The great righteousness reaches the sky
The Shanxi-Shaanxi-Gansu Guild Hall is located on the north side of Xufu Street in Kaifeng City. It was built in the 41st year of the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty (1776) and was funded and constructed by wealthy merchants from Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces who resided in Kaifeng. The guild hall integrates a temple with the guild, serving both as a temple for worshiping Guan Yu and as a bond to maintain unity among merchants. Today, only the Guandi Temple part of the guild hall remains, with a quadrangle layout. The main buildings are placed on the central axis, consisting of a screen wall, opera tower, archway, and main hall from south to north, with auxiliary buildings on the east and west sides, including side doors, Chuihua gates, bell towers, drum towers, wing rooms, and east-west cross courtyards. In June 2001, the guild hall was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit of the fifth batch.
The screen wall is in the shape of the character '一', located at the southern end of the central axis, facing the street, running east-west along the street, 8.6 meters high, 16.5 meters long, and 0.65 meters thick, divided into the base, wall body, and Wu Dian top, built of blue bricks. The base of the screen wall is a blue stone Sumeru base, above which is the body of the screen wall, with brick carvings of peonies and swastika-patterned frames on both sides. The back side is carved with the characters 'loyalty, righteousness, benevolence, and courage', the core of the wall is a stone carving of 'two dragons playing with a pearl', and the four corners are formed by stone carvings of 'cloud dragons holding longevity', creating forked corners. The wall body is decorated with brick carvings of figures, flowers, landscapes, animals, and antiquities, with diverse themes and exquisite techniques. Above the brick decorations is the Wu Dian top, covered with green glazed tiles.
Under the eaves of the screen wall are various shapes of brick carvings such as vases, flower arrangements, incense burners, book boxes, scrolls, musical instruments, etc. These patterns are not only decorative but also express people's good wishes. The pattern composed of vases, tables, and bats implies 'peace is a blessing'; the pattern composed of chrysanthemums, cranes, and reed leaves implies 'living in peace and working happily'. The pattern composed of two account books, one open and the other closed underneath, suggests that money only comes in and does not go out.
The opera tower, also known as the song tower, was used for festivals, sacrifices, fulfilling vows, and celebrating longevity in ancient times. The couplets on the tower read: 'Illusion is reality, the ways of the world and human feelings are vividly depicted; the present is like the past, news and old stories are performed without a hair out of place. Laughter on the stage, laughter off the stage, laughter everywhere provokes laughter; watching the ancients, watching the moderns, watching the past and present people watch people.' The opera tower of the guild hall was destroyed during the 'Cultural Revolution', and the existing opera tower was relocated here from the Kaifeng Fire God Temple. The opera tower has a 'convex' shaped layout, with two floors, the lower floor has a north-south passage for people to pass through without hindering walking and performances. There are end doors on both sides of the opera tower, but they are not often opened; the end door gatehouses have exquisite wood carvings and bright colors. There are stairs on the east and west sides of the opera tower that lead directly to the stage.
To the north of the opera tower, on both sides of the central axis, are the bell tower and the drum tower. The east side is the bell tower, and the west side is the drum tower. In ancient China, cities, important towns, and large temples all had bell and drum towers. The bell and drum towers of the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Gansu Guild Hall have survived wars and floods and are therefore extremely precious. This is also the only remaining ancient building of its kind in Kaifeng.
The archway is located in the northern part of the central axis, directly opposite the door of the opera tower, and south of the worship hall, with the front inscribed with 'The great righteousness reaches the sky', praising Guan Yu's spirit of loyalty and righteousness soaring to the heavens. The archway is a three-bay, six-column, five-story style without protruding heads, with a hip-and-gable roof. The columns are arranged in groups of three, forming a tripod shape, resembling chicken claws, hence the common name 'chicken claw archway'. This flat column net structure not only enhances the stability of the archway but also makes full use of the existing space, adding aesthetic interest. The central part of the archway is towering, with the side buildings slightly lower. The upper part of the main building is covered with green glazed tiles, with peony carvings on the ridge, a square pavilion in the middle, and a lion and an elephant on the sides, with the lion holding a lotus platform and the elephant carrying a treasure vase, looking lifelike. The ends of the ridge are adorned with chiwen, with 'sun' inscribed on the east and 'moon' on the west. 'Sun' represents wisdom, and 'moon' represents kindness.
