The royal family of the Qing Dynasty built five theaters: the Qingyin Pavilion Theater in the Old Summer Palace in the fourth year of Yongzheng (1726 AD), the Qingyin Pavilion Theater in the Summer Resort in the 19th year of Qianlong (1754 AD), The Shou'an Palace Grand Theater in the Imperial Palace in the 41st year of Qianlong's reign, the Changyin Pavilion Theater in the Imperial Palace in the 41st year of Qianlong's reign, and the Deheyuan Theater in the Summer Palace in the 21st year of Guangxu's reign (AD 1895). These five stages are all three-story stages, the largest in history. The Shou'an Palace Theater in the palace was demolished in the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799 AD); the Qingyin Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace was destroyed by the British and French forces in the 10th year of Xianfeng (1860 AD); the Qingyin Pavilion in the Summer Resort was destroyed by the Japanese invaders in 1945 . Now there are only two large theater buildings in the palace, Changyin Pavilion and Dehe Garden in the Summer Palace.

Cixi liked to listen to operas. Changyin Pavilion was her theater in the palace, which was renovated in the 17th year of Guangxu's reign; and Dehe Garden was her theater in the suburbs. In addition to these two large stages, there are several stages in the palace and the Summer Palace, including the Changchun Palace in the palace and the Oriole Pavilion in the Summer Palace. Those who can only listen to small plays, big plays still have to be performed on the big stage.

As mentioned before, the north gate corridor of the Imperial Backyard of the Summer Palace can directly lead to the Dehe Garden. Therefore, the Dehe Garden is connected to the corridor and can be regarded as a building on the corridor. This location was the Yichun Hall during the Qingyi Garden period, and it was the emperor's toilet at that time. Yichun Hall is adjacent to the emperor's backyard. You can easily walk into Yulan Hall or Yiyun Hall from the east wing through the hall door. Lao Qian once personally drafted a poem in "Yichuntang": "One yuan mediates when all things happen. There is no air and no warmth, and all sentient beings feel happy. When Taihe is brewing, how can it be too late for beautiful scenery. Ask Yichun I don’t know where the study hall is.” You see, he connected Yichuntang and Yiyun Hall.

In the 24th year of Daoguang (AD 1844), the year of Shenchen Dragon in the lunar calendar, it is said in the almanac that it is the year of "Nine Purples and Fire", which is full of disasters. The Qing Dynasty had begun to decline during the "Jia Dao Period", and it had just signed the Treaty of Nanjing in humiliation during the Opium War that broke out in the 20th year of Daoguang's reign. In the 24th year of Daoguang's reign, Hong Xiuquan founded the God-Worship Cult, and Li Lianying entered the world for the first time. These were all omens of great disaster. As a sign of good fortune, a fire broke out in the Summer Palace, and the Yichun Hall in the north of the Renshou Hall was burned down.

In the twelfth year of Guangxu (AD 1886), the Summer Palace began to be renovated. A new grand theater was built on the ruins of Yichun Hall. It was completed in the 21st year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu. This is the Garden of Dehe.

Enter the Summer Palace from the East Palace Gate. After viewing the Hall of Renshou, if you walk westward from under the south wall, you will go to the Emperor's and Queen Mother's bedroom, which is also the route I will narrate in this collection. If you look at the Hall of Renshou and then the Well of Yannian, and then walk back along the north wall, you can see the gate of Dehe Garden facing south.

The word "Dehe" first came from "Yan Zi Chun Qiu" in the Spring and Autumn Period, which is a record of the words and deeds of Yan Ying, a senior official in the state of Qi. When Yanzi and Qi Jinggong discussed the difference between He and Tong, they said: "A gentleman listens to music with cadences, five tones and six rhythms to calm his mind. The mind is peaceful and virtuous, so the "Poetry" says: 'The sound of virtue is flawless'". The "Poetry" said that the sound of virtue is flawless means that the reputation is flawless. The saying of Yanzi that the heart is peaceful and the virtue is harmonious means that the mind is peaceful and the character is harmonious. Cixi named this garden "Dehe", which means that she came here to listen to operas and cultivate her sentiments.

