Beijing is the capital of guild halls. From the thirteenth year of Ming Yongle (1415) to December 1949, a total of 647 guild halls were built in Beijing. However, the changing times have made the guild hall experience different opportunities. Some hung up the "Wen Bao" sign, some became a large miscellaneous courtyard, and some only heard its name, and the old site has long been nowhere to be found.
In the second half of 2021, the Beijing Municipal Leading Group for Promoting the Construction of National Cultural Centers studied and formulated the "Work Plan on Promoting the Performances of Literary and Art Academies into the Former Site of the Guild Hall", focusing on strengthening the construction of the national cultural center and focusing on creating a new space for performing arts in the guild hall. Under the deployment of the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, the series of activities of "there is drama in the guild hall" have successively appeared, and 8 guild halls such as Huguang Guild Hall and Linfen Guild Hall have been tried first.
Beijing has activated the resources of the Centennial Guild Hall with culture.
Dongcheng/Linfen Hall
The courtyard regains its new life The two courtyards show the ancient style
The guild hall is a witness and participant in the historical changes in Beijing over the centuries, and is also an important part of Beijing's historical and cultural heritage.
At the intersection of the three lines of the Qianmen Grass Factory and the West Grinding Factory Street, a quaint gray building is the Linfen Guild Hall. In 2017, the 400-year-old Linfen Guild Hall, which had been reduced to a large courtyard, was revived. After the evacuation of more than 30 households, Dongcheng District repaired and protected them and built the "Beijing Guild Hall Cultural Exhibition Hall".
Linfen Guild Hall was founded in the Ming Dynasty, more than 400 years ago, jointly built by the five elements of Shanxi Linfen merchants, the whole courtyard is a three-into-four courtyard, Shanxi residential characteristics. In 2015, Dongcheng adhered to the raw materials, original technology, original structure and original layout, and repaired the Linfen Guild Hall.
Now when you walk into the museum, you can see many historical relics. Daniel Zhang, director of the Beijing Guild Hall Cultural Exhibition Hall, introduced that on the lintel of the first courtyard is the wooden plaque of "Purple Qi Coming East" in the 26th year of the Republic of China. On the roof of the nave of the second courtyard, the blackened beams and beams are also the original components, and the "Golden Dragon and Seal" painting and the golden and blue double dragon play bead pattern on it are still faintly visible. The nave also has a group of treasures of the town hall, which are four stone tablets left on the east and west gables during the Qianlong and Guangxu years, and the text on them tells the story of the struggle between the tooth shop and the chamber of commerce in that year.
Xicheng/Zhengyi Temple Theater Building
The reverse growth of the "living fossils" of the theater building
At the head of No. 220 along the Qianmen West River in Xicheng District, not far from the Linfen Guild Hall, several painters were coloring the opera characters on the wall. Tick the "tofu block" on the face of the clown, draw a picture of the old man's white hair, a few simple strokes, it will add a little agility to the character. This is the former site of the "Silver Horn Hall", in contrast, its other name is even louder, Zheng Yi Ancestral Hall Theater Building.
In this small courtyard facing north and south, there is a two-story theater building hidden. Originally built in the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, it is the first indoor theater in Chinese history, known as the "Living Fossil of Chinese Opera Building", and has a unique cultural status that cannot be copied.
As an old opera building with a long history, the Kunqu opera of the ancestor of a hundred operas has been performed here, and it has also witnessed the rise and development of Peking Opera, many Kunqu opera and Peking Opera masters have performed here, and when the fate is not good, it has also been reduced to warehouses, barracks, coal shops, and guest houses, until the 1990s when the original appearance of the opera building was restored.
On December 31, 2018, after the last performance, the Zhengyi Temple closed its doors. After in-depth research, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism decided to hand over the Zhengyi Temple Theater building to the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater for repair, operation and use.
The Northern Kunqu Opera Theater attaches great importance to the work of the Zhengyi Temple Theater Building. Coordinate and promote the reinforcement and re-installation of the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall for many times. Organize many forces to discuss and explore how to make good use of and revitalize this "hall-level" cultural "living fossil"; how to continuously meet the people's needs for spiritual culture with high-quality cultural content, and undertake the historical and cultural mission of the capital in the new era.
The renovation was launched last year, and in accordance with the requirements of the ancient building to maintain the original appearance, the color painting was repainted and repainted. In the small courtyard, the green bricks and gray tiles are simple and quiet, and the red columns between the verandas are more festive after being whitewashed. In the middle of some columns, there are "hoops" set, which turns out to be the pier connection technology commonly used in the restoration of ancient buildings. That is, cut off the decaying part, connect with new wood, and ensure the function of its components.
On the west side of the courtyard, a stone stele more than three meters high was covered with a glass cover. According to the relevant person in charge of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater Hospital Management Center responsible for the reinforcement and decoration work, in order to let the audience more intuitively understand this century-old theater building, this stele is engraved with the process of building the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall, which is the "identity card" of this century-old theater building. Through the glass cover, the words "Six Years of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty" are clearly visible, but at the bottom and back of the stele, some of the text has been blurred.
Not only that, but the renovation also restored the function of decorating the walls in the veranda. Originally, the courtyard of the former guild hall would be left with white decorative walls, and the painter painted auspicious patterns on it, highlighting the status of the guild hall. Now, decorative paintings such as "Persimmon Ruyi", "Blossoming Rich", and "Matsuzuru Yannian" have also been repainted. Walking through the courtyard into the theater building, the sound of a hundred years is just like yesterday.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre, in order to let the audience more intuitively understand this century-old theater building, during the repair process, LED cold light sources were installed in the theater stage, columns, steps, boxes, etc., and the outline of the theater building was outlined with light light.
