A Study On Huguang Hall And Drama In BaShu

Sichuan is located in the southwest of China,known as "the land of abundance",and it has the special geographical location.From the period of Qing to Republic of China,there were 530 Huguang Guildhall in Bashu area,but nowthere are about 20 in existence.Huguang Guild Hall is the main place of Huguang immigration activities,and also is the product of Huguang filling Sichuan,which has rich historical and cultural information.In the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty,because of the influence of war and natural disasters,the aboriginal population decreased sharply,resulting in social unrest and the destitution of everything.Therefore,the ruler had to adopt the law of immigration.After emigration into Sichuan,most of the native people live together,and set up mutual aid organizations with the center of the Guild.Because Huguang and Bashu are adjacent to each other and cultural customs are similar,which causes the situation that the number of Huguang immigrants is the largest and the Huguang Halls are extensive distribution.Generally speaking,the Huguang Guild Hall is distributed in the vast areas except western Sichuan.The overall distribution of Huguang Guild is decreasing from east to west,and is concentrated along the channel of entering Sichuan,the banks of the Changjiang River,the political and economic center,and so on.The Huguang Guild Hall has many functions,such as offering sacrifices to gods,expressing homesickness,meeting and deliberating,Its activities include sacrifice,deliberation,village covenant and drama,among which drama activities are the most frequent.The layout of the Huguang Guild Hall are mostly in the form of temple,which usually includes the theater building,the auditorium,and the main hall.This layout forms an independent and closed performance place.The theater's layout has the characteristics of adjacenting rivers,ports,and economic administrative centers.It alsohas the characteristics of symmetrical central axis of temples and distinct levels of courtyard layout.The opera building is located in the entrance position and can be viewed from many directions.We can watch the performance from left,middle and right three sides,and the stage performance space is also big enough.The opera building is constructed by reducing the position of the columns and moving the columns to expand the performance space.The stage of singing more uses exquisite roof,and adornment is alsoquite exquisite.The roof is joined to the courtyard wall and its structure is exquisite.The place of acting and make-up constitute a whole,and the whole shape is like "tu".The main room is dedicated to worship gods.Stage's decoration used a variety of skills to make it morebeautiful.Drama is the main activity of the Huguang Guild Hall.It takes the opportunity of the birth of the Gods,the festival gathering,the annual meeting and the commercial trade.It also has many forms of drama,such as god drama,stage drama,festival drama,troupe-worship drama,commercial drama and so on.In the content of the drama,the first stage of emigration is mainly based on the local opera in his hometown.After the formation of Sichuan opera in the later period of emigration,the drama is mostly Sichuan opera.In the function of drama,it has the function of offering sacrifices to gods,and it also plays a vital role in enlightening the villagers and entertaining the people.Since the Republic of China,due to natural disasters such as landslides,earthquakes,floods and other natural disasters,as well as fire,war,urban development and other man-made reasons,the Huguang Guild Hall has disappeared rapidly.