The back of the archway hangs a plaque with 'Fame lasts forever', surrounded by through-carved 'two dragons playing with a pearl', finely crafted. Under the four corners of the archway, there are also eight murals depicting stories of Guan Yu, such as 'Sealing the Gold', 'Scraping the Bone to Treat Poison', 'Passing Five Barriers, Slaying Six Generals', etc. Under each corner of the archway, there are Chuihua columns, a total of eight, each carved with pomegranates, Buddha's hands, sunflower seeds, lotus pods, peonies, lotus flowers, flower baskets, etc. The lower part of each column is clamped on three sides with three drum-shaped stones. The surface of the drum stones is carved with 'green dragons among clouds', 'red phoenixes facing the sun', 'crane and cloud patterns', as well as 'Di Renjie climbing the mountain to look for his mother', 'The White Rabbit's Record', and other patterns.
The east and west wing rooms each have eight rooms, divided into southern and northern parts, with five rooms in the south and three rooms in the north forming a whole. Both the east and west wing rooms have hard mountain tops, gray tube tile roofs, and the roof ridges are decorated with high-relief blue brick peony flower ridges, with blue brick chiwen at both ends, and the hanging ridges are decorated with lions, tigers, horses, sheep, fish, and other animals. Above the front slope of the main room, a yellow 'diamond' shaped ridge heart is built, commonly known as 'yellow qi rushing to the sky'. Under the eaves of the east and west side halls, there are wood carvings on the eave boards, dougong, sparrow braces, baffle boards, and hanging columns, almost covered with wood carvings. The wood carvings are rich in content and cover a wide range of themes, including mountains, trees, flowers, birds, insects, fish, pavilions, towers, folk stories, and legends.
The main hall is the main building of the guild hall and the place where wood carving decorations are most concentrated and the artistic achievements are the highest, consisting of three halls. The front is the worship hall, three bays wide, the middle is the coffered ceiling, and the back is the main hall, all five bays wide. The three halls are connected by gutters, forming a whole, with a total area of 540 square meters. The wood carvings of the main hall are divided into three parts, from the eave beams of the worship hall to the eave boards, which are 1.7 meters wide, all decorated with wood carvings, divided into seven layers. The first layer is small bats, implying blessings everywhere; the second layer is cloud-shaped through-carved patterns, implying connected fortunes; the third layer is two dragons playing with a pearl, with nine groups of eighteen dragons, each in different shapes; the fourth layer is auspicious birds and beasts, such as deer, horses, monkeys, sheep, qilin, elephants, and 'three rams bringing prosperity'; the fifth layer is patterns composed of flowers and plants, such as lychee, tangerine, fairy peach, pine, bamboo, plum, orchid, etc.; the sixth layer has magpies disturbing plum blossoms, mandarin ducks playing in the water, frogs lying on lotus, as well as hibiscus, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, cranes, etc., dazzling; the seventh layer is carved with eye-catching two dragons playing with a pearl, peonies, green dragons soaring through the clouds, and phoenixes spreading their wings to fly on a wide screen of about one foot. The eave boards inside the coffered ceiling are also covered with colorful paintings, with a stone table in the center, made in the 12th year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty (1807), with the front carved with 'Eight Immortals Celebrating Longevity', finely crafted. The main hall is covered with gray tiles and green tile edges; inside, red columns stand tall, with four bases. The seated statue of Guan Gong in the hall, stroking his beard with his right hand and holding a scroll with his left, is a typical representation of Guan Gong reading the 'Spring and Autumn Annals' at night. Next to the statue is a couplet: 'Virtue educates to match the three talents, not ashamed to look up to heaven or down to earth; loyalty shines through the ages, born as a hero and died as a spirit.'
The architectural style of the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Gansu Guild Hall is distinctive and elegant, especially its brick carvings, wood carvings, and stone carvings, which are diverse in form, rich in content, and cover a wide range of themes, known as the 'Three Excellences'. It presents a perfect unity of simplicity and beauty, boldness and grace, roughness and delicacy, calmness and fluidity, reflecting the integration of the style of the times and regional culture. It is an important physical material for studying the history of Qing Dynasty architecture, art history, and folklore.