Recounting the history of a past city

Stage designs for the historical drama, Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty, which will have its premiere at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Dec 10.

Wang Rui, director of the drama, at the media event on Oct 28.

Members of the creative team for the new drama pose at the NCPA in Beijing on Oct 28.

More than 700 years ago, Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), ordered the construction of a new capital. Around Qionghua Island, now part of Beijing's Beihai Park, a vast imperial city took shape, laying the foundations for Beijing's emergence as the political center of a unified China.

Known as Yuan Dadu, the city existed for less than a century, but its influence on Beijing's urban development endured. Today, traces of the Yuan capital can still be found in the city's historic hutong alleys and landmarks, from Beihai Park and the White Pagoda at Miaoying Temple to the Tonghui River.

Now, the story of how the city was built and of the people whose lives unfolded within its walls is heading to the stage.

The National Centre for the Performing Arts will present its original historical drama Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty from Dec 10 to 19, with no performance on Dec 14. The production is the second installment in the NCPA's series, which traces Beijing's evolution through pivotal moments in its history.

The trilogy opened with Zhongdu of the Jin Dynasty in December 2025, exploring how Beijing became the capital of the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) in 1153, when the ruling court moved its seat to the city and renamed it Zhongdu. The third installment is scheduled to complete the series in 2027.

Both productions were written by Xiong Zhaozheng, a prominent author whose four-volume novel Zhang Juzheng won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2005. For the new play, Xiong turns his attention to a city that, in his view, belonged not only to its rulers but also to the people who made it their home.

Rather than simply reconstructing an ancient capital, the production explores how a city emerges from political ambition and architectural planning, and how its identity is shaped by the lives of its inhabitants.

"We are not staging this play simply to re-create a city," says Zhang Yao, vice-president of the NCPA and the production's chief producer. "We want audiences to see how a capital moves from a blueprint on paper to an ordered space on the ground, and how the work of building a city eventually becomes part of its cultural identity."

The production also asks what the builders and guardians of Yuan Dadu left behind for people today, Zhang Yao adds.

That question has guided a creative process rooted in historical research. Before rehearsals began, the team traveled to sites in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Xingtai in Hebei province and Zhengzhou in Henan province, as well as Beijing and Shanghai. They consulted specialists in Yuan Dynasty history, archaeology, architecture and literature, and visited memorial halls dedicated to figures who helped shape the capital.

Among their destinations was the archaeological site of Yuan Shangdu, the earlier summer capital associated with Kublai Khan in present-day Inner Mongolia.

"Standing on the vast grasslands at Yuan Shangdu, where Kublai Khan's story took root, you can almost hear echoes from deep in history and sense the grand ambition behind his decision to build a capital," says director Wang Rui, who also directed the trilogy's first installment. "The experience deeply moved and inspired me."

The team also visited memorial halls dedicated to Liu Bingzhong, the scholar and adviser closely involved in planning Yuan Dadu, and Guo Shoujing, the astronomer, mathematician and hydraulic engineer whose work helped address the capital's water-management needs.

Historical advisers were brought in to help the production balance scholarly accuracy with theatrical expression.

Four historical figures form the narrative backbone of the play: Kublai Khan, the ruler who ordered the capital's construction; Liu Bingzhong, the planner who helped translate imperial ambition into an urban vision; Wen Tianxiang, the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) loyalist who resisted the Mongol conquest and became a symbol of patriotism; and Guan Hanqing, the celebrated Yuan Dynasty playwright whose works captured the struggles and emotions of ordinary people.

Through their intertwined stories, the drama moves between the calculations of the imperial court, the convictions of those who resisted the new regime and the everyday concerns of people living and working in the growing capital.

For Xiong, one of Yuan Dadu's defining characteristics was its capacity to bring people from different backgrounds together.

In contrast to the imperial ambitions that shaped Zhongdu of the Jin Dynasty, Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty was, in Xiong's words, "a shared home for people from across the realm".

The city was home not only to an emperor and his court, but also to ordinary residents whose livelihoods and customs helped shape its character. Different ethnic groups, cultural traditions and ways of life converged there, giving the capital a complexity that extended well beyond the ambitions of its rulers.

Wang says he does not intend to depict the construction of Yuan Dadu as a sequence of engineering achievements. Instead, he wants the act of building a city to generate the drama itself, with the choices, conflicts and actions of its inhabitants driving the narrative.

The staging will combine expressive, impressionistic imagery with carefully observed details. Movable door frames will serve as the central scenic device, shifting between city gates, household entrances and more metaphorical thresholds. As they open, close and overlap, the frames will suggest not only changes of location but also the boundaries between public life and private experience.

Landmarks associated with Yuan Dadu will be distilled into visual elements rather than reproduced as literal backdrops. The aim is to give the ancient city a tangible presence on stage while allowing its physical construction to take on a larger meaning.

The cast brings together performers experienced in historical drama and stage acting. Mongolian actor Bayaneruul will play Kublai Khan, while veteran actor Hou Changrong, widely known for playing Liu Xianglian in the 1987 television adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber, will portray Liu Bingzhong. Tong Ruixin takes the role of Wen Tianxiang, Hai Yitian plays Guan Hanqing, and Li Yixiao portrays Zhu Lianxiu, a celebrated female performer of zaju, a form of musical drama that flourished during the Yuan Dynasty. Having trained in Peking Opera from childhood, Li will draw on her traditional opera background in shaping the character.

For Hou, the production has offered an unexpected reason to return to the stage. The 66-year-old actor had been preparing to step back from acting when he encountered the script and found himself drawn to Liu Bingzhong's character.

"This role has tremendous appeal," Hou says. "When I first read the script, I was deeply moved by the character. I felt that many of my experiences over the years had prepared me for this role."

He notes that this production marks his first major undertaking in spoken drama. He has drawn on his earlier training in traditional Chinese opera, incorporating elements of its performance techniques and direct engagement with audiences into his portrayal.

"What matters most to me is getting to the heart of the character," Hou says. "I want to understand his essence and use whatever means are necessary to bring that out on stage."

For him, Liu's appeal lies less in dramatic outbursts than in the depth of his convictions and relationships. His bond with Kublai Khan combines the loyalty of a subject with the affection of a close friend, almost a brother. Yet their differing ideals ultimately drive them apart.

The emotional power of the role, Hou says, comes from restraint rather than confrontation, from the complex feelings simmering beneath a composed exterior.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn