Located inside the South Gate of Qufu City, Shandong Province, this temple is used to sacrifice Confucius. It was initially built in 478 B.C., using Confucius' former residence as the temple, and built according to the specifications of an imperial palace. It is one of the three major ancient architectural complexes in China, holding an important position in the history of world architecture. The Confucius Temple in Qufu is the main temple for sacrificing Confucius, serving as the precursor and model for over 2000 Confucius temples distributed in China, North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, and the United States. It is said that the Confucius Temple was originally built in 478 B.C., when Confucius' former residence was renovated into a temple the year after his death (478 B.C.). Successive emperors continuously bestowed titles on Confucius and expanded the temple. By the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Yongzheng ordered a major renovation, expanding it to its current scale. The temple has nine courtyards, with the north-south axis divided into left, middle, and right paths, stretching 630 meters long and 140 meters wide, containing more than 460 halls, chambers, altars, and pavilions, and 54 gates and archways engraved by lasers. There are "Imperial Stele Pavilion" with 13 pavilions, owning over 100 buildings and more than 460 rooms, covering an area of approximately 95,000 square meters in this massive architectural complex. The Confucius Temple houses a large number of steles and stone carvings in the Hall of Holy Traces, the Thirteen Stele Pavilions, and the east and west corridors of the Dacheng Hall. In particular, the preserved Han dynasty steles are the largest collection nationwide. The steles from various dynasties are also rare treasures. Its numerous steles only second to the Xi'an Stele Forest, thus earning it the title of the second stele forest in China. The Confucius Temple is the second largest existing ancient architectural complex in China after the Forbidden City, and can be regarded as a model of large-scale ancestral temples in ancient China.
The overall design of the Confucius Temple is very successful. Before the temple lies a sacred path, with Chinese cypress planted on both sides, creating an atmosphere of solemnity and cultivating reverence among visitors. The main body of the temple runs along a central axis, symmetrically laid out. There are nine courtyards in succession, the first three being introductory courtyards with some smaller doorways and arches. Pine trees are planted throughout the courtyards, creating a serene environment. The towering cypress and ancient pines form a deep avenue, evoking the long history of the Confucius Temple and highlighting the profundity of Confucius' thought. Each gateway and archway carries inscriptions highly praising Confucius' achievements, leaving a strong impression and naturally arousing respect. After the fourth courtyard, the architecture becomes grander, with yellow tiles, red walls, and green trees complementing each other, symbolizing the depth and greatness of Confucius' thought and his great contributions. The eastern and western wings housing Confucian sages, each 166 meters long, symbolize the long-standing influence of Confucian thought.
The Confucius Temple comprises more than 100 buildings and over 460 rooms, covering an ancient construction area of about 16,000 square meters. The main structures include the Jin-Yuan Stele Pavilion, the Ming Dynasty Kuíwén Pavilion, the Apricot Altar, the Déyáng Tiāndì Archway, etc., the Qing Dynasty rebuilt Dacheng Hall, the sleeping hall, etc. The wooden construction techniques of the Golden Stele Pavilion possess many Song-style features: sparse dougong brackets, gradually increasing lengths of guazi gong, ling gong, and man gong, six-ply interior jumps reduced by two plies, identical appearances between column head dougong and supplementary order dougong, etc. The combination method of the main hall courtyard surrounded by corridors is a rare surviving example of the commonly used enclosed temple style during the Song-Jin periods. Buildings such as the Dacheng Hall, the Sleeping Hall, the Kuíwén Pavilion, the Apricot Altar, and the Dacheng Gate adopt a wood-stone hybrid structure, which is also a relatively rare form. The arrangement and detailed techniques of the dougong brackets are flexible, with varying numbers of bracket sets depending on need, differing densities, and varying lengths of arches. Even to compensate for visual deficiencies, arches like xiang gong, wan gong, and gua gong are lengthened, making the lengths of adjacent bracket sets in the same building differ, and the lengths of arches on either side of the same column head vary greatly. This is a unique feature of the Confucius Temple's architecture.
The Confucius Temple preserves 1044 steles from the Han dynasty onward, recording feudal emperors' bestowals, additional honors, sacrifices to Confucius, and records of the construction of the Confucius Temple. There are also poems and writings by emperors, generals, scholars, and literati visiting the temple. The scripts include Chinese, Mongolian, Phagspa, and Manchu, and the calligraphy styles include regular, cursive, clerical, and seal scripts, providing valuable historical materials for studying politics, economy, culture, and art in feudal society. Among the steles, there are more than twenty Han dynasty steles and inscriptions, making it the place with the most preserved Han dynasty steles in China. The Yibing Stele, Lique Stele, Kongqi Stele, and Shichen Stele are representative works of Han clerical script, while the Zhang Menglong Stele and Jia Shijun Stele are models of Wei style. Additionally, there are masterpieces of calligraphy by Sun Shifan, Mi Fu, Dang Huaiying, Zhao Mengfu, Zhang Qiyan, Li Dongyang, Dong Qichang, Weng Fanggang, etc., inscribed by laser engraving, as well as signatures by Yuan Hao Wen, Guo Zijing, etc., and the large-scale calligraphy collection Yu Honglou Fa Tie consisting of 584 stones compiled by Kong Jisu. The steles of the Confucius Temple are a treasure house of ancient Chinese calligraphy art.
Famous stone carvings in the Confucius Temple include Han dynasty pictorial stones, Ming-Qing engraved stone columns, and Ming dynasty engraved Saintly Traces Diagrams, etc. There are more than ninety Han dynasty pictorial stones, with rich and diverse themes, including records of social life, historical stories, and mythological legends. The carving techniques vary, including line engraving and relief sculpture. Line engraving includes sunken ground, carved ground, plain ground, and lined ground; relief sculpture varies in depth, with smooth or rough surfaces. The styles range from rigorous and meticulous to bold and unrestrained, with flowing lines and beautiful shapes. There are seventy-four carved stone columns from the Ming and Qing dynasties, fifty-six with sunken ground engraving and eighteen with high relief. The patterns of sunken ground engraving mostly feature small cloud dragons and phoenix peonies, carved in the seventh year of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing dynasty. The Chongsheng Shrine features peonies, pomegranates, lotus flowers, and other floral designs, with beautiful compositions, relics from the seventeenth year of Hongzhi in the Ming dynasty. The masterpiece of stone carving is the relief dragon column; the ten columns at the front of the Dacheng Hall, each six meters tall, are the tallest. The two dragon columns at the Chongsheng Shrine feature vigorous dragon postures and lively cloud forms, reaching the highest artistic level. Additionally, the shallow relief cloud dragon stone steps at the Shengshi Gate, Dacheng Gate, and Dacheng Hall also have high artistic value. The Saintly Traces Diagrams were completed in 1592 during the twentieth year of the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, based on the Song-Jin wooden engravings in the Confucius Temple and supplemented. Compiled by Mao Fengyi, a student of the Confucius Academy in Qufu, painted by Yang Zhi of Yangzhou, and engraved by the stone worker Zhang Cao of Suzhou, there are one hundred and twenty images, vividly reflecting the life journey of Confucius. It is one of the earliest large-scale serial paintings in China and has high historical and artistic value. For more than two thousand years, the Confucius Temple in Qufu has been repeatedly destroyed and repaired but never abandoned. Under the protection of the state, it has developed from a private residence of Confucius into a vast architectural complex comparable in scale and form to imperial palaces. Its long duration and abundant records can be considered a unique case in the history of human architecture.
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