Yang Ancient Rhymes Sing the Sound of the Present
The Beijing Guild Hall is more "drama" (deep observation)
Reporter Zheng Na
In front of the gate of the Zhengyi Temple Theater Building. Photo by Zheng Na, a reporter of this newspaper
The second-floor stage of the Zhengyi Temple Theater Building. Photo courtesy of zhengyi temple theater building
Actors from the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre performed "Peony Pavilion". Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liangkui photographed
In Beijing, if you want to experience the Beijing flavor culture, you prefer the front door. The Qianmen area has a long history and culture, with many historical sites and cultural relics, including many former sites of the guild hall. According to the data, as of now, there are 57 existing guild hall buildings in Beijing, including 11 cultural relics protection units at the national, municipal and district levels.
How can we make better use of the unique cultural heritage of the clan building? 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, some guild halls have tried first and continued to build a cultural brand of "the guild hall has a play". Recently, the reporter walked into the newly renovated Zhengyi Ancestral Hall of the Guild Hall to visit how the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall, known as the "Living Fossil of the Chinese Opera Building", will show a new look after being transformed.
"Living fossils of Chinese opera buildings" have a new look
From the bustling Qianmen Street to the south, in a short while you will arrive at the West River along the street. On this long street of more than 1,000 meters running east-west, from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, there were many silver trumpets, banks and other early financial institutions, and there are still several physical remains of China's early financial industry. Zheng Yi Temple is one of them.
Entering the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall, the guangliang gate of the entrance is grand and elegant, the east and west walls are newly painted ancient paintings, one side is painted with the face of the opera sheng dan jing and the ugly, the other side is painted with the scene of the wind ensemble of "Han Xizai's Night Feast", five women playing the flute sit horizontally in a row, and a man playing a board sits next to him. One stroke and one ink outlines the history and present of this building.
Zhengyi Ancestral Hall, also known as "Silver Horn Hall", was originally an ancient temple of the Ming Dynasty, and in the early years of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty, zhejiang silver trumpet merchants raised funds to establish ancestral hall buildings to enshrine zhengyi Xuantan laozu (that is, Zhao Gongming), commonly known as "god of wealth". In this small courtyard facing north and south, there is a two-story theater building hidden. The theater building is not large in scale, compact in layout, exquisite decoration, is the only pure wooden theater in Beijing that has been preserved to this day, and it is also the first indoor theater in Chinese history, known as the "living fossil of Chinese opera building", with a unique cultural status that cannot be copied.
As an old opera building with a long history, Zhengyi Temple once witnessed the rise and development of Peking Opera, and when the "fate was not good", it was also reduced to warehouses, barracks, coal shops, and guest houses, and it was not until the 1990s that the original appearance of the theater was restored. On December 31, 2018, after the last performance, the Zhengyi Temple was closed to guests. After in-depth research, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism decided to hand over the Zhengyi Temple Theater 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 Ancestral Hall Theater, coordinates and promotes the reinforcement and re-installation of the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall for many times, and organizes multi-party forces to discuss and explore how to make good use of and use this temple-level cultural 'living fossil'." Sun Minglei, general secretary of the party branch of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, said.
According to reports, the reconstruction was started last year, and in accordance with the requirements of the ancient building "repairing the old as old" to maintain its original appearance, the small courtyard was repainted and repainted. In the old days, white decorative walls were left in the courtyard of the guild hall, 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 been repainted. Walking into the veranda, it is like entering a painting, and the century-old clear music is like being in the ear.
Compared with the clearly visible changes in the courtyard, the transformation in the theater building hides more invisible "secrets". Zhang Peng, a young director of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater and the manager of the Zhengyi Temple Theater, told reporters that the interior of the theater building first rearranged the light source. Previously, the stage lighting was mainly concentrated on the main beam of the hall, there were safety hazards, and now it is moved to the three-sided space facing the stage, which is not only safer, but also more varied. LED cold light sources are installed in the stage, columns, steps, boxes, etc., which are perceptible and facilitate the audience to climb the stairs and interact with the actors.