As a large courtyard in the Summer Palace, the gate of Dehe Garden is much more low-key than other gardens within a garden. It is just an ordinary Guangliang gate, unlike other places where there are house-style gates. , or simply a hall. The royal style of this gate is reflected in its gilded decorations, including the finials and rafter heads, as well as the gorgeous official-style Soviet-style gold thread painting on the front eaves and horizontal beams. There is a three-foot-high base under the gate, which connects the east and west, indicating that the ground in the courtyard is three feet higher than the ground outside the courtyard.

Entering this gate, you are faced with a wooden screen wall.

In fact, this cannot be called a screen wall, but a screen door that cannot be opened and is only for decoration. The wooden red door frame has a gray tile rolling shed hanging from the top of the mountain, and a pair of granite door frames below. The dark green door leaf is the screen of the screen door. There are gold-lacquered bat corners on the four corners, and the box in the middle is a gold-lacquered "Five Blessings and Longevity".

The courtyard of Dehe Garden is surrounded not by corridors but by verandas.

Turn around the screen door and you can see the big theater.

The theater is viewed from the south and faces north. When entering the Dehe Garden, it is viewed from the south. This is the backstage dressing room, which is the theater building.

The two-story theater building behind Changyin Pavilion in the palace was not built at the same time as the theater building. The theater building in Dehe Garden was built at the same time as the main theater building, showing a strict consistency. The theater building and the theater building sit on the same five-foot-high blue brick platform. It is five rooms wide and two rooms deep. There are three rooms out of the building on the south side with a closed eaves. The Ming room and the secondary room outside the building each have four five-door partition doors. This time, instead of the latticework in the shape of "work", they have Bubu brocade. Before leaving the building, go out of the steps and step on the two-story and three-way hanging belts. The theater building is a two-story pavilion with a bracket-shaped beam structure and a gray tile-rolled shed resting on the top of the mountain. The second floor has flat seats and a dark floor. It has red pillars, red doors and windows, and the beams are painted with gold double dragons and seals, giving it a royal style. On the south side of the theater building is the door for actors and actresses to enter and exit. It is also very elegant, allowing those performing arts stars to see what a royal atmosphere is. These stars include Tan Xinpei of the Sanqing Troupe and his adopted son Yang Xiaolou mentioned in the old cross talk.

Look at the partition windows of the theater building.

Although there are some gold decorations, they are not lead forged leaves, so they cannot be called "gold locks".

There are verandas on both sides of the theater building, dividing the courtyard into several rooms. The corridor in the middle of the verandah is the entrance to the next courtyard. The platform of this veranda is much higher than the east and west verandas, almost as high as the platform of the theater building.

After passing through the hall door of the verandah, enter the second courtyard. Go to the side and look at the theater.

The stage base of the stage is only four feet, which means that the ground of the second courtyard is one foot higher than that of the first courtyard. The theater building is a three-story pavilion with a very large bay and a very large depth. It shows that the stage is so big that even Sun Wukong’s somersault cloud cannot escape. Go to the front of the stage and take a look.

The architectural form of this theater is the same as that of the Changyin Pavilion in the palace, and the scale is also the same. They are both made by Shi Shao Lei and are much larger than the Tingli Pavilion stage. It is a three-story pavilion style, with the first floor open on three sides, making it easy to watch the show. Although each floor has a resting eaves, it has a raised angle. It can also be called a three-story building with double eaves and raised angles. This is a five-story pavilion with three lights and two darks. It has brackets and raised beams, gray tiles and a single eaves on the top of the mountain. There are actually seven ridge beasts on each floor. Like the Hall of Renshou, there are no immortals riding chickens. Although the beams under the eaves are still painted with gold double dragons and seals, the pillars are red and green. The ancients had a lofty word to describe such a building, which is called "Chongtai Yange". Chong means lofty; Yan means growing up. Nanchen Xiaocui (Nian Que) has "The Chongtai is a hundred feet high, standing out from the Wangxian Palace. The painted pillars are full of vitality, and the flying beams illuminate the evening rainbow."

Take a look inside the stage.

