When you go to the theater for enjoying the Peking Opera, you may often see there are some tables and chairs displayed in the center of the stage. As a matter of fact, all of those tables and chairs belong to the stage properties which are called Da Dao Ju. Usually speaking, those tables and chairs are made of wood and painted with red color. In addition, in the performing process, the different placing methods of the tables and chairs have different meanings.
What they stand for are the different places and environment. For example, if a table on the stage is possible to stand for the dining table, bed and mausoleum as well as represents for floor and mountain. In the same sense, each chair at stage can be the inner door, the study room, the wall, gate and well and so on. However, when combing the table and chair together, they can be the symbol of gate tower and vessels.
If the tables and chairs are combined in different forms and numbers, there are more different meanings and connotations. Students who come to study in China should know the different layouts indicate various meanings even though there is only one table and chair. If there is one table in the center and one chair behind it, it is called Da Zuo. According to the different things on the table, it can stand for the study room and law court and even indicate people are sleeping. If the chair is put on the table, it is called Xiao Zuo, meaning there is nothing to do or wait for news.
When there are one table and two chairs, the table should be placed in the center while one chair in each side, forming the shape of “八”. In this case, those foreign students who come to Chinese school to study Mandarin should know it means the host and the guest are talking, or drinking or the couple sitting together.
If three tables and three chairs are combined together to form the shape of 品, it can represent for the law court or the banquet with a certain scale in accordance with the things on the table. In addition, there are also many layout styles like two tables and two chairs, two tables and four chairs, three tables with five chairs as well as three tables and six chairs.