Study on the Temple of Confucian Temple in Suzhou

Suzhou Confucian Temple is located in the center of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, across the street from Canglang Pavilion. It was founded by Fan Zhongyan in the Song Dynasty. In the second year of Jing Shou in the Northern Song Dynasty (1035), Fan Zhongyan, who was well-known in Suzhou at that time, combined Zhou Xue (later known as Fu Xue) with Confucius Temple, and created a system of integrating temple studies, which was imitated by later generations and other places. Therefore, there is a proverb that "the learning in the world began in Wu Jun". Suzhou Temple School was later rebuilt and expanded many times, covering an extremely vast area. According to the records of Wuxian County Records, there were 2 13 houses in the Chunyou period of the Southern Song Dynasty. In its heyday, in addition to halls and temples, there were lecture halls, study rooms, examination rooms and study rooms, and there were garden buildings such as rockeries, pools, bridges and pavilions, ranking first among all the study rooms in the southeast.

After the abolition of the imperial examination system in the late Qing Dynasty, the Confucian temple was gradually abandoned. It covers an area of about 6.5438+0.78 million square meters, which is only one-sixth of the peak period, but it still maintains the pattern of East Temple and West Learning, and the two axes are juxtaposed. East Temple has only Jimen, Dacheng Hall and Chongshen Temple, while Western learning has only Chi Pan, Qixingchi and Minglun Hall. Except Dacheng Hall and Lingxingmen, most of the existing buildings were rebuilt in the third year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty (1864).

Lingxingmen was built in the sixth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1373). It is a big bluestone archway with six columns, three doors and four leaves. Dacheng Hall was rebuilt in the 10th year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1474), with seven rooms wide and thirteen purlins deep, with double eaves and a roof supported by fifty nanmu columns. There is a bluestone platform outside the hall, dedicated to a giant bronze statue of Confucius, and a huge portrait of Confucius hangs in the hall, all made by modern people. Dacheng Hall, the most important building in the Confucian Temple, is magnificent, second only to Sanqing Hall, a mysterious temple in Suzhou.