This stage is a three-sided stage, three bays wide and three bays deep. The two front doors are the front stage and the back one is the backstage. The tent between the front and back is decorated with gold embroidery, and in the middle is "Five Blessings Holding Longevity". The word "Shou" also has a "卍" on it, which is the symbol of "Wan", which means longevity without borders. There are all kinds of good things tied with ribbons in the sky around, which is extremely auspicious. "Coming out" and "entering the stage" are the gates for actors to enter and exit the stage. The minions stood on the second-floor platform above the tent, waving flags and shouting, and during fights, they would come down the stairs on both sides to join the team. In the past, you could go on stage to see what was going on, and you could even go upstairs. Now that I can't, I can only send a camera over to take a look. Look at the end gate and its surroundings.

On the first floor, there is a chess ceiling with gilded "Five Blessings and Longevity", which is very gorgeous. The square hole in the middle is considered a patio, leading directly to the top floor. Each floor above has railings and doors around the hole. There is a human-powered hoist on the top floor, which I saw when I went up many years ago. This winch can hoist heavenly soldiers and generals from the upper level to fight monsters, and it can also hoist old Taoists who have become immortals from the lower level to the sky.

The upper stage of the Dehe Garden stage is called the Fortune Platform, the middle stage is the Fortune Stage, and the lower stage is the longevity stage, which is full of good fortune, wealth and longevity. There is an underground well in the middle of the first floor facing the patio, with a real well and a pool inside. When the plot requires it, you can open the manhole cover and spray water out. A Bodhisattva can also sit on a lotus and rise up from an underground well to exert power. In short, the stage was equipped with the most high-tech equipment of the year, and some science fiction movies were performed, which ordinary people did not have to watch.

This grand stage is a complete copy of the Changyin Pavilion in the palace. When Guangxu built the Harmony Garden, the Qingyin Pavilion in Yuanmingyuan no longer existed, and the Qingyin Pavilion in the Summer Resort was too far away, so the Qingyin Pavilion in the Palace was copied. Changyin Pavilion inside.

You just saw that the top beams on the pillars around the stage are quite thick, and then you took a look inside.

The same thick corner trusses are also built between the columns, which are the reinforcements of the Chinese frame structure and increase the load-bearing capacity of the ceiling.

Standing in front of the stage and looking up, there are plaques and couplets on each floor. The horizontal plaque under the eaves of the first floor reads "Happy and glorious exposure", which means that the joyful drama is gloriously exposed.

Couplets are hung on the eaves pillars, and the upper couplet reads "Landscape Association Qingyin Dragon Club Eight Winds and Phoenix Tune Nine Plays". Unvoiced sounds are soft sounds. Zuo Si, a poet of the Western Jin Dynasty, once said, "It is not necessary to have silk and bamboo, but there are unvoiced sounds in mountains and rivers." Eight Winds, in "Zuo Zhuan" there is "five tones in harmony, eight winds in balance", which means eight tones, the way to nourish the ears, and here it refers to music in general. There are nine phoenix tunes in the ancient royal music, which are called "nine tunes". In "Shangshu", there is "90% of "Xiao Shao", the phoenix comes to the ceremony". The second line "Gong Shang Harmony Fa Qu Xiang De Liu Yun Yan Le Yang He". Gongshang is the Chinese pentatonic scale; Faqu is a kind of great music other than Jiushao; Xiangde: the virtue of the people obeying the king. Flowing rhyme: flowing music. King Luo Bin of the Tang Dynasty once said, "The colorful books are accumulated in the tent, and the flowing rhyme surrounds the piano platform." Yanle is the joy of banquet, the joy of accompanying meals. Maintaining harmony means maintaining health.

The horizontal plaque under the eaves of the second floor reads "Peace and Yutai", which means peace in the world, peace in the country and peace in the people. Couplets are hung on the corridor columns, and the first couplet is "Qizhengyanjihengzhu couplets perfectly combined". Qizheng is the five planets plus the sun and moon; Yan is the deduction; Jiheng: Xuanji Yuheng, "Shangshu" has "In the Xuanji Yuheng, to Qi Qizheng". Zhulianbibi, "Hanshu" has "the sun and the moon are like a jade; the five stars are like a string of beads." The second couplet is "Four Seasons Tune Lu Yujie Jinhe", which is the same as the second couplet of the eaves and pillars of Paiyun Gate.