Another ingenious "mechanism" is the lifting multimedia screen projection hidden on the stage. The traditional theater building is an open blank stage, with the stage protruding and facing the audience on three sides. The multimedia screen projection will use such spatial characteristics to make changes with different performance contents, so as to narrow the distance between the audience and the performers, enhance the interaction between the performers and the audience, and create an "immersive" viewing experience.
"All our renovations are premised on the protection of cultural relics, which not only give full play to the advantages of the small and beautiful theater building, let the audience feel the charm of the traditional performance space, but also use many of the current cultural and technological trendy elements to attract more young people to approach traditional culture." Zhang Peng said.
"The guild hall has a play" to promote the revitalization and utilization
After meticulous renovation, while retaining the architectural features and historical texture, the newly renovated Zhengyi Temple Theater Building will be re-unveiled in the near future.
"In the future, we will take the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall as the base, adhere to the elegant cultural taste, and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, including Kunqu opera." Sun Minglei said.
Zhengyi Temple has a history of more than 300 years, Cheng Changgeng, Lu Shengkui, Tan Xinpei, Mei Lanfang, Ma Lianliang, etc. have all appeared on stage here, and have become famous for Peking Opera. However, in the 200th year of Huiban's entry into Beijing, in the previous century and a half, Zhengyi Temple, as a guild hall theater, was not Peking Opera, but Kunqu opera that was popular in the north and south at that time.
According to the "History of Pear Garden" in the early years of the Republic of China, the early yanglian on the pillar of the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall Theater Building was: "Eight thousand autumn moon spring breezes are paid on the pipa strings in the butterfly dream, and one hundred and five pairs of golden kites and sandalwood plates consume the peach blossom fan bottom swallow lamp." The description in the Yang Lian vividly depicts the grand situation of kunqu opera in the early history of Zhengyi Temple, among which "Butterfly Dream", "Pipa Record", "Peach Blossom Fan", "Swallow Note" and so on are all kunqu famous operas.
The re-release is imminent, and the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater has specially selected four large plays with historical origins to be staged on stage, namely the resident drama "Blessing of heavenly officials", the theater version of "Peony Pavilion", the guanqi replica "Wall Head Horse" and "Pity Xiang Companion". Among them, the resident drama "Blessing of heavenly officials" will debut as the opening celebration play. It is reported that this edition of "Blessings from Heavenly Officials" follows the century-old Kunqu aesthetics and traditional celebration culture, and combines the aesthetics of the times and the ancient charm of the opera house to create and adapt. At that time, the gentle Kunqu opera singing voice will once again echo between the quaint carved beams and paintings, bringing the audience an "immersive" performance with both a sense of history and the innovation of the times.
The renovation and upgrading provide a hardware guarantee for the "new life" of the guild hall, and the entry of the literary and art academy troupe provides sustainable content for the performance. The relevant person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism said that the Zhengyi Temple Theater Building will better play the cultural function of the central axis in the way of "the hall has a play", show the development trend of diversified integration, present the beauty of the artistic conception of opera art, create a new performing arts space of "small and fine", "small and elegant" and "small and beautiful", and form a vivid situation of "big drama to see Beijing, good drama in the guild hall".
"A guild hall is a living museum that showcases regional culture." Daniel Zhang, director of the Beijing Guild Hall Cultural Exhibition Hall, said. In his view, although the glory of the guild hall has become a thing of the past, the history, culture and local memory carried in the course of evolution will never disappear. "There is a play in the guild hall" is the first step in the revitalization and utilization of contemporary guild halls. Next, there can also be a guild hall with words, the guild hall with gods, and the guild hall with a taste, reproducing the complete guild hall culture of chatting about home, tasting the taste of the hometown, listening to the sound of the village, watching the village drama, and expressing the nostalgia.
Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition