Founded in the early years of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, the Shaanxi Guildhall was jointly funded and built by Shaanxi migrants who came to Zhaotong during the Qing Dynasty. It served as a venue for discussions, gatherings, listening to hometown accents, and alleviating homesickness. Guan Yu was once enshrined inside, and it was commonly known among the people as the "Shaanxi Temple". Over time, the Shaanxi Temple underwent multiple renovations, with two major ones carried out in the 22nd year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty (1817) and the 8th year of the Republic of China (1919).
Facing south with its back to the north, the Shaanxi Guildhall features an overall layout along the central axis, consisting of an opera stage, a front hall, a middle hall, and a main hall. The front hall houses the Mingtang (also used as a stage-viewing area), while the middle hall embodies the "Sishuigui Tang" (Four-Sided Water-Returning Courtyard) architectural style. Integrating traditional Chinese architecture with Huizhou-style architecture, the guildhall boasts carved beams and painted rafters, a magnificent momentum, and exquisite craftsmanship in brackets, wood carvings, stone carvings, colored paintings, and gray-plaster ridge decorations. It holds high scientific and architectural artistic value, standing as a representative of traditional architecture in Yunnan during the Qing Dynasty. In 2013, it was designated as a municipal-level cultural heritage protection unit by Zhaotong City.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Shaanxi Guildhall was used by the Zhaotong County Grain Bureau in the 1950s, as a production workshop by the Zhaotong County Wool Textile Cooperative in the 1960s, and later converted into the Banna Carpet Factory of Zhaotong Prefecture in the 1970s. These units carried out renovations to varying degrees during their occupancy. In accordance with the new-era cultural heritage protection policy of "protection first, strengthened management, value exploration, effective utilization, and bringing cultural relics to life" and the renovation principles of "not changing the original state of cultural relics" and "minimum intervention", the Zhaotong Municipal People's Government raised funds for its protection and renovation in 2023.
The front eaves of the front hall feature the Mingtang, whose platform is a blue stone Xumizuo (Buddhist pedestal) inlaid with 13 stone carvings of different themes (9 on the front, 2 on each of the left and right sides). Among these, the one on the central axis is the "Four Virtues Stele" of Hanshou Tinghou (a title of Guan Yu), engraved with the seal script "Do good deeds, speak good words, read good books, be a good person" using various seal script styles (Zhongding seal script, Dafang seal script, Liuye seal script), with vigorous and forceful calligraphy. This stele inherits the 1,800-year-old sacred teachings of Guan Yu, which are not only his family instruction to his sons Guan Ping and Guan Xing but also a life guide he left for future generations. Though the "Four Virtues" of Guan Yu's teachings consist of only 12 simple and accessible characters, they are profound in meaning, capable of reaching deep into the soul and helping to cultivate an excellent character.
The stone carvings flanking the "Four Virtues Stele" depict religious stories such as "The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" and "Bodhidharma Crossing to the East". On the eastern and western edges are two stone carvings of exceptional calligraphic art: one is an excerpt from Stele of Lord Huangfu, the Left Guanglu Doctor and Hongyi Minggong of the Sui Dynasty in regular script by Zhang Yunsheng of the Republic of China, and the other is an excerpt from Confucius Temple Stele in clerical script by Zhang Hongmao of the Republic of China. Rich in content, these stone carvings have been interpreted through the good deeds and righteous acts of countless virtuous people throughout history, embodying the traditional virtues of Chinese civilization. Every good person carries a powerful force that shocks the soul and inspires progress, representing the direction of China's cultural advancement.
The stone carvings on the left and right sides of the Mingtang are paintings of "pine, bamboo, plum, orchid" by He Yueqiao, a renowned painter of Zhaotong in the Qing Dynasty. These 13 stone carvings of different themes are separated by stone pillar couplets, with examples including the clerical script couplet "Act in accordance with natural principles, speak in line with people's hearts" and the running script couplet "The warm wind fragments the birds' songs; the high sun thickens the flower shadows".
Entering the middle courtyard through the stone arch doors on both sides of the Mingtang, one finds east and west wing rooms. The second floor of the wing rooms features hexagonal pavilions and meirenkao (traditional Chinese benches with curved backrests), which echo the Mingtang and serve as additional opera-viewing areas. Together with the middle hall and the rear eaves of the front hall, they perfectly form the "Sishuigui Tang" (Four-Sided Water-Returning Courtyard) architectural feature. "Standing here and looking up, surrounded by eaves, the sky is only a long strip, and a silence isolated from the outside world pervades." Standing in this courtyard, one is surprised to discover a hidden world within this small space: on sunny days, sunlight spills in; on rainy days, water cascades down the four eaves. Wind, light, rain, and snow converge here, creating scenery in all four seasons.