Under the eaves of the third floor is a horizontal plaque "Celebrating Changchen". Although this plaque occupies the position of the plaque, it is not a plaque like the "Changyin Pavilion" in the palace. Qingyan is a celebration performance, Changchen is a prosperous age, and a grand performance is performed to celebrate the peaceful and prosperous age. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty wrote "Man Ting Fang", which said: "From this day of celebration, the capital will be more and more prosperous, and the thousand years of life will be prosperous." There are couplets hung on the corridor pillars, and the first couplet reads "Opening territories in all directions is longevity." Opening territory means opening borders. The longevity here cannot be understood as human life in the narrow sense, but as the longevity of the Qing Dynasty. The second line of the second line "It's always spring when the surname Zhao appears on the stage" is taken from Yang Weizhen's sentence of the Yuan Dynasty, "The orioles are blooming in March and spring is like brocade, and the ballads of the surname Zhao congratulate peace." A trillion is a million, and the surname Zhao is ten thousand times more than the common people! When there was no emperor, the term "common people" refers to the nobility and ordinary people. After the birth of the First Emperor, the common people became common people. Qin had a population of 25 million; in the 27th year of Guangxu's reign, the Qing had a population of 430 million. Obviously "people" is not as suitable as "Zhao" to describe the people who produce people's wealth.

In the past, this was the royal stage. Now there are no performances, but it cannot be said that there is no drama. Every day when the auspicious time comes, a girl will appear on the stage wearing a long-sleeved shirt and dancing gracefully.

She has long sleeves and dances frequently, dancing gracefully to her descendants. Putting bottles together to promote the feast will lead to punishment. Have fun drinking tonight, and be drunk for months.

Opposite the stage, facing south, the hall is Cixi’s theater viewing box, which is also the theater viewing building. It is said to be a theater building, but it is actually a palace.

The main hall sits on a three-foot-high blue brick platform. It is seven rooms wide and three rooms deep, with eaves in the front and back. Open the door in the bright room, and open the sill walls and windows in the second room, the second room, and the final room. Above it is a dougong beam, a gray tile rolling shed resting on the top of the mountain, seven ridged beasts on the ridge, and the beams are painted with gold double dragons and seals, which is magnificent. Go up and take a look at the decoration on the lattice core of the open partition door, which is gilded with wood carvings of five blessings and longevity.

On the day I came, I couldn’t go in and visit. Two palace men stood at the door, a palace maid stood inside the door and poked her head, and a palace boy stood sneaking outside the door.

The plaque under the eaves is a bilingual "Yile Hall" plaque in Manchu and Chinese. Yi Zhe means nourishment. Yue (reading the moon) is the general name of the five tones and eight tones, that is, music. There is a plaque on the door of Mingjian that reads "Dai Ri Teng Yu". Wearing the sun means wearing the sun on your head. Liu Chang in the Song Dynasty once said, "Spring is rushing by, but wearing the sun is still desolate." Teng Yu: jubilation. This plaque means that when listening to the opera on a clear day, the whole place was full of joy, people were dancing and dancing on the stage, and the audience was full of people. This is just a pile of rhetoric, which belongs to duckweed in the water and has no foundation.

There is a couplet on the corridor column in the bright room: a collection of paintings of Changchun in the mist of pines and cypresses to celebrate, Penglai creates a spiritual light based on the scenic beauty. Mist refers to clouds and mist, here it means gathering. In Qinguan in the Song Dynasty, there was a saying that "the mist condenses the spring state, melting and melting to beautify the dawn light". Jie means excellence; structure means structure. Does this couplet mean that sitting here and listening to a play is like a fairyland on earth?

