Confucius Temple

The Confucius Temple stands within the compound of the Ancient Academy (School Palace) on the northern side of North County Government Street, and it constitutes the core building of the academy. Construction began in the 3rd year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1370), and multiple renovations were carried out during the Yongle, Chenghua, Hongzhi, Jiajing and Wanli reigns.

The main hall facing south is the Hall of Great Accomplishment. It was originally named the Hall of the Great Sage, and the name was revised by Magistrate Ma Yinglong in the 23rd year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty. It is the principal structure of the temple. Its foundation platform measures 23.3 metres from east to west and 17.3 metres from north to south. The hall stands 13.4 metres tall, with five bays spanning 21 metres in width and four roof trusses extending 14.56 metres in depth. The construction area covers 305.76 square metres, and the total area including overhanging eaves reaches 444 square metres.

The entire hall is built with interlocking wooden beams. It features a nine-ridge hip-and-gable roof with four sloping sides. The roof surface is broad with a gentle gradient, decorated with glazed ridge ornaments carved with coiled dragons. A pagoda finial crowns the roof peak. The upturned eaves adopt the gable hip roof style with soaring corner brackets. There are seven layers of projecting eaves with multiple tiers of dougong brackets. The eaves are adorned with three-dimensional cloud-and-dragon carvings, including 98 dragon heads of varying sizes and 160 cloud patterns. The carving technique is superb with bold, vigorous lines. Beneath the eaves run five horizontal wooden relief panels depicting human figures, birds and beasts, flowers and plants, insects and fish, all rendered vividly.

A vertical wooden plaque inscribed with "Hall of Great Accomplishment" hangs centrally under the main bay eave. The interior beams are decorated with imperial dragon-and-phoenix polychrome paintings, entwined with cloud dragons. Nine purlins and eight cross beams are painted with fine patterns. The floor is paved with square bricks, and the ceiling features an octagonal caisson. Twenty-six vermilion columns of full girth support the beams.

At the rear of the central bay stands a red-lacquered wooden shrine. Inside rests a gilded spirit tablet engraved with "The Spirit of Confucius, the Most Sage Ancient Teacher of Great Accomplishment", flanked by two smaller shrines on each side. Centered above the shrine gate is a horizontal plaque bearing the four characters "Teacher of All Ages", reproduced from the calligraphy of Zhu Xi, a Confucian scholar of the Song Dynasty. Higher up hangs a giant plaque inscribed with "Neutrality, Harmony, Proper Position and Nurture". An offering table is placed before the shrine, flanked by candlesticks with an incense tripod in the middle.

In front of the hall lies a stone terrace, 13.32 metres long east-west, 11.78 metres wide north-south and 1.2 metres high. One ancient pagoda tree and one green cypress grow on the terrace. Five side chambers stand on both the east and west sides of the hall, housing ritual vessels, sacrificial utensils and wooden spirit tablets of distinguished Confucian scholars through the ages. Further south are two stele corridors on the east and west respectively.

Grand sacrificial ceremonies for Confucius were traditionally held on the first Ding day of the second and eighth lunar months. Rituals began at midnight, with candlelight bright as daylight and curling incense smoke. Suona music rang out alongside the chimes of bronze bells and stone chimes.

In the 16th year of the Republic of China, when Feng Yuxiang governed Henan Province, the temple was demolished and religious statues destroyed. All spirit tablets inside were burned to ashes. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, partial repairs were made. In 1959, the temple was designated a county-level protected cultural relic. During the Cultural Revolution in 1966, the roof ridge ornaments, mythical beast figurines and eave decorations were ruined, and the eastern and western side chambers suffered severe damage.

Surviving structures today include the five-bay Hall of Great Accomplishment, the courtyard compound with east and west side chambers, as well as the ancient cypress and pagoda trees. The Hall of Great Accomplishment has been converted into an exhibition hall of the county cultural centre, displaying cultural relics, paintings and calligraphy. In addition, the Minglun Hall in the backyard once housed the former Private Datong Middle School of Qi County. For this reason, the whole temple was listed as a Provincial Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit of Henan Province in 1985.