The Old Yangtun Opera House

The Old Yangtun Opera House

The Old Yangtun Opera House is a cultural relic protection unit of Hebei Province.

The Old Yangtun Opera House, also known as the Dragon King Temple Opera House, is located in an open area in the village, facing south. The roof of the opera house features a triple interconnected roll-roofed front slope modified into a hip-and-gable style. It is 13.7 meters wide and 8.5 meters deep. The stage foundation is built with four layers of stone slabs, standing 1.2 meters high. The building covers a floor area of 116 square meters. It has six wooden beams and uses a central column with a front and rear beam structure. The roof transitions from the front purlin column into a hip-and-gable front slope. Below the front purlin column frame beam extends a horizontal bracket beam, the rear end of which supports a floral-shaped intersecting gold pier, bearing the Xiepijin hip-and-gable large timber. The front end of the Xiepi is connected to the rear end of the golden purlin, with the joint supported by a hanging column. The corner beams are stone-supported, with the rear end of the old corner beam directly inserted into the heavy column, and the head of the horse corner beam fitted with a dragon-headed decorative beast. There are four front clear columns, while the golden columns use a reduced-column construction method, and the rear golden columns use a shifted-column method, enlarging the stage space. The eaves columns rest on round stone bases, and the eaves columns are adorned with double downward tenon five-step bracket sets. The bracket sets sit on stone corbels, with a dragon extending outward parallel to the bracket arm. A bracket set rises from the dragon’s head, with the bracket tenon shaped like an unusual dragon head. The end cross-section of the projecting arm is convex. The dragon heads, tenon mouths, and projecting arms are all painted gold, and the inner bracket sets are decorated with a waist-tied floral goblet shape. The inner eaves feature a golden flying dragon pattern. The side walls of the stage are built like double-layer flower screens, with a circular window in the middle.

This opera house is currently the best-preserved and largest one in our county. The architectural technique of transforming the roll-roofed front slope into a hip-and-gable style, as well as the design of the bracket sets, both exhibit distinct local characteristics. They demonstrate how folk craftsmen not only adhered to the basic construction methods of wooden architecture but also adapted materials ingeniously, showcasing creative ingenuity. It is an ancient opera house still in use today and is now a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Hebei Province