From Thanking God To Entertaining People: Research On The Spatial Form Evolution Of Traditional Temple Theaters Along The Routes Of Hubei-Sichuan In Ming&Qing

There are large amount of traditional Temple Theaters existing along the Multi-Cultural route of Hubei-Sichuan, which are independent and closely related to each other, and showing the characteristics of its inheritance and evolution. Although the quantity of the existing Traditional Theaters is multitudinous, the current preservation situation is not that optimistic due to lack of protection or improper maintenance. Based on historical literature and field research, this paper makes comprehensive use of advanced theories and research results such as Sociology, Folklore and Dramatic Study, to investigate the spatial form evolution of traditional Temple Theaters through the whole historical timeline in Ming&Qing.(1)From Religion to Secularity:Clarify the characteristics of Temple Theaters by tracing back to its historical evolution and hackling the space distribution. Traditional dramas originated from sacrificial songs and dances, but not directly developed to drama. Drama gradually played a dominant role in folk culture until Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty and became an important content in sacrificial activities, which in this time established a connection with sacrifice. Traditional theater established its basic architectural form in Song Dynasty, which in turns promoted the development of drama. In Ming&Qing, drama has been developed into two routes----elegance and earthliness, which constantly enrich the folk culture. From then, large numbers of Temple Theaters have been built, and the main function of these theaters have been transformed from thanking god to entertaining people. During this period, the cultural route of Hubei-Sichuan presents multicultural exchange features, and formed a traffic network with waterways as its main frame, and the important nodes of this network usually became the most concentration area of Temple Theaters. Meanwhile, there are also some Temple Theaters in blood-relationship settlements have been preserved.(2)From worship to histrionism:Taking the spatial combination form of Temple Theaters as a pointcut, this paper focus on the spatial evolution of worship and drama space. The Temple Theaters are mainly composed by stage-centered performing space and main-hall-centered worship space. Under the pattern of taking stage-structure as the ceremonial entrance, the agglomerations spatial organization developed towards depth and width, and formed a variety of morphological composition. Based on the composition of stage-structure and main building, the Temple Theaters can be divided into a series of types, as one-hall-one-stage type, multi-hall-one-stage type, one-hall-multi-stage type, multi-hall-multi-stage type, etc. By exploring the prototype and variation of these types, we can tracking the spatial evolution of Temple Theaters. With the increasingly prosperous drama activities, sacrificial ceremony gradually transformed from a serious activity into carnival. In this case, the performing part of Temple Theaters became more specialized, preparation area, performing area and viewing area have been further refined and improved.(3)From thanking god to entertaining people:In the spatial distribution of the Temple Theatres, Hubei Province take Traditional Ancestral Hall as its main type, while diversified Temple and Guild Hall in Sichuan Province, presenting the regional distribution trend from thanking Gods to entertaining people, under the specific social background. Summarize the evolution of Temple Theaters'spatial characteristics from three perspectives, which are spatial organization, spatial experience, and spatial form. In Ming&Qing, most of the Temple Theaters along the route of Hubei-Sichuan have already developed into the spatial pattern that the performing part and the worshiping part are separated from each other. The evolution of spatial organization also developed from single-centered to double-centered, even multi-centered, architecture layout became more freedom, not restricted to axial symmetry mode, but also more free and flexible type. The performing space and worshiping space formed a sharp contrast of external and internal, noisy and quite, open and close. With the transition from worshiping god to entertaining people, the spatial evolution of Temple Theaters present the features that taking the performing space as the center of the building, expanding traditional courtyard space, and reducing the height of the stage to achieve more comfortable sight line and visual range. And the stage, courtyard, corridor and watching hall have made adjustments to meet the requirements of the drama scene.This paper study on the dying out traditional architecture type, to lay the theoretical foundation for the settlement public space design that adapting to the contemporary, which has important practical significance. From the perspective of multi-cultural route of Hubei-Sichuan, this paper breaks through single study area, which helps perfecting the heritage preservation system, and improving the level of heritage protection. Meanwhile, this paper converting research focus from stage structure to the whole theatrical buildings, conducting related research on folk activities and traditional local dramas, focusing on the bi-directional association between material and intangible heritages, and to provide ideas for the dual protection of both architecture and culture.