Editor's note. Culture is the soul of the city and the charm of the capital Beijing. Beijing is not only a famous ancient capital with a long history, but also a modern city with distinctive characteristics, with many important cultural facilities with ancient capital style and modern style. The charm of Beijing is reflected in these cultural imprints. Let's slow down and feel the cultural pulse of Beijing.
Guild hall, there is a play!
At the beginning of the year, a Peking Opera "opening" that means that everything goes smoothly was unveiled in the singing section of the famous actors of Peking Opera masters, and the Huguang Guild Hall, which had been renovated for a year and a half, made a new appearance. The guild hall is a unique cultural heritage left to Beijing by history, and has played an important role in promoting the political, economic and cultural development of Beijing, promoting cultural exchanges and integration in various regions, especially the formation and development of Peking Opera art, and is also an important witness to the opening and integration of the capital's culture.
1) 70 years ago, the clan was used as a residential residence.
In the land of the capital division, there are many ancient guild halls. After the Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, there were about five or six hundred local guild halls in the capital. The prosperity of the guild hall culture has allowed literati and businessmen from all over the country to bring different cultures to Beijing, and at the same time spread the Jingshi culture to various places, promoting cultural exchanges. In the late Qing Dynasty, these guilds witnessed the ups and downs of China's modern history.
According to the Municipal Archives, during the war, due to the economic depression and contraction, the income of the guild halls was unsustainable, and some of them could not even find the person in charge, and many of the guild houses were dilapidated and collapsed.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the then mayor of Beijing signed and issued the "Interim Measures for the Management of the Property of the Guild Hall", and since 1951, the property of the Guild Hall has been taken over by the people. Subsequently, all the guild houses were handed over to the Beijing Municipal Real Estate Administration for unified management. (February 24, 2007, "Beijing**" 3rd edition, "Searching for the Old Beijing Guild Hall") In the extensive maintenance of public housing carried out by the Municipal Real Estate Management Bureau, the old and seriously dilapidated guild hall has also been repaired. For example, in 1953, the Municipal Bureau of Real Estate carried out the repair of 279 public houses, including guild halls and private primary and secondary schools. (July 7, 1953, Beijing**, 2nd edition, "The Housing Authority has repaired more than 34,000 public houses").
July 7, 1953, 2nd edition, Beijing**.
On September 20, 1962, the 3rd edition of the Beijing Evening News was published in the fifties and sixties of the last century. Due to the disrepair and the subsequent increase in the city's population and the shortage of housing, in order to solve the problem of people's housing, the city sorted out and repaired the guild hall and other places, and distributed most of them to the citizens who did not have houses, and some of them were occupied by factories, institutions and schools that were in urgent need of housing. For example, the Grand Theater of Huguang Guild Hall has been occupied by Beijing General Factory, Xuanwu District Planning Bureau, Xuanwu District Urban Construction and Development Company and dozens of residents; Another example is the Zhongshan Hall at No. 5 Zhuchao Street, which is adjacent to Caishikou Street, which has become a large compound for nearly 100 residents at that time, and many buildings in the hall are in disrepair and are seriously damaged. (September 16, 1985, "Beijing**", 2nd edition, "Zhongshan Hall").
2) Restore the "identity" and renovate the precedent.
On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Mr. Lu Xun's birth, reader Tang Fei went to visit the Shaoxing Hall, the former residence of Mr. Lu Xun. In the southern half of the alley for a long time, it was not easy to find, and when you went in, it was a large miscellaneous courtyard, and there were traces of demolition and reconstruction in many places. "The past is untraceable, the traces are hard to rely on, and it is really sad to think that this historic place has been obliterated in this way. In 1980, this newspaper published a letter from a reader of Tang Fei, calling for the restoration of the Shaoxing Guild Hall. (November 2, 1980, "Beijing**", 3rd edition, "Appeal for Shaoxing Hall").
On November 2, 1980, the 3rd edition of "Beijing**" was released, and with the joint efforts of many parties, in 1984, some of the guilds obtained the status of cultural relics. The cultural relics management department has successively established the guild halls with cultural relics value as national, municipal and district-level cultural relics protection units, among which the Anhui Guild Hall, Yangping Guild Hall, Tingzhou Guild Hall, Shunde Guild Hall, Zhongshan Guild Hall, Huguang Guild Hall, Hunan Guild Hall and so on were all established as municipal cultural relics protection units at that time.
Although they have an "identity" and have important historical value, most of these halls have been in disrepair for many years and belong to the scope of dilapidated house renovation. How to insure? At the time, they were all problems that needed to be solved urgently.
In the 80s of the last century, the exterior of the Grand Theater of the Huguang Hall before the overhaul.
In June 1987, Zhang Kaiji, chief architect of the Beijing Architectural Design Institute, wrote an article in the publication of the Beijing Political Consultative Conference, suggesting that the Huguang or Yangping guild halls should be reasonably used to build a drama museum. The Huguang Guild Hall mentioned in the proposal was built in 1807 and rebuilt in 1830 with the addition of a theater building. This grand theater building is not only one of the only four remaining theater buildings in Beijing, but also one of the world's top ten wooden theater buildings, where Peking Opera masters Tan Xinpei, Yu Shuyan and Mei Lanfang have performed. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen also made a speech here and presided over the inaugural meeting of the Kuomintang. In the history of Beijing, the status of the Huguang Guild Hall is obvious.
Zhang Kaiji's proposal was supported by many CPPCC members and well-known figures in the cultural circles, but it had to be shelved due to lack of funds. Objectively speaking, compared with modern buildings, these old halls are not the same in terms of thermal insulation, ventilation, lighting and energy saving, and capacity, and whether they are rebuilt or renovated, they are not cost-effective. Especially at that time, ** funds were limited, and it was difficult for the clan hall to be taken care of.
In 1990, Huang Zonghan, then vice chairman of the Xuanwu District CPPCC, saw Zhang Kaiji's article when he was sorting out the materials, and was determined to do some practical work to rescue the precious cultural heritage. (December 5, 1994, "Beijing**" 5th edition, "In order to rejuvenate the style of the ancient capital").
On December 5, 1994, the 5th edition of "Beijing**" was easier said than done. At that time, the Huguang Guild Hall was completely occupied by factories, institutions and residents. Huang Zonghan wrote to the leaders of Beijing Municipality and Xuanwu District many times, hoping to do everything possible to rescue this ancient building. With the support and help of the city leaders, several units occupying the Grand Theater of the Huguang Guild Hall were all vacated before 1992. At the same time, the Municipal Planning Commission, the Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, and the Xuanwu District jointly squeezed out 1.76 million yuan to meet the urgent needs of the restoration project. By the time of the National Day in 1993, some of the residents of the association had also been relocated. Over the years of demolition, I don't know how many circles have been fought in words and words, and the ups and downs are difficult for Huang Zonghan to describe. (June 1, 1991, "Beijing**", 7th edition, "Grand View Garden, Wax Museum, Huang Zonghan").
Due to a lack of funds, the restoration of the Huguang Guild Hall has been halted and progress has been slow. At the end of 1994, the city held an on-site office meeting in the Wenchang Pavilion of the Huguang Guild Hall, solved a number of problems in one go, and Tianqiao Investment and Development Company exclusively invested 33 million yuan, and finally put the whole project on the right track. This investment was also the largest amount of investment in serious cultural undertakings by enterprises at that time. On May 8, 1996, the hall was opened to the public in advance, integrating museums, theatrical performances, and traditional restaurants. Wang Shiren, a researcher of ancient architecture, said: "This practice of using the market mechanism to protect cultural relics is a pioneering move in China's cultural preservation work, and it is of great practical significance. (February 6, 2024, "Beijing**", 13th edition, "Huguang Smoke and Clouds").
The silk and bamboo sound again, and the good news surrounds the beam. In the three years since its opening to the outside world, the Huguang Guild Hall has performed 1,600 performances, attracting 300,000 audiences, and has created remarkable benefits by relying on the opera culture, guild culture, catering culture and the positioning of filling the "night gap" in the tourism market in Beijing. Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera, Ancient Opera, Storytelling, and Ticket Holders entertain themselves, and there seems to be no off-season all year round. (December 13, 2002, "Beijing**", 1st edition, "Xuanwu Leap").
In 1997, the Beijing Opera Museum opened in the reopened Huguang Guild Hall. Diao Lisheng photographed.
3) A large number of guild halls that have become sick from hard work usher in spring.
The Huguang Guild Hall was fortunate to be the first guild hall to reopen after a complete restoration. But there are still many miscellaneous courtyards that are still illegally built in the first ten years of the last century, and the eaves and arches, carved beams and paintings have become disgraced in the smoke and fire or the roar of the machine, and even "accumulated labor becomes a disease".
In the 90s of the last century, the reporter of "Beijing**" visited a number of guild halls, and the situation was worrying.
Located in the Housun Park Hutong of South Xinhua Street, the Anhui Hall originally covered an area of more than 9,000 square meters, ranking first in the scale of the Beijing Hall of Guilds, and is the only cultural relic witness of Beijing as the birthplace of Peking Opera. The hall was built in 1872 by Li Hongzhang's initiative to donate, and after completion, it became a meeting and discussion place for the Huaijun group. But by 1997, it had become unrecognizable and dilapidated. The crowded houses have been divided into three courtyards, and other gardens and other buildings have been severely damaged except for the theater building. The theater was originally used as a warehouse by a factory, but it was vacated at that time and has not yet been handed over to the cultural relics department. The structure of the theater building has basically not changed, but it has fallen into disrepair in many places. A factory master said: "If you don't repair it, it will be troublesome when it rains heavily in summer." (February 28, 1997, "Beijing**", 5th edition, "Nancheng Guild Hall").
On February 28, 1997, the 5th edition of "Beijing**" Nanhai Hall is the former residence of Kang Youwei, who came to Beijing three times, and lived in the north courtyard of the hall. Because the house he lived in was like a boat, it was named "Khan Manxuan"; And because there are seven trees, it is called "Seven Tree Hall". At that time, the gate of the hall facing east was more than one meter below the street surface, and there were no seven big trees to be found in the courtyard.
Shaoxing Hall is where Mr. Lu Xun lived. In the Wisteria Flower Pavilion and the "Mending Tree Book House", he created ** "Diary of a Madman", "Kong Yiji" and "Medicine", but at that time, the vine flowers were nowhere to be found, and it was difficult to determine which one the Mending Tree Book House was.
Located in Qianmen Xiaojiang Hutong, the theater where its essence is located was once the largest theater in Beijing, and it is also a unique theater with royal style in the people. Due to historical reasons, the Yangping Hall and this theater have been used as the medicinal materials warehouse of Beijing Tong Ren Tang Group since the founding of New China. Although Tong Ren Tang tried its best to ensure that the hall was not damaged by any man-made damage, as a warehouse, it was "wronged" by this exquisite building in the past. (July 10, 2001, "Beijing**", 8th edition, "Tong Ren Tang Warehouse Moved Out of the Grand Theater").
July 10, 2001, 8th edition, Beijing**.
In 2002, before the rescue and repair of Yangping Hall. Photo by Tie Lan.
After the Huguang Guild Hall opened the cultural relics protection mode of vacating, repairing and utilizing, the once dusty guild hall ushered in spring in the new century.
In 2000, the city decided to allocate 3 within 3 years300 million yuan to repair nearly 100 cultural relics and historic sites in the capital, which is the largest investment in cultural relics protection funds since the founding of New China, including 14 repair projects including the Anhui Hall took the lead. (October 10, 2000, "Beijing**", 5th edition, "30 cultural relics and monuments started overhaul").
In 2003, the two halls in Nancheng were renovated successively. Among them, the North Hall of Fujian Tingzhou Hall, located in the second section of Qianmen Changxiang in Chongwen District, has a history of more than 500 years, and is the only existing Fujian-style folk ancient building courtyard in the city. In 2005, the overall renovation work of the Anhui and Zhongshan halls was started, and nearly 200 residents moved out of the halls. (November 4, 2005, "Beijing**" 6th edition, "Anhui Hall Zhongshan Hall will be overhauled") since then, Jinjiang Hall, Yixing Hall, Liuyang Hall, Jingxian Hall, Xinjian Hall, Jiangxi Fengcheng Hall, etc. have started to vacate cultural relics.
4) The Centennial Association has been reborn.
In 2023, the immersive "Teahouse" will be staged at the Pigment Hall. Fang Fei photographed.
Can the guild hall that has been withdrawn with great effort only be a "vase" for people to enjoy? On the basis of protection, how to make full use of it is a hot topic of widespread concern in the whole society.
In May 2010, the renovated and expanded Taiwan Association Hall was reopened, becoming a "home for Taiwan compatriots" to promote exchanges between Beijing and Taiwan and serve Taiwan compatriots. In September 2017, the Municipal Taiwan Affairs Office awarded the Taiwan Association the "Beijing Exchange Base for Taiwan". In December 2018, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Communist Party of China approved the establishment of a "cross-strait exchange base" at the Taiwan Association in Beijing. By 2020, more than 500 Taiwan-related activities have been held here in the past ten years, and nearly 100,000 guests from all walks of life on both sides of the strait have visited and exchanged. (May 9, 2020, "Beijing**" 5th edition, "Beijing Taiwan Association Celebrates the 10th Anniversary").
After the opening of the Anhui Guild Hall in 2014 and the restrictive restoration of its original function, Peking Opera ticket holders in the local neighborhood community can have a half-day rehearsal on the old stage every week, which not only harms the cultural relics, but also entertains the residents, killing two birds with one stone.
After the 400-year-old Linfen Hall evacuated more than 30 residents, it was reborn in 2017 and opened to the public with the construction of the "Beijing Hall Cultural Exhibition Hall". The museum focuses on the generation, development, glory, architectural characteristics, cultural characteristics and current protection and utilization of the Beijing Guild Hall, which is also the first historical and cultural exhibition hall in the city. (July 18, 2017, "Beijing**" 7th edition, "Linfen Hall vacated the courtyard and was reborn").
On July 18, 2017, the 7th edition of the Fuzhou New Pavilion of "Beijing**" was established in 1816, which was a local hall purchased by Lin Zexu during his tenure in the Beijing Normal Hanlin Academy. In December 2019, the new museum in Fuzhou was opened after renovation as a national anti-drug propaganda and education base and a patriotic education base in Beijing, conveying the concept of anti-drug and anti-smoking to the public and praising Lin Zexu's great patriotic spirit. (November 8, 2023, "Beijing**" 6th edition, "Fuzhou New Museum Listed as a "Quasi-Museum").
Rational use is the best protection. After the historical and cultural heritage is vacated and restored, the public, especially young people, can understand its cultural value through diversified display methods, and use history and culture to feed the people and nourish people's lives.
The guild hall is a unique space in Beijing. After vacating the guild hall, how to graft the new era function and become a "living" carrier of historical inheritance? Beijing has come up with a new idea.
Under the deployment of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee, in 2021, a number of guild halls will take the lead in the trial and continue to build a cultural brand of "guild halls have opera", and through the docking and integration of guild hall space and performing arts resources, it will realize the promotion of performance, construction and protection through performance, construction and protection, and form a new way of activation and utilization of cultural relics.
In the past, the guild hall was a place for fellow villagers or people from the same industry to meet and stay in the capital. Nowadays, a series of "small and beautiful", "small and refined" and "small and elegant" art forms tailored for the clan hall continue to light up, opening a new journey of revitalization and utilization of the old hall. The interplay of history and culture and high-quality performances has made these old guild halls scattered on the land of Beijing shine again, and have also become a new expression of "seeing Beijing through big operas", which continues to be filled with high-quality supply of spiritual culture for the masses and has become a vivid footnote to Beijing's construction of a national cultural center.
Text in this edition: Yuan Jing.
Source**: Beijing News Group** database.