"These light sources are perceptible, and if there is a viewer ready to go upstairs, the steps will light up."
Guild Hall/New Students
"There is a play in the guild hall" reproduces "watching the country drama"
The renovation and upgrading provide a guarantee for the "new life" of the guild hall. Since October 2021, the Huguang Guild Hall, Anhui Guild Hall, Pigment Hall, Linfen Guild Hall, Taiwan Guild Hall, etc. located in the core area have successively staged wonderful performances of "There is drama in the guild hall". This is an innovative attempt to revitalize and utilize contemporary guild halls, and it is also a reproduction of the vivid scene of "townspeople gathering to watch rural dramas" in the guild hall a hundred years ago.
In the old days, the beijing guild hall had a role similar to that of the current "offices in Beijing" in various provinces and cities, but there was an essential difference between the two: the guild hall was built by the private sector spontaneously, while the office was an official organization. Therefore, at that time, the fellow villagers who went to Beijing spoke their hometown dialect, ate hometown meals, listened to hometown dramas, and staged vivid scenes of villagers gathering, chanting and drinking, and sacrificial performances in the guild hall.
In the renovation of the paint hall, the original appearance of the stage was reproduced, and the scene of "the guild hall has a play" was staged, and the scene of Shanxi pigment and tung oil merchants gathering to listen to the play more than 400 years ago returned. "Shanxi is a major province of national music in the mainland, and many famous passages that audiences are familiar with have an indissoluble relationship with Shanxi, and a hundred years ago, on the stage of the Paint Hall, it used to be an orchestral silk bamboo sound." The relevant person in charge of Beijing Performing Arts Group was introduced.
Since last year, "There is drama in the guild hall" has maintained a weekly performance frequency at the paint hall, mainly folk music, through cross-talk, drum music, acrobatics and other art forms, so that tourists and audiences can feel the taste of Shanxi, but also can appreciate the charm of Beijing.
At the beginning of this year, the Paint Hall also attracted Ouyang Qiming, president of the Beijing Kunqu Study Society, to lead opera lovers to rehearse here, "People who love opera naturally like it when they see the theater building and the opera stage, and the hall is located in the Qianmen area with a strong taste of old Beijing, with green bricks and gray tiles, small bridges and flowing water, which is very poetic." ”
The Zhengyi Ancestral Hall theater building is about to reopen, and at that time, the gentle Kunqu opera singing voice will linger between the ancient carved beams. In this opening season, four major plays with historical origins were selected to be staged on stage, namely the resident drama "Blessing of heavenly officials", the drama building version of "Peony Pavilion", the review of its reproduction of "Wall Head Horse" and "Pity Xiang Companion". Among them, the resident play "Blessing of Heavenly Officials" produced by the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre will debut as the opening celebration play.
Similarly, the fuzhou new museum, which is Lin Zexu's residence in Beijing, will also launch the opera "Lin Zexu in Beijing" in this year's "There is a play in the guild hall". The innovation of the "Kaikan Edition" is that the museum is used as the core scene of the story unfolding, using the transformation of the existing architectural space for immersive performances. The whole drama takes Lin Zexu's servant Lin Yi as the character that runs through the plot, guiding the audience to move to three different scenes outside the guild hall, the parlor to the inner house, and complete the plot transition by changing the scenery step by step. The audience and the actors are in a relatively closed space, completely unable to feel the existence of distance, as if they are thinking, acting, and making choices together with the people in the play.
June 3, 2019 marks the 180th anniversary of the sale of cigarettes in Humen. It was also in this year that the Fujian New Museum ushered in the opportunity to debut with a new look. In 2019, Beijing Municipality listed the Fuzhou New Museum as the Lin Zexu Anti-Drug Education Base, and the listing unit was the Beijing Municipal Anti-Narcotics Commission, which was 203 years after the establishment of the fuzhou New Museum.
Not long ago, the fuzhou new museum has just been upgraded to a national anti-drug publicity and education base, and the performance of "Lin Zexu in Beijing" in this space is opportune. Its anti-drug content and immersive performance form are skillfully combined, so that the charm of Beijing opera and the space of Fuzhou New Pavilion complement each other and complement each other.
Guild Hall/Change
The establishment of the guild hall is related to entering Beijing to catch the examination
The guild hall, which brings together people from all directions, gathers hundreds of skills, and integrates hometown friendship, originated in Beijing in the early Ming Dynasty, and then gradually spread throughout the country. "The establishment of the guild hall was initially closely related to entering Beijing to catch the examination." Peng Zemin, a researcher of folk literature and history, was particularly fond of the guild hall. "During the Ming Yongle period, the imperial court moved from Nanjing to Beijing, and after the students who entered Beijing to take the examination arrived in the capital, food, clothing, shelter and transportation became a major problem. As a result, the local squires or local Beijing officials paid for righteousness, landed and built houses, and provided free housing for students of their own nationality to live, and hundreds of guild halls were born one after another. ”
Students from all over the world entered Beijing, inhabited the deep alleys of hutongs, and also brought drama, dialects, food, culture, etc. from all over the world to the capital, and for a time the People of Beijing presented a grand situation of great cultural prosperity and great integration. At that time, Qianmen, Chongwenmen, Xuanwumenwai and other places where the economy and trade were prosperous became the areas where the guild halls were concentrated.
Source: Beijing Daily, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism
Editor/Typographer: Liu Jia