There is also a couplet on the doorpost of the Ming Dynasty: the harmonic rhythm of pearls and jade and the nine heavenly vowels; Vowels are big sounds. The six books are the Confucian Six Classics: Poems, Books, Rites, Yue, Yi, and Spring and Autumn. Taishi is the big room, also in Songshan Mountain. 饫(Nianyu): full, full. Mo Zhang (Nian Mo Shang), Feng Zhi of the Tang Dynasty said in "Recording Beads" that "there is a stone chamber named Mo Zhang at the foot of Songgao Mountain, and there are countless immortal books in it." In fact, there was no such person as Feng Zhi in the Tang Dynasty, but it was made up by people in the Song Dynasty. This couplet means that the sound of the pearls and jade music of the great sound reaches to the nine heavens, and what is sung is the sacred scriptures of the ancients and the fairy books in the mountains.

Go to the door and look inside.

The hall has a brick floor with a sea ceiling, and the walls are covered with high-end wallpaper made of silk. In the bright room, there is a red sandalwood platform. On the platform is not a dragon chair and a throne, but a red sandalwood Arhat bed, with gold lacquer and enamel birds facing the phoenix on the backrest. Behind the Arhat bed stand five red sandalwood screens, also decorated with gold lacquer and enamel paintings of hundreds of birds facing the phoenix. Its gilded hollow wood-carved Vairocana hat is so gorgeous. It must have been custom-made by the Manufacturing Office at Guangdong Customs, showing the highest level of Lingnan woodcarving in the late Qing Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, the golden pillars were draped horizontally, and a paper plaque with the words "Rong Jing Deng Hong" hanging on them. During the Liu and Song Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, there was a Xiezhuang, a descendant of Xie An, the iron-blooded prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Among the eulogies he wrote for the memorial service of Liu Jun, Emperor Xiaowu of the Liu Song Dynasty, he included "Glory in the mirror of the middle age, plundering the ancient times", which is a eulogy. Rongjing means brilliance, and Sanyi (Nian Xiyi) also means brilliance, but it means continuity. The ancient times mentioned in Xie Zhuang's sour words only refer to the ancient times of the Liu and Song Dynasties, and I certainly don't dare to say that they include the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

The bright room is the seat where Cixi listens to the opera. If you feel tired from sitting, you can lie down or lie down. The female relatives who accompanied her to the theater sat in the east and west rooms and looked at the east and west rooms.

There is a small Buddhist hall in the east end room. It doesn’t matter whether you want to worship Buddha or not, but there must be a Buddhist hall, and it must be in the farthest room on the left hand side of the main room. The west end room is a bedroom as usual. I guess only Cixi can take a nap here.

Opposite the stage is the theater building, and the verandas on the east and west sides are the theater corridors.

There are ten private rooms on each corridor. There are tables, chairs and benches in the private rooms. You can sit in them to drink tea and eat snacks while listening to the play.

Take a closer look inside the private room.

This is a new addition in recent years. Each of the six ministries and nine ministers has a room. The minister of the main ministry takes the seat, and the minister sits down and holds hands. In fact, it should be the left gallery where the princes and clans sit, and the other ministers and servants sit on the right gallery.

The courtyard of Deheyuan is larger than Changyin Pavilion in the palace, so it looks more spacious and not as complicated as Changyin Pavilion. Cixi and a group of female family members listened to a play in the Yi Le Hall. Male guests such as princes and clansmen of the second rank and above were seated in the east and west corridors, and no servants were allowed to enter. If the unlucky Guangxu was punished to accompany the Queen Mother to the opera, he could enter the Yi Le Hall, and he was not allowed to mess around with the female guests during the opera. In the picture of the Yi Le Hall above, you can see that there are stands on both sides of the front stomping grounds. They are fake, so don’t take them seriously. There are a number of Eight Immortal tables and armchairs placed in the square in front of the Yi Le Hall. The courtiers below the second rank who were invited to listen to the opera sat there, which is the pool seat. Hot tea is also served, which is royal tribute tea; there is also a traditional Northeastern snack of fried sunflower seeds. How to shout hello during a performance? There is no record, I guess it should be following the Queen Mother's imperial order. If Cixi applauds, she will applaud, if Cixi stamps her feet, then she will stamp her feet; male guests can shout "hello", but female guests are not allowed to make a sound.

What kind of show is being sung on stage? The Sanqing troupe mentioned earlier was the first opera troupe to come to Beijing. They sang Hui opera and came to Beijing to celebrate the 80th birthday of Emperor Qianlong. Before that, Kun Opera was popular in the capital, and that was in the early Qing Dynasty. During the Qianlong period, Kun Opera declined, while Beijing Opera and Qin Opera gradually increased. After the Anhui troupe came to Beijing, in the early years of Daoguang's reign, Hubei Han opera masters came to Beijing to join the Hui troupe. From Daoguang to Xianfeng years, Hui, Han, Beijing, Qin and Kun merged to form Peking Opera. By the time Cixi was listening to operas in Dehe Garden during the Guangxu period, the Sanqing Troupe, which was the first to enter Beijing, was already a famous Peking Opera sect. At that time, it was the old students who were leading the trend. Tan Xinpei was the best and everyone followed his example. Cixi also introduced him to the palace to perform. In addition to Peking Opera, the royal ladies also listened to Lian Hua Luo (Nian Lao), which is a rap song originated from Hebei Leting (Nian Lao Ting). This kind of rap music usually does not require such a large stage, and can be sung in a short time in the east of Yi Le Hall. Zhao Kuishun, the famous Lotus star at that time, often went to the palace to perform for Cixi.

In addition to the Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu’s concubine Jin also liked to listen to operas. She also organized a theater troupe in Yonghe Palace where she lived. She also loved to listen to Lotus Falling. Because she couldn't go to the Summer Palace alone to listen to the opera, she recruited Zhao Kuishun into Yonghe Palace to sing Lotus Falling. When Emperor Xuantong entered the palace, it was Empress Dowager Longyu who took care of her. After Empress Dowager Longyu's death, it was Concubine Jin who took care of the children. Puyi called her his concubine. Concubine Jin loved to listen to operas and also loved to eat, especially Tianfuhao’s sauced pork elbows. When I was in my fifties, I ate too much during the Mid-Autumn Festival and was exhausted. He was buried in the Qingxi Mausoleum, but the tomb was robbed by bad guys.

At the end of the performance on the stage of Deheyuan, the cast and crew will stand on three floors on the stage just like they did in Changyin Pavilion in the palace, applauding warmly and looking at Cixi longingly. It's asking for reward. Cixi called Xiao Lizi and asked someone to stand under the stage and throw candy balls on the stage as a reward.

The east and west sides of Yi Le Hall are not three wing rooms, but a circle of veranda rooms in the courtyard of Dehe Garden.

Like the verandahs on both sides of the theater building, the verandahs and bright rooms on both sides of the Yi Le Hall are also connected to the main hall and serve as the gates to the second and third courtyards. Look at the verandahs on both sides of Yi Le Hall.

The open room of the veranda opens through the hall door, the sill walls and windows of the secondary room are closed, and there are eaves in the front and rear. The upper part is a bracket-shaped beam structure with gray tiles and a single eaves rolling shed on the top of the hard top. The eaves corridor of the veranda passes through the mountain and connects to the eaves corridor of Yi Le Hall.

You can see that from the east and west verandahs to the veranda of Yile Hall, you have to walk up two steps. From the east and west verandas of Yile Hall to the Yile Hall, you have to walk up two steps. There is a painting on the gable of the eaves corridor in front of the Yi Le Hall. Look at this painting. It has the same theme as the one seen in the Dehui Hall on the Paiyundian Mountain. It is about the White Snake stealing fairy grass.

The verandas in Dehe Garden are all the same, with brackets and beams, and gray tiles with single eaves and rolled sheds on top of the hard top. The beams under the eaves are all painted in the official Soviet style, and the interior of the house is decorated with high ceilings. Of these verandas, only the east and west parts of the Yi Le Hall have eaves. Why? Because the eaves corridor in front of Yi Le Hall goes to the west, there is a door at the north end of the theater viewing corridor on the west side.

This is what this door looks like when you go out.

