Beijing is the birthplace of Mr. Lao She, and his youth and old age have left many footprints in Beijing. Especially after 1949, Lao She returned to Beijing as a famous writer and cultural celebrity, leaving behind a batch of precious ink treasure inscriptions. Lao She is a prolific writer of works, and compared with the vast creation of eight or nine million words, he has inscribed only a few plaques in Beijing. Some people say that he only inscribed plaques for the imitation restaurant in Beihai Park before his death, but as far as the author knows, there are currently three plaques in Lao She in Beijing.
Fangshan Restaurant Loves minced meat with roasted cake pea yellow
Let's start with the imitation restaurant in Beihai Park. When Emperor Puyi was forced out of the palace, Zhao Renzhai and Sun Shaoran, who had been working as errands in the imperial dining room, and seven or eight other chefs joined forces to open a tea house next to the Beihai Park's north shore, named "imitation of food", which means to cook dishes imitating the production method of the imperial dining room. There are also historical sources that originally named it "Fangshan zhai". The main varieties of the business are Qing Palace pastries and snacks and court-style dishes, which are quite popular for a while and are famous in Beijing. In 1959, the restaurant was moved from the north shore of the North Sea to the Yilan Hall on the north side of Qionghua Island. This location is perfectly located, backed by mountains and facing water, and was historically the study of the Qianlong Emperor. People who visit Qiong Island walk along the north promenade and always pass by here. At that time, the person in charge of Beihai Park invited Mr. Lao She to write a plaque for the imitation restaurant, and Lao She gladly ordered the pen and wrote the word "imitation meal" vertically in italics. The inscription later appeared on the left and right wooden partitions of the door frame of the yilan hall.
Lao She fell in love with Beihai for ten minutes and wrote it into many of his novels. Now his own ink treasure left in the scenic spots of Beihai Park to become a new scenery, naturally it is a fortunate thing, so he came to eat every three to five. Sometimes the waiter did not know him, Lao She pointed to the door and said humorously, I am the Lao She who gave you the inscription, and then found a quiet corner to order a few signature dishes to eat. In addition to enjoying it herself, Lao She often brings friends and family to eat like meals. His favorite dishes are minced pork biscuits and pea yellow, which are often packed and taken home. Lao She, who has traveled overseas for many years, is most proud of this purest taste of hometown.
Pre-2016 imitation plaque
During the "Cultural Revolution", Lao She was persecuted, Beihai Park closed its doors to customers, and the imitation of food was suspended. Soon, the inscription on the gate of the imitation meal was also dug up and made up with wooden blocks. It was not until the end of the 1970s that the inscription of the famous Lao She was restored. However, at this time, the two words of Lao She were obviously much smaller than that of Fangshan, which looked very disproportionate. This is because the name of the supplement is no longer the original, and it is not easy for the Lao She family to check out a signature of a comparable size to replace it. In the blink of an eye in 2016, the Yilantang scenic spot was restored, and it was planned to reproduce the historical style of the Qianlong period, and the Fangshan Restaurant moved back to the original site on the north shore of the North Sea, as if it had returned to the starting point after a round of reincarnation.
Today's imitation meal
The imitation plaque on the door of the new store was changed to a horizontal body, and the overall scale was miniaturized, so that the name of Lao She looked complementary to the word imitation, and it was natural, and there was no trace of axe chiseling. Today's imitation restaurant, although it does not have the façade of Yilantang, it is better than the exquisite and smart show. According to Mr. Shu Yi, the son of Lao She, after the fangshan was moved to YilanTang in the 1950s, the original Yilantang canteen was moved to the old site of fangshan on the north bank and changed to a public canteen. However, the information on this plaque is not mentioned in other documents, so it has to be left alone for the time being.
Wansheng Theater is associated with the new Fengxia
Another plaque in Lao She in Beijing is at the Wansheng Theater in Tianqiao.
The Tianqiao area was once a famous cultural and commercial landmark in the southern city of Beijing, where grassroots gatherings gathered, five elements and eight works gathered, and the performance venues were extremely prosperous, and the largest number was the opera garden. In the past, people had limited entertainment activities, and watching a play was a popular activity, so one of the pleasures of visiting the flyover was watching a play. According to statistics, in the mid-1930s, there were 28 opera gardens in Tianqiao at the most, performing Peking Opera, Commentary, Hebei Zizi, Haha Cavity and Quyi Juggling. There are four or five of the more famous of these gardens, and Wanshengxuan is one of them.
Wanshengxuan was founded in 1931, built by Yuying Mountain on the basis of a small tea shed, the conditions were simple at the beginning, but it was in a superior geographical position, and Yuying Mountain was well-managed, making Wanshengxuan's small garden stand out. Especially later, with Hua Shulan, Cao Furong, Yang Xingxing, Xin Fengxia and Zhao Lirong, these critics perform here, and the business is becoming more and more prosperous. Xin Fengxia's "Liu Qiao'er" was premiered here, and it was quite a sensation around 1949.
