quanjin guild hall
quanjin guild hall, also known as Shanxi guild hall, is located at No.14, Zhongjiaxiang, Pingjiang Road. It was listed as a cultural relic protection unit in Suzhou in 1963 and a cultural relic protection unit in Jiangsu Province in 1982.
In the 3th year of Qing Qianlong (1765), Jin merchants who traveled to Suzhou raised funds to establish the All-Jin Guild Hall, which was located on the Bantang Bridge in Shantang Street outside Changmen. In the 1th year of Xianfeng (186), it was destroyed by soldiers. Guangxu five years (1879) to the early Republic of China, a new museum was built at this site. Now it covers an area of about 6 square meters, facing south, and can be divided into three roads: middle road, east road and west road. The middle road is the head gate, the theater and the main hall in turn. The head door rests on the top of the mountain with a single eaves, with three wide rooms and five deep boundaries. There is a general door between the spine, and two black painted doors in the Ming Dynasty are painted with meticulous and colorful door gods, and a pair of drum stones are placed. With the spine as the boundary, the front is Haitangxuan, and the back is Crane Shanxuan. The beams are decorated with operas. The left and right sides of the head door are water-milled brick-faced eight-character walls, and the walls are decorated with brick carvings and dragons, and the rings are wrapped with branches. The top is covered with ridges and ridges, and operas are carved under the eaves. Under the wall, there is a bluestone sumeru pedestal, carved with "deer and crane in the same spring" and "lion rolling hydrangea". A pavilion-style square drum-blowing pavilion is built behind the left and right eight-character walls, with a single eaves resting on the top of the mountain, and the mountain faces outward, like a double-que towering, intersecting with the corner of the head door, showing the trend of uneven level. In the past, there were river ports and curved walls across the river, and the words "Gankun is upright" were engraved in the walls, which were all destroyed in the river filling campaign in the late 195s.
the theater building has two floors, with the instrument door and two corridors at the bottom, and the floor is composed of a stage extending from north to south, a backstage with five bays in rows, and five compartments vertically connected to the left and right. The stage rests on the top of the mountain, and it flies up. The forehead is carved with dragons, dragons and operas, with a pair of wooden baskets and a pair of lions hanging from the front. The stage is 6.55 meters wide, 6.24 meters deep, 2.7 meters high and 1 meters high. The dome-shaped caisson at the top of the platform is about 3 meters in diameter and more than 2 meters in height. It consists of 632 wood carving components, tenons and mortises, which are magnificent and colorful, and have the function of gathering sounds. This stage is the most exquisite one among the existing classical dance stages in Suzhou.
The main hall faces the theater, and the abutment is about 1.3 meters above the ground. The original hall was five rooms wide, with tiles hanging from the top of the mountain, which was destroyed by fire in January 1976. In 1986, the existing main hall was reconstructed from the original beam frame of Lingjiu Temple Hall, which was built on a single eaves and rested on a hill, making it spacious in Gao Shuang.
East Road * * * enters four times, with three rooms in width, followed by the concierge, the hall and the front and rear buildings. The buildings are connected by wing rooms, and they are still scattered into residential houses. There are concierge, osmanthus hall (also called Yuanyang hall) and nanmu hall on the west road. There is a garden between the two halls, dotted with lakes, rocks, marshes and flowers, which is small and exquisite and unique.
There are more than 1 original guild halls in Suzhou, and the Quanjin Guild Hall has well preserved the essence of the original building and become a complete typical guild hall complex. The middle road of the Guild Hall is a place for welcoming guests, offering sacrifices and performing for the gods. The building is temple-style, with lofty ridges and tiles, exquisite carving, magnificent and solemn, and has the architectural characteristics of Shanxi. The East-West Road is used by merchants for discussion, lodging, inventory and management, which is similar to the first house garden building in Suzhou.
from 1958 to 1984, the quanjin guild hall was used as a chemical plastic factory, a glasses factory, an optical instrument factory, a camera factory and a staff college of the machinery industry bureau, while the east road and the northwest corner were scattered as residential houses. After that, it was in disrepair, dilapidated, the main hall burned down and the stage was on the verge of collapse. After two years' planning, the renovation was started in October 1983, and all the users moved out in June 1984. The buildings on Middle Road and West Road were completely overhauled, and the main hall was moved and the garden was rebuilt, and the original appearance of the clubhouse was basically restored. The houses on Weidong Road and the northwest corner have yet to be repaired. In October, 1986, the Quanjin Guild Hall was officially opened to the public as the building of Suzhou Opera Museum, with special exhibitions such as Kunqu Opera, Pingtan, Su Ju and national musical instruments, as well as two restoration exhibition and performance venues, namely the classical stage and the Qing-style tea garden bookstore. Since the opening up, it has received more than 2, Chinese and foreign VIPs and audiences, which has had a good social impact.
Address: No.14, Zhongzhangjia Lane, gusu district, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province
Type: Museum Performance
Playing time: suggested 2-3 hours
Tel: 512-67275338
Opening hours:
Tuesday-Sunday 9:-17: (closed on Monday). Free tickets for visiting and watching performances range from 4-5 yuan.