Yangping Guild Hall Theater

　　The Yangping Guild Hall Theater is situated in the northwest of Chongwen District, near Xiaotong outside Qianmen. The guild hall was first established in the Ming Dynasty and was repaired multiple times over the years. The theater was built and renovated during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. It is a magnificent structure, featuring a 12-rafter hip-and-gable roof with double-eave corridors in the front and back.

　　Inside the theater, the beams and columns are richly carved and decorated, giving off an opulent atmosphere. The audience stands are divided into two levels. The second floor faces the stage directly and consists of an official box with a rolled awning and front-veranda style roof. There are also side stands that can accommodate tables and benches. The railings of the stands are adorned with carved floral balusters, and staircases are located at all four corners for easy access. The main floor area is roughly square-shaped, resembling a pool, where square tables and long benches are placed for general audience seating. The stage itself is nearly square in shape, protruding from the performance area, and features a front-veranda design with a pair of stage pillars at the front and an overhead corridor. The stage is divided into three levels vertically, with openings above and trapdoors below, allowing for the setup of mechanical stage effects. On the walls on either side of the theater, murals are painted, and shrines are set up for ancestral worship. The back wall facing the stage is inlaid with four stone tablets that document the historical construction and renovation of the guild hall. However, due to severe weathering and human damage, most of the inscriptions have become illegible, with only the characters for “Yangping” and parts of other text still recognizable.

　　Originally, several large plaques hung inside the theater, but today only two wooden plaques with gold characters on a black background remain. One of them bears the inscription “Xingshi Duo” (Awakening Bell), written by Wang Duo, a renowned calligrapher of the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties.

　　The Yangping Guild Hall Theater is one of the best-preserved examples of a Qing Dynasty-style civilian guild theater in Beijing, notable for its large scale, exquisite architecture, and relatively intact condition. It holds scientific value for the study of guild hall layouts and the history of theatrical development. In 1984, it was designated as a municipal-level cultural relics protection unit.