandits, who will be condemned by history, one is called France, the other England. However, I must protest, and I thank you for giving me this opportunity to do so. The crimes of those who govern are not the fault of the governed; governments can sometimes be bandits, but the people never are.

France has swallowed half the spoils of this victory, and the Empire, with naive innocence, actually believes itself to be the true owner, putting the magnificent ruins of the Old Summer Palace on display. I hope that one day, a liberated and cleansed France will return this loot to plundered China, who is the true owner.

I attest that a theft was committed, and that there were two thieves.

Sir, this concludes all the praise I have for the expedition to China.

Victor Hugo

Hauteville House, 25 November 1861

Content Analysis

The letter employs a contrastive technique, exposing the nature of the aggression by depicting the artistic value of the Yuanmingyuan and the destructive actions of the allied forces. Victor Hugo described the Old Summer Palace in the letter as an "indescribable architecture" and a structure "as if from the Palace of the Moon," which was "utterly obliterated" after the looting by the allied forces. The letter also uses irony to vividly portray the ugliness of the robbers, for instance, referring to the expedition as "honorable, excellent" and the plunder as "a great achievement" and "a huge harvest."

Victor Hugo referred to the Yuanmingyuan as a "World Wonder" and an "Oriental Museum." He considered it a "model of fantasy" and an "indescribable architecture." The position of the Old Summer Palace in the art of fantasy is akin to that of the Parthenon in the art of the ideal.

Victor Hugo strongly condemned the banditry of the British and French forces in burning down the Yuanmingyuan, stating that "the two robbers who will be condemned by history are one called France and the other called England ." He clearly distinguished between the crimes of the government and the responsibility of the people, believing that "the crimes of those who govern are not the fault of the governed; governments can sometimes be robbers, but the people never will be." Hugo advocated for the return of the looted Chinese cultural relics, hoping that "a liberated and cleansed France would return this trophy to plundered China."

Victor Hugo transcended narrow nationalist sentiments, standing from the perspective of humanity and the world. He put forward the view that "everything created by time belongs to humanity," regarding the Yuanmingyuan as a shared civilizational heritage of all mankind.

Article Verification

The authoritative French "Chronological Edition of Hugo's Complete Works" informs us that Victor Hugo wrote two works in 1861: "Les Misérables" and the "Letter to Captain Butler". The manuscript has no salutation, no date, no location; it is a piece of "text to be inserted". Finally, we were surprised to discover: On January 21, 1862, Hugo said in a letter to a friend: "I live in solitude, especially for the past two months, work—a pressing work—has demanded my full attention, leaving me no time for anything else, completely unaware of what is happening in the outside world." The "pressing work" was undoubtedly "Les Misérables". And since he was "completely unaware of what is happening in the outside world", therefore, the astonishing fact is laid before us: the letter's date of "November 25, 1861" might be fictitious.

Professor Cheng Zenghou said that although he had acquainted himself with many first-class French Hugo scholars, not a single one knew who the "Letter to Captain Butler" was addressed to. He stated, "Two editions of Hugo's Complete Works published in France to date show no trace of Captain Butler. Among them, the chronological edition of 'Hugo's Complete Works' edited by Jean Massin includes a considerable selection of letters, yet there is no letter from Captain Butler to Hugo before November 25, 1861. The Massin edition includes a valuable historical document: the 'Guernsey Notebook', a running account recorded by Hugo during his exile, which recorded everything that happened. I carefully examined Hugo's notebook entries before November 25, 1861, and found no trace of Captain Butler. I inquired with several contemporary first-class French Hugo scholars, but none provided a detailed answer. Could Captain Butler be a fabrication?"

"Skipping the letter's date of November 25, 1861, I continued to examine the 'Guernsey Notebook' year by year, month by month, day by day. On October 15, 1866, nearly five full years after the 'Letter to Captain Butler' was written, 'a Lieutenant Butler suddenly appeared, to my great surprise and delight. Lieutenant Butler was stationed in Guernsey for a very short time and spent only three months with Hugo, hardly enough to form a deep friendship.'" Later, Professor Cheng went to Guernsey and ascertained: The "Lieutenant Butler" who entered Hugo's life at the end of 1866 was named William Butler, born in Ireland, enlisted at age 20, and served in the British 69th Regiment. He came to Guernsey at age 28 with the rank of Lieutenant. William Butler was promoted to Captain in Canada in 1872 at age 34. This man repeatedly distinguished himself in military service, enjoyed writing, and retired with the rank of General in 1905.

Professor Cheng said, "We have reason to believe that the recipient of the 'Letter to Captain Butler,' Captain Butler, is a fabrication. In 1875, he began editing the second volume of 'Actes et Paroles,' titled 'During Exile.' This was an opportunity, a pivotal moment. It is highly likely that on October 27, 1875, Victor Hugo quietly wrote the 'Letter to Captain Butler.' Hugo's 'Letter to Captain Butler' is only two pages long, but no Chinese person has had the opportunity to see the original. Cheng Zenghou told the reporter, 'I inquired very early with the curator and librarians of the Victor Hugo Museum whether the museum's collection included the manuscript of the "Letter to Captain Butler." Their answer was: No. I placed my hopes on the research work of Mr. and Mrs. Godon. This couple are the world's most knowledgeable and reliable experts on Hugo's correspondence.'"

"On November 25, 1861, Victor Hugo wrote the 'Letter to Captain Butler.' The question of whether the manuscript of this letter still exists in the world 138 years after it was written, and where it might be stored, was a matter that weighed on my mind. In June 2000, I went to Paris again. At 8:30 p.m. on June 14, I called Mr. Godon and explicitly asked for guidance on the whereabouts of the manuscript of Hugo's 'Letter to Captain Butler.' The original letter should have been sent to Captain Butler himself. However, there should have been a copy made by Hugo himself. Hugo's copy is stored in the Manuscript Department of the National Library of France. Mr. Godon clearly articulated the call number for consulting the copy in the old library. The pen in my hand began to tremble," Cheng Zenghou said excitedly. "The librarian brought out a large volume of Hugo's manuscripts. I gently turned to page 128. From the time I first saw a published version of this letter in 1962, I had waited 38 years. I finally saw Hugo's original handwritten copy." Cheng Zenghou recalled, "I paid a total of about 210 francs for the two-page photocopy. The cost of reproduction exceeded my estimate. But these two pages of manuscript are two pages of great significance to the Chinese people and Chinese history."

Original Document

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Dissemination and Impact

The dissemination of this letter in Chinese mainland began in 1984. The translation by Cheng Zenghou was first published in the People's Daily on February 26, 1984.

The letter has been selected for inclusion in middle school Chinese language textbooks in Chinese mainland, including the People's Education Press edition for the first semester of ninth grade published in 2009, and the state-compiled edition for the first semester of ninth grade used in the 2025-2026 academic year.

In the letter, Victor Hugo put forward views such as "all that is created by time belongs to humanity," condemned aggression, defended human civilization, and demonstrated a stance that transcends nationalism.