Tongcheng Confucian Temple

Tongcheng is the provincial-level historical and cultural city. During the time of Spring and Autumn Period, it was called Kingdom of Tongzi. This old city was famous in Song Dynasty and welcomed in Ming dynasty. It is widely blooming in Qing Dynasty; in particular, it was extensively famous for Tongcheng Academy. Tongcheng academy was famous for its classical articles and literary style of learning from the ancient essayist. Many famous people and representative of Tongcheng Academy left rich heritages. The ancient buildings are well decorating the whole city. Among them, Tongcheng Confucian Temple was excellent one.

Tongcheng Confucian Temple is the architectural group for local people’s Confucius Worship Ceremony. It is located in the center of city. It is facing the square and the prosperous streets. Famous people’s residences are mostly gathered in Old Street. According to the local historical records, the Confucian temple originally was located in the east suburb, and in 1314, it is collapsed in a fire. During Ming Dynasty, it is removed to the current site. Later due to the wars and the undermining of rains and winds, totally it was reconstructed for more than 19 times.

Confucian Temple is centralized with the Dacheng Hall, and takes the middle line between south and north to be the axe. The main buildings are gate tower. Palace wall, school, Dacheng Gate, Chongsheng Temple, Earth-Immortality Temple and the east and west long corridor. The total area of the temple is 3200 square meters.

There are also many wood-carvings, basso-relievo to illustrate the story of Confucius’ life experiences, and the pictures of fishermen, peasants and firewood cutter’s reading, and so on. The Tongcheng Museum is also located in this temple. The collections from Neolithic stoneware to chinaware of Song Dynasty. Totally there are 1245 pieces of collections. Many of them are rare and absolutely valuable.