Liu Qiao'er stills
Lao She once went to the Tianqiao Wanshengxuan to see the play of Xin Fengxia. During the intermission, he came to the backstage to meet with the actors, and Lao She and Xin Fengxia saw each other as before, talking like old friends who had not met for a long time. When she learned that Xin Fengxia was illiterate, Lao She sternly warned her that she must read and read, and personally bought a pen and a book to give to Xin Fengxia to encourage her to learn cultural knowledge. One after the other, the two formed a year-old friendship without talking. Lao She became a fan of Xin Fengxia, as soon as he had time, he pulled Zhao Shuli and others to Wanshengxuan to give Xin Fengxia a show, and when Xin Fengxia encountered problems in life and work, she frequently asked Lao She for advice.
Once on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, Lao She went to Wanshengxuan backstage to send sugar melons to the actors, and he told everyone that today was his birthday, so that everyone could come to be happy. Xin Fengxia sadly told Lao She that she was born cold, did not remember her birthday, and almost never had a birthday. Lao She suggested that the day was her birthday, and the two of them had the same birthday on the same day, wouldn't it be wonderful! As a result, Xin Fengxia, like Lao She, has become Xiao Nian's birthday.
It is precisely because of this rare fate that Lao She has maintained a long-term friendly relationship with Wanshengxuan Theater. In 1964, Wanshengxuan was upgraded and renamed "Wansheng Theater", and in the spring of 1965, Lao She personally inscribed a four-character plaque of "Wansheng Theater". Today's Wansheng Theater is a blue-gray three-story modern building, which is no longer the same as the original small seating shed. In 2004, Wansheng Theater was opened as the Tianqiao Acrobatic Theater and became a professional acrobatic performance theater of the Beijing Acrobatic Troupe, but Mr. Lao She's inscription is still well preserved on the gate.
Now the Mansai Theater
Taoranting Park Write "Tea House" title Tea House
The third inscription of Lao She in Beijing is in Taoranting Park. If you order by time, this inscription appears first. There was originally a Dragon Tree Temple in the northwest of Taoranting, which did not belong to Taoranting Park at first. Nagarjuna Temple is a popular spot overlooking the Western Mountains in the past, and is not as famous as mercy temple. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan and other people from the Xuannan Poetry Society often came here to feast and sing. In the late Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zhidong was particularly fond of Nagarjuna Temple, and not only frequented this place from time to time, but later directly used the main hall of the temple as a place of recuperation, often enjoying the scenery and poetry. In his poem "Nagarjuna Temple", there is a sentence that "this place has come more than a hundred times". When Zhang Zhidong was the governor of the two lakes, his staff raised funds to build an ice hall in Wuchang Snake Mountain. "Holding ice" is Zhang Zhidong's nickname, taken from the meaning of "holding ice and holding fire, holding the heart of Kuang Wei and helping the upside down, hoping to save the sunset of Yu Yuan". After Zhang returned to Beijing, his disciples also built an ice-hugging hall at Longshu Temple. Soon after Zhang Zhidong died, the Baobing Hall was changed to an ancestral hall, and Xu Shichang personally inscribed the three-character plaque of "BaobingTang". At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, this place gradually became a residential house, and the door number was No. 8 Courtyard of Longjiao Huai Hutong. In 1956, Taoranting Park took over the yard, vacated it for renovation, and incorporated it into the park area. In 1957, the renovation project was completed, and the park management office moved into the courtyard and used the front hall of the Ice Hall as a public teahouse. In June and July of that year, Lao She inscribed a plaque for it "BaoBingtang Rap Tea House".
Hold the Ice Hall
After the renovation, the Baobing Hall built a brick staircase on the west side of the high platform, and there was a simple wooden archway at the entrance of the steps, and the inscription of Lao She was on this wooden archway. It is worth noting that the inscription on this plaque, Lao She, is written from right to left according to the old customs, which seems to be intended to fit the old mood of the Ice Hall.
The time when Lao She wrote the inscription for the Baobingtang happened to be the time when he published his famous work "Tea House" on "Harvest", and the inscription plaque also happened to be a tea house in Beijing, and it had to be said that the creation was wonderful.
Lao She's article "Thinking of Beiping" written in the 1930s once expressed a small regret at that time: "In terms of famous places, I have not been to Taoran Pavilion. "Now, by taking the opportunity of the inscription of the Ice Hall, Lao She and Tao Ranting finally have the opportunity to have close contact, which is a regrettable thing. Unfortunately, the plaque of the Baobingtang Rap Tea House could not be preserved due to the many changes in the original building function, and the author specifically asked the comrades of the park management office for this purpose, and replied that he was missing. This is also the reason why the Lao She plaque here is not known to most people. Fortunately, the park has a precious historical photo.
Old photo of the ice hall rap teahouse
In the history of this group of buildings, due to the lack of rational planning, the ancient charm of several reconstructions has been lost. In 1980, Mrs. Hu Huqing, mrs. Lao She, attended the Taoranting Gengshen Dragon Boat Poetry Festival and left a poem: "This year's Duanyang Festival, Pu Ai plugged in the door." Contribute to the four modernizations and share the Taiping Spring. "The special relief bucket turns to the stars, and the sense of vicissitudes that changes with each passing day."
The above three inscriptions are no different from Beijing's restaurants, theaters and teahouses, and behind each plaque there is a story, which cleverly outlines Lao She's personal temperament and interest preferences, and the story of Lao She and Beijing seems to be inexhaustible.