To the south of Nanjing sits the Confucius Temple on the bank of Qinhuai River. The Qinhuai River is the longest tributary of the Yangtze River in Nanjing area, totaling 110 kilometers long.
Most of the buildings in the Confucius Temple area were rebuilt and renovated in the mid-1980s and 1990s and becomes a tourist site of culture and commerce.
It is an ideal place for tourist to understand traditional Chinese culture as well as enjoy shopping.
The Confucius Temple is the ritual place of worshipping and offering sacrifices to Confucius. Confucius is the great thinker philosopher and educator of ancient China.
Confucius was born in a declining noble family in the state of Lu. His surname is Kong, and his given name is Qiu.
He proposed to the power of the ducal king a number of policies and methods to stabilize the country. But he disappointed and returned to the native place. Then he accepted many disciples and gave them lectures. In his late years, he founded the earliest school in China history.
The temple here in Nanjing was first built in the Song Dynasty. Now the whole area includes 3great building complexes: Confucius Temple; Palace of learning and Imperial Examination Yard.
Now, this is the famous Qinhuai River – when the water reaches the city, the river is divided into two streams. One goes around the city walls, which is outer Qinhuai. The other goes into the urban area of the city through East Sluice and goes out of the city from the west sluice, then joins the outer Qinhuai and empties into the Yangtze, this is the inner Qinhuai or the well-known Qinhuai River,
On the southern bank of the river is the grand screen wall, 110 meters long. It is the biggest and oldest screen wall during the Ming Dynasty. The screen wall in front of the temple is to show than Confucian learning is too profound to be understand completely and ordinary. People couldn’t see the Palace of learning inside. It’s also worked for covering and decorating the temple.
Wende Bridge was a place where are can see two half-moons in the water.
This is because the bridge has the same direction as meridian.
On the northern bank of the river stands a memorial arch gate. The four characters on it read “the Centre of Chinese Classics” was destroyed and rebuilt for several times.
At the eastern corner of the square in front of temple is three-storied building named Kuixing Pavilion. Kuixing means the top candidate in the imperial examination in Chinese. The pavilion was a tea house for the ancient exam candidates to make friends with tea drinking as well as pray for the good luck.
At the western corner lies the Juxing Pavilion. As all the men of letters or literati were regarded as the stars in the sky, this Multiple Star Pavilion was specially built for their meetings.
The front of the temple is Lingxing gate. Lingxing means the cultural star in the sky.
Through the Lingxing gate we come to the Dacheng Gate. It is the front gate of the temple. Inside the gate we see a big marble table: Temple for re-construction of the Confucius Temple”, in both sides of the gate there are four old valuable tablets. “the Tablet of Confucius social and moral stand”, recorded the Confucius stand of administrating the country. Confucius proposed to the power of the ducal king of the Lu state a number of policies and methods to stabilize the country and to consolidate the ducal power after he had made investigations on the system of institutions in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. “Jiqing Confucius temple Tablet” was erected here in 1309, after the Yuan emperor had issued an imperial edict of “taking education as the state administration of the empire” in 1308.
In April 1986, when the Dacheng Hall of the temple was renovated, the tablet was unearthed from the ground and erected here again.
“Four saints Tablet” was erected in 1331, when Emperor Weng Zong of the Yuan Dynasty granted 4 Confucius disciples Yanhui, Zhengshen, Kongji and Mengke (Mencius),as four saints “Madame super Great Saint Tablet” was erected in 1331, together with the “Four Saints Tablet” to commemorate the wife of Confucius.
After we enter the Dacheng Gate we can see 8 marble statues of Confucius’s disciple. In the front of the Dacheng Hall, we can see a bronze statue of Confucius. This statue is the biggest one in China, Dacheng Hall was the place to enshrine and worship of Confucius. In the middle of the hall is the seat of the Super Great Saint Confucius. Whit 4 saints on the both side. They are YanHui, ZengShen, KongJi and MengKe.
The biggest picture of Confucius in China is hung on the wall. On the walls there are 38 pites of jade carvings telling the stories of Confucius life.
The Palace of Learning is a palace to train scholars in the old days. The present Confucius Temple was extended just on the basic of it.
Jiangnan Imperial Examination Center was located to the east of Confucius Temple. It is the first and only specialized museum presenting the imperial examination system in China. It was called Jiangnan Examination Center because there was Jiangnan province in the Qing Dynasty. The purpose of this system is trying to select the smart people to be the administrator for the government. Nevertheless, the content of examination was becoming more and more mechanical and insipid. The system was begin the 7th century and was end in 1905. When Zhu Yuan Zhang the first Emperor of Ming Dynasty made Nanjing as the capital, it once became a place of provincial examination.
The temple and marked join together is the big difference from other Confucius Temples in China. The Temple is also a place for social gathering, especially in two occasions: lantern Festival and mid-Autumn Day.
On the street, we can see many old restaurants where they serve all kinds of local snakes dumplings, beef noodles and Nanjing Duck. At the bird market, you’ll find different kinds of pets like goldfish, dogs and cats, etc.
This place is real China in your imagination. You can get some free time and explore this area by yourself.
