World Cultural Heritage: Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu (2)

The Temple of Confucius lies at the south gate of Qufu, and is the temple enshrining Confucius. The temple is the model of over 2,000 Confucian temples across China, North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and the United States. It is said that the Temple of Confucius was first built in 478 B.C. and there were only three houses at that time. Through continual construction, it was gradually developed into a large architectural complex with over 100 temples and 460 rooms, covering an area of about 95,000 square meters. In terms of scale, the Temple of Confucius is the second largest ancient architectural complex that exists in China, next to the Imperial Palace, and it can also be called the model of large-scale ancient temple architecture in China.

The overall design of the Temple of Confucius is very successful. A road was paved in front of the temple, with Chinese junipers planted on both sides, giving people a solemn atmosphere and feeling of great reverence. The main body of the temple runs through a central axis, creating a symmetrical and rigorous layout. There are nine interlinking courtyards from the front to back, and the first three are guiding courtyards, which only have a few small rooms. The pines and cypresses grow in the courtyards in rows, creating a clear and tranquil atmosphere with the shade. The deep and quiet aisles between the towering pines and cypresses not only gives people a feeling of the temple’s long history, but also reflects the profoundness of Confucius’s sayings. There are also writings on horizontal inscribed boards on the archways that highly praise Confucius' great achievements, giving people strong impressions and inspiring great reverence for Confucius. Beginning from the fourth courtyard, the buildings are majestic with yellow tiles, red walls, and green trees that complement each other beautifully, reflecting the broad and profound feeling of Confucianism and Confucius’ great achievements. The two buildings to the east and west, which are 166 meters long and used for worshipping famous Confucian philosophers, shows the long history of Confucianism.