The drama Beijing Fayuan Temple portrays a story which occurs at the late Qing Dynasty with severe and lingering rottenness and crisis for over 100 years.

 

The work integrates intricate elements like life and death, country and family, emperor and courtiers, China and foreign countries, strength and weakness, public and private, etc. This brutal and cruel history is presented through the court, populace and temple on the stage.

 

As elites and people with lofty ideals, abundant emotions and generous aspirations strive to transform destinies of the country and families at the verge of China’s demise and destruction, where is the way out?

 

 

Mr. LI Ao depicts a series of historical events from 1888 to 1927, based on the activities of KANG Youwei, LIANG Qichao, TAN Sitong, Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi as the line of context.

 

Prevention for the backward situation of late Qing Dynasty from being bullied through reforms is the central event and Fayuan Temple is the major location. The adaptation of the screenplay is based on the main stage time within 10 days from September 11th to 21st, 1898.

 

It includes excerpts from the book, including Emperor Guangxu summoning KANG Youwei, ideas development of Constitutional Reform and Modernization, heroic manner of TAN Sitong and LIANG Qichao pursuing new solutions by learning from western countries, aiming to demonstrate the spiritual outlook of historical figures of this period.

 

 

With another name of Aozhi, LI Ao is a thinker, writer, master of liberalism, sinologist, Chinese modern historian, current affairs critic, historian and poet. Characterized by incisive writing style and ironic criticism, he writes freely so that he praises himself as “No.1 master of Chinese vernacular writings”. 

 

 

National Theatre of China (NTC) is a national arts group under Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. It has abundant resources and brilliant artistic theatrical cultural traditions. Represented by OUYANG Yuqian, LIAO Chengzhi, WU Xue, SHU Qiang, JIN Shan and SUN Weishi, generations of drama predecessors lay a solid foundation for birth, development, inheritance and innovation of NTC.