Definition of the Concept of Ancient Theater Building
The theater building is also known as "temple theater", "ancient theater building ", "temple theater building", "ancestral theater", "theater" and so on. In 1993, Jing Lihu first proposed the concept of "temple theater" in his paper "the Temple and Ancient Chinese Theater". Later, Che Wenming defined it as "a place where a stage is built in a temple and it is a place to watch the theater ". The theater buildings [6-15] can be roughly divided into five categories: palace theater building, mansion theater building, guild theater building, restaurant theater building, and temple theater building. The main object of this paper is the general sense of temple theater building.
Existing status and research significance of ancient theater building in Shaanxi Central Plain Region
The theater buildings can be roughly divided into five categories: palace theater building, mansion theater building, guild theater building, restaurant theater building, and temple theater building. The Zouyue Pavilion of Guandi Temple in Xizhang Village was originally an annex building of Guandi Temple. Although the temple has been demolished, it can still be defined as a universal temple theater building.
The theater performance activities in Shaanxi Central Plain Region have been very active since ancient times, and the mid-Qing Dynasty was its heyday. According to the "Shaanxi Drama Chronicle: Xianyang City Volume" published by Sanqin Publishing House in 1994, before the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were 384 theater buildings in Xianyang City, and it can almost be said that "there are temples everywhere, and theater buildings everywhere". Among them, 281 buildings have been destroyed, only 6 buildings are "survived" or "good".
Tab. 1 Statistics of the Ancient Theater Buildings in Qindu District, Xianyang City before the founding of the People’s Republic of China [3]
Name
|
Construction Age
|
Location
|
Diaotai Township Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Xizhang Village School, Diaotai Township
|
Majiazhai Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Majiazhai School
|
Fengxi Township Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Dongzhang Village School
|
Fengdong Township Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Laoye Temple School
|
Mazhuang Township Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Mazhuang Town
|
Shuangzhao Township Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Yan Village School
|
Pingling Township Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Xia Xiaozhai
|
Gudu Township Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Xiyang Village
|
Mapaoquan Township Theater Building
|
Late Qing Dynasty
|
Daquan Village
|
As shown in Tab. 1, the data records that the number of existing theater buildings in Shaanxi Central Plain Region before the founding of the People’s Republic of China has dropped sharply: most theater buildings have been forced to demolish due to political and historical reasons, or have gradually lost their practical value during the development and changes of the times, because they are no longer frequently used or they have occupied too much land and they are demolished. The few surviving theater buildings of Ming and Qing Dynasties have also lost historical information or data are difficult to verify due to historical reasons, which has also increased the difficulty of researching and protecting theater buildings today.
As part of the cultural protection plan for the architectural relics in the overall plan of Fengxi New City, the area where the Zouyue Pavilion is located is a representative of the ancient theater buildings, and the folk customs derived from it still have important value in the modern context, therefore, it is urgent to carry out the repair work and related historical and cultural research on the Zouyue Pavilion.
Information and Preservation Status of Cultural Relics in the Zouyue Pavilion
As shown in Fig. 2, Zouyue Pavilion has gone through hundreds of years of wind and rain, and it is broken eaves and broken tiles, scarred everywhere. The wooden rafters on the roof were decayed, the tile surface was seriously peeled off, and with the accumulated colored painting dust cover, it cannot be distinguished and it is classified as a dangerous building. In 2019, experts on the preservation of cultural relics conducted on-site surveys of the Zouyue Pavilion, they found that the main body of the building collapsed very serious, and the original building structure is almost invisible, and due to various environmental factors such as heavy rains and earthquakes, the wood has lost its original structure, the strength of the wood is severely decayed, sinking, and some even cracking, separating, and the precious theater building will completely disappear if protection is not carried out.
Cultural Value
Official Sacrifice and Folk Sacrifice in the Ming and Qing Dynasty Temples
The architectural culture of the local ancient theater buildings in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were derived from the ritual records of the sacrifice in the Bronze Age[16]. People in ancient China prayed for a good harvest or for eliminating disasters. Most ancient theater buildings in Xianyang Area belong to this category which were annexed to the temples or shrines.
The concept of “Si”, meaning sacrifice or the religious activities, and there were official sacrifices recorded in documents as well as the folk worships among the commoners. As the Tab.2 shows that the Temple for official Sacrifices [17] at Xianyang in Qing Dynasty had two characteristics. First, compared with those of the Ming Dynasty, the names of the Temple for official Sacrifices in Qing Dynasty were named with the villages’ or towns’ names which obviously shew that they were built on the towns or villages, the most basic organization of society. From the county level to township level, it represented the folk tendency to a certain degree.
In addition to the official sacrifices required by the authority, the rural areas also saw the emergence of folk worship rituals. With the rise of civic culture in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the deity belief system also continued to increase. The temple number around Xianyang Area also increased day by day. The folk performances, the temple fair, etc. were also becoming more and more prosperous. As mentioned above, a total of 384 recorded ancient theater buildings built during the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Xianyang was recorded before the founding of New China. Among which, 4 were officially recognized and accepted but the rest were not. Therefore, it could be speculated that the number of official sacrifice temples did not increase or decrease compared with the Ming Dynasty, but the folk worship temples was extremely prosperous in the Qing Dynasty, which showed the decline of the status of official sacrifice temples in the Qing Dynasty.
Compared with the previous Dynasties, the government of Ming and Qing had a subtle change for the management and control of folk worship. According to the New Records of Xianyang, there were many folk worship temples during this period. The Zouyue Pavilion in Guandi Temple, Xizhang Village, Fengxi New City, Xixian New District was a typical representative of folk worship temple involved from the official sacrifice temple. Its preservation to this day, to a certain extent, shows the important position of the ancient theater building at that time. Whether it is the folk worship of official sacrifice, or the folk worship turning to official sacrifices, both reflect the irresistible trend of secularization.
The Realization of Rites and Music Education
At first, Chinese theater did not have much in common with rites and music. However, this folk music form had a stronger mass foundation than the refined music. But the rites and music system kept advancing with the times along with the development of folk culture in successive dynasties [26]. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, theater had become an indispensable part of people's lives. Such a huge social foundation made the imperial court realize that it was indeed a powerful tool to stabilize social order to incorporate theater into the system of rites and music and endowing it with its educational function. Therefore, to meet the needs of the public, the system of rites and music had been adjusted to a certain extent. Meanwhile, the art of theater had also been greatly prospered under the realistic needs of rural governance.
How to promote the justice and punish the people who commit bad deeds? Theater could be a most extensive and effective way to absorb cultural nutrients and to distinguish right from wrong. Namely, watching Theater s is like reading books. The widely distributed ancient theater buildings and some of the Theater stories handed down from the Ming and Qing Dynasties could fully showcase the local authority had placed much emphasis on the theater’s education role. For example, the Shaanxi Daoqing Theater publicized the feudal moral codes, in the historical themed theater like Annals of the Kingdoms of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Expedition to the East,the Expedition to the West. Generals of the Yang Family, The Case of Penggong.
When the great virtues such as loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, justice, righteousness, or the promotion of goodness and the punishment of evil advocated by the enlightenment of rites and music integrating into the theater, morality is combined with humor hidden in the funny form of expression, attracting more viewers and causing greater resonance in a simple and understandable way. Every act and move in theater, singing in harmony constantly affirmed and strengthened the orthodox thoughts and the national ideology. The ethics and morals it publicized often became the basis and criterion of people’s behavior in a subconscious way. The theater performing as the annex building of official sacrifice temple assumed the important function of educating people through entertainment.
From Worshiping the Gods to Entertaining People
The ancient folk fairs recorded in the Annals of the Qindu District, Xianyang include the Goat-head Fair, the Filial Duties Fair, the Theater Fair and the Temple Fair. Among them, the ones closely related to the ancient theater building are mainly the Theater Fair and the Temple Fair. They were both derived from the traditional sacrifice theater to convey respect to the gods. At the same time, the theater performed also resonated with the audience off the stage, it attracted more villagers to participate and to exchange their material and cultural life. As time went by, it formed the custom of the regular appearance of temple fair. Therefore, the temple fair took the community as the unit, and the shrine came from offering sacrifices to the god of the land.
At the old temple fairs, the faithful men and women around carrying some snacks would throng to the temple to burn the incense and light the candles. The temple fair would normally last for three days with the theater performance and folk music shows going on for day and night. According to a survey conducted by China’s Ancient Open Ancient theater building Studies, Theater performance after the harvest by ancient Chinese were mostly for worship the heaven or god [18], all these activities were to show people’s resect the God of the Land.
In the Tang Dynasty, welcoming the God of Land was a small Buddhism activity originated from the interactions between the temple monks and residents. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it developed into a public activity. In the sixth year of the Republic of China (1917), it became a big event participated by large masses in the communities. Since 2015, the temple fair of welcoming the God of Land has changed into the Eighteen Ancient Culture and Arts Festival, and gongs and drums performance, folk dancing, waist drums and Shehuo folk parade and Big-head baby Dancing Show and other performance. The performance was so grand that it passed down till now.
The Ancient theater buildings represents a concrete existence, and it embodies a semiotic performing art [19]. People expressed their respect and wished their family and fellow villagers happiness and blessings. Since then, these Ancient theater buildings as material symbols have gone through ups and downs. Even though the offering sacrifice was not a necessary program in the temple fair, this custom of holding the temple fair is continued. Through the regular assembly and ceremony, it conveys people’s joyful emotions and expectations for a better life.
The Intercommunication of Symbolic Expression and Spiritual Connotation
With the deepening of the secularization of official sacrifice in the Qing Dynasty, the official ideology penetrated in the village community by theater. Based on satisfying the aesthetic pleasure of the people, it could purify people’s mind, regulate people’s behavior, and enhance the sense of regional identity which contributed to the harmony among people. On the other hand, the good effect of rural governance was also achieved through it. The theatrical house, as the material carrier of theater culture, also became the symbol of ritual and music education. When the secularization became the mainstream of folk life, the religious meaning in the custom was gradually lost, replaced by information, materials and emotion exchange. As a platform for emotional communication, the ancient theater building has also become the cultural heritage of rural China and the spiritual wealth of people in Shaanxi Central Plain.
Signs can be divided into materiality and immateriality. As the material symbol of communication, the ancient theater building builds a bridge between the individual’s spiritual world and the external ethical norms. It plays a role of inter-mediation. Because the ancient theater building was the artistic medium, culture was conveyed through it. The customs, to some extent, were the source of cultural identity and sense of belonging. Customs in the traditional society were the inherent constraints of people. Under the condition of today, external performance of customs was obscured replaced by a more profound spiritual lineage. In addition, the ancient theater buildings and the customs derived from them all provide a deep soil for the realization of rural governance. The theater culture was more like a window which plays a role of ventilation and was more conducive to the smooth implementation of government policies.
From a deeper level, both the physical symbol of the theater or the non-material symbol of the custom, governance is the external manifestation of the traditional culture dominated by Confucianism for a long time. In essence, both of them have the local roots and spiritual connotations of Chinese society, that is, the core ideological benevolence of Confucianism since the Pre-Qin period. It has also shaped China's local traditions and formed a variety of symbolic expressions when benevolence and virtue are linked. Benevolence is the source of inner virtue. Without the support of inner benevolence, the so-called rites and music would be empty talk, and it would be difficult to have customs and ways of governance. As the form of symbolization and secularization, the theater expresses the Chinese philosophy since ancient times. It was to promote the good and punish the evil and to enlighten the people.