Yes, this is the north gate of Yiyun Pavilion mentioned last time. The corridors on both sides of the north gate lead to the Leshou Hall. Empress Dowager Cixi can walk directly from the Leshou Hall to the Dehe Garden Yile Hall along this corridor. Emperor Guangxu's Queen Yehenala could also go here. If it didn't rain, she could also go out through the hall door of the east wing of Yiyun Pavilion and enter through another door of Dehe Garden. Entering through that door is the west verandah of the theater building.

To the west of the Yi Le Hall is the Leshou Hall, and to the east there is a gate at the north end of the theater gallery on the east side.

This gate leads to the east corridor outside Dehe Garden.

The Sanjin Courtyard of Dehe Garden will not be open after the epidemic. If it is open, you can walk to the Sanjin Courtyard through the hall doors of the verandas on both sides of the Yi Le Hall.

The ground of the third courtyard is one foot higher than that of the second courtyard. There is a large stone in the middle of the courtyard with evergreen pines and cypresses planted on it. Take a look at Qingshan Hall, the main hall of Sanjinyuan.

Below Qingshan Hall is a blue brick platform that is as high as Yile Hall. Because the third courtyard is one foot higher than the second courtyard, the platform of Qingshan Hall is only two feet high. Although Qingshan Hall does not have glazed tiles, it still has red pillars and red doors and windows, so it can still be called a hall. The hall is five rooms wide and three rooms deep. The open room has an open door, the secondary rooms have slightly sill walls and windows, and there are eaves and corridors on all sides. Above is the top of the mountain with brackets, raised beams, gray tiles and a single eaves rolling shed. There are five ridged beasts on the ridge, which is one level lower than the Yi Le Hall in front of it. The beams under the eaves are painted with gold double dragons and seals. There are a pair of copper jars and a pair of copper tripod furnaces in front of the hall. This is Cixi's reception hall, which is equivalent to the Yichun Hall in Qingyi Garden. You can rest here before and after listening to a play, or you can do some informal and convenient things here, such as sitting in the hall and ordering Western painters to paint portraits.

There is no "Qing Shan Tang" plaque under the eaves of Qing Shan Tang. I wonder if it has been lost or has been maintained? There is a plaque on the door that reads "Huanzhuo Zhenfu". Huan and Zhuo (thinking about catching) are both bright and shining; Zhenfu is the rare fortune. A song sung when praying for rain in suburban temples in the Song Dynasty included "The real person is here to offer precious talismans." There is a couplet hanging on the corridor in the bright room: The fragrance of the sky is low and the warmth of the golden Qiu is warm, and the colorful phoenixes are seen flying in the distance from the palace. The meaning comes from Zeng Gong's poem of the Song Dynasty, "The fragrance of heaven is dark and the golden horns are warm, and the palace fans are in full bloom and colorful phoenixes are flying". Du means crossing, Qiu means Qiu dragon.

There are side halls on both sides of Qingshan Hall. Take a look at the east side hall.

The platform base of the side hall is half a foot lower than the main hall. It is five rooms wide and two rooms deep, with an eaves corridor in front. The door is open in the bright room, and the second room has a wall and a window. The upper part is a bracket-shaped beam structure, with gray tiles and a single-eave rolling shed on the top of the hard top. The beams under the eaves are painted with gold threads in the official Su style.

A plaque reading "Spring Tao Jiayue" hangs horizontally on the Mingjian door. Chun Tao: Tao Chun, happy spring; Jia Yue: Jia Yue, happy days. Come here in spring to listen to the opera and live a happy life. A couplet hangs on the corridor in the bright room: Thousands of trees in the forest are connected to the west, and the stars in the North Pole are too faint. This couplet comes from the poem "Xin Guannai Zhi" written by Zeng Qi (Nian Qi) in the Ming Dynasty. This is what Zeng Qi did when he was on duty in the imperial palace for the first time, which is now the Forbidden City in Beijing. The place he was on duty should be the cabinet lobby south of the Wenhua Palace, so he saw many trees. Shanglin refers to Shanglinyuan, the palace garden of Qin and Han Dynasties; Xiye refers to the outside of Yemen on the west side of the palace; Taiwei means the imperial palace.

The shape of the west side hall and the east side hall are the same.

There are verandas on both sides of Yi Le Hall, and there is a building on both sides of Qingshan Hall. They are not closed verandas, but three open pavilions connected to the eaves of the main hall. Above is the top of the mountain with brackets, raised beams, gray tiles and a rolling shed with single eaves. Go in and take a look.

There are lintels on the upper and lower sides between the eaves and pillars. The upper and lower lattice flowers are different. The top is Bu Bu Brocade and the bottom is the word "work".

The gold bricks are on the ground, the five blessings hold longevity and the chess ceiling is leveled. There are corner corridors at the east and west ends connected to the eaves corridors in front of the east and west side halls.

You can call these two open pavilions the main hall, and passing through the open pavilions can be said to be the four courtyards of Dehe Garden. I say it can be called the Four-entry Courtyard because there are three guest rooms under the east and west walls of the courtyard.

Behind Qingshan Hall is the north wall of Dehe Garden. There is a hanging flower door with one hall and one ticket on the wall. There is no mobile corridor inside the door. This door can be seen in the picture above. It is very rare for the north gate of the courtyard to have a hanging flower door with one hall and one ticket, because its screen door is basically useless. In fact, it would be good to just have a one-ticket hanging flower gate, and there is no need for the hall inside the gate. Outside this gate is the road behind Dehe Garden.

Many years ago, Dehe Garden did not only charge entrance fees. Although the inside was not dilapidated, it was very devastated, with paint peeling off everywhere. I remember that it was renovated in the 1980s, and the viewing galleries on both sides of the stage were exhibition rooms. Start collecting tickets, five yuan for a single ticket and twenty for a pass. After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it was overhauled and the theater viewing gallery was restored, which is what it looks like now.

The Summer Palace is more spacious than the Imperial Palace, and the layout of Dehe Garden is not as compact as Changyin Pavilion in the palace. Watching a play in Yi Le Hall is more comfortable than Yuesilou in Changyin Pavilion. There is also an apse in the backyard for rest that Changyin Pavilion does not have. So speaking of it, Dehe Garden is more comfortable than being in the palace. Cixi loved to listen to operas. When the Taichi Hall and Changchun Palace were merged into the palace, a small stage was built behind the back hall of the Taichi Hall to listen to small plays. During major festivals, she would recruit people to sing in Changyin Pavilion. When Cixi lived in the Summer Palace, she liked to come to Dehe Garden to listen to operas during her spare time. During the Xianfeng period, the five styles of Hui, Han, Beijing, Qin and Kun merged to form Peking Opera. During the Guangxu period, Peking Opera gradually matured. Artists often went to the palace to sing for the Queen Mother, which also expanded their influence among the people and accelerated the development of Peking Opera. Cixi experienced the history of Peking Opera from its formation to maturity, and also promoted this development process from a royal perspective. Therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi should have a certain status in the history of Peking Opera's development.

Among the three major stages of the late Qing Dynasty, I talked about the Changyin Pavilion in the Forbidden City before, and this time I saw the Dehe Garden in the Summer Palace. These two places were the National Center for the Performing Arts at that time, and the Changyin Pavilion was the main store. Heyuan is considered a semicolon. Qingyin Pavilion in Chengde Summer Resort is far away from the capital, so the emperor and his family did not go there many times to listen to operas. It no longer exists. The Qingyin Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace was destroyed early. Cixi should have gone there to listen to a play, but she had no chance to sit in the front seat, which was the seat of Empress Niu Gulu.

After looking around the Dehe Garden, there was no sound of famous actors in my ears. Although traditional drama has not been extinguished, it has lost its former glory.

A poem by Hu Fu called "An Occasion of the Garden of Virtue and Harmony"

The tower stands tall, the golden palaces are clustered, and the red tents and painted beams are as before. The verandahs are bright and the vats are new. Old stones and broken trees, old houses with new care. Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle.

The music and drums are dark, the sound is pure and pale, and only the empty platform is covered with dust. The emperor and empress died, and Tan Chengfeng died. The long sleeves are flowing, and the past is like smoke. Over, over, over.

(To be continued)