The Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple

The Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple

The Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple is located on the north side of the middle section of Xin Qiao Street in downtown Quzhou, covering an area of 14,000 square meters with a built-up area of 7,490 square meters. The eastern and central axes of the temple were built during the Qing Dynasty’s Daoguang era and have since undergone renovations; the western axis of the temple, along with the Confucius Mansion and the Confucius Garden, was reconstructed starting in November 1998 with an investment of 16 million yuan from the municipal government, and was completed in May 2000, officially opening to the public on July 1, 2000.

I. Main Structures of the Ancestral Temple:

Eastern Axis: Main Gate, En Gong Shrine, Qi Sheng Shrine, and Divine Grace Tower.

Central Axis: Main Gate (Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple), Dacheng Gate, East and West Side Halls, and Dacheng Hall.

Western Axis: Main Gate (Ancestral Hall of the Confucius Mansion), Five Branches Shrine, Hereditary Title Shrine, Six-Generation Dukes Shrine, and Si Lu Pavilion.

Confucius Mansion: Screen Wall, Main Gate (Southeast Que Li), Grand Hall, Flower Hall, Inner Residence, with corridors and street-facing wing rooms on the west side.

Confucius Garden: A garden centered around the Da Zhong Hall, featuring pavilions, terraces, towers, pavilions, rockeries, corridors, and ponds.

II. Historical Development: From the establishment of the Confucius Ancestral Temple in Quzhou during the Southern Song Dynasty until the eve of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, it had always been managed by the direct descendants of Confucius as the “Yan Sheng Gong Mansion,” “Doctorate Office,” and “Ritual Officials Office.” After the liberation, it came under the management of the cultural authorities commissioned by the government. In 1999, the Quzhou Municipal Government placed full authority over the temple and the Confucius Mansion under the Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple Management Committee, a directly affiliated institution.

III. The Historical Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple and Mansion: In the third year of the Jianyan era (1129), the 48th-generation direct descendant and Yan Sheng Gong, Kong Duan You, accompanied the imperial court on its southern migration. During the Jianyan period, Emperor Gaozong of Song decreed that “temporarily, the state school be used as the ancestral temple.” By the mid-summer of the first year of the Baoyou era (1253) during the reign of Emperor Lizong of Song, with no hope of returning north, Yan Sheng Gong Kong Zhu and Quzhou Prefect Sun Zi Xiu petitioned to build a new ancestral temple. The imperial court allocated 360,000 strings of cash to construct the temple on Ling Lake in the northeast of the city, with over 200 rooms in total, matching the scale and design of the Qufu ancestral temple. It was completed in the second spring of the following year. In the late Song and early Yuan periods, the ancestral temple was destroyed in war and relocated to the south of the city, though “its layout was not the same as the original from the Baoyou era.”

In the 19th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1283), after court deliberation, the Southern Branch of the Kong family was recognized as the main lineage of Confucius, and Kublai Khan summoned the 53rd-generation direct descendant and Yan Sheng Gong, Kong Zhu, to the capital, ordering him to return to Qufu with his hereditary title to serve at the ancestral temple. However, Kong Zhu declined the title, citing that the temple and tombs were in Quzhou. The Yuan emperor praised him as “preferring honor without violating righteousness, truly a descendant of the sage,” and instead appointed him as the Sacrificial Official of the Imperial College to oversee the southern temple rites. Thus, the main branch of the Kong family lost its hereditary title.

In the 18th year of the Ming Dynasty’s Hongzhi era (1505), Quzhou Prefect Shen Jie submitted a memorial to Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, Zhu Houcong, stating: “Since Kong Zhu relinquished his title, the rituals and ceremonies at the Quzhou sacred temple have been no different from those of commoners. Now, we have found Kong Yan Sheng’s sixth-generation descendant, Kong Yan Sheng, and request that he be granted an official position to preside over the ancestral rites.” The following year, in the first year of the Zhengde era (1506), Emperor Wuzong of Ming, Zhu Houzhao, who succeeded the previous emperor, bestowed upon Kong Yan Sheng the title of Five Classics Doctorate of the Hanlin Academy, with hereditary succession for his descendants. Thus, after 224 years without a title, the main branch of the Quzhou Kong family regained official recognition. In 1935, the Nationalist Government abolished all feudal titles and instead appointed the 73rd-generation direct descendant, Kong Fan Hao, and the 77th-generation descendant, Kong De Cheng, as the “Sacrificial Officials of the Great Achieving Sage” for the Southern and Northern branches respectively.

Regarding the Southern Branch of the Kong family, Mr. Kong De Cheng wrote in the 1937 preface to the Genealogy of the Kong Family: “... Among the Kong clan of Lu, only the 43rd-generation ancestor Wen Ru Gong, with only a young survivor, is regarded as the revitalizing ancestor of the Kong family. Five generations later came Duan You Gong, who migrated south with the Song court and settled in Quzhou, thus known as the Southern Branch.”

After the Qing Dynasty, the location of the Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple has never changed. However, it underwent multiple renovations during the reigns of Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Daoguang, Tongzhi, and Guangxu, with the most extensive reconstruction taking place in the first year of the Daoguang era. Major projects included relocating the Si Lu Pavilion to the northwest corner of the Dacheng Hall, raising the foundation of the Dacheng Hall by five feet, replacing wooden pillars with stone ones, and expanding and renovating all structures below the Chong Sheng Shrine (i.e., Qi Sheng Shrine). The entire project took nearly a year and a half, costing over ten thousand taels of silver, and completely renewed the ancestral temple.

During the War of Resistance against Japan, the Japanese army occupied Quzhou twice, looting all musical instruments and ritual vessels. In 1947, the Nationalist Government allocated funds for repairs. In 1960, the Qu County government also provided funding for maintenance. In 1984, the Quzhou Municipal Government funded repairs to the main structures of the ancestral temple. In 1988, the municipal government again allocated funds for further repairs, rebuilding the Divine Grace Tower and renovating the Si Lu Pavilion. On December 12, 1989, the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government designated the Confucius Southern Ancestral Temple as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit. On November 20, 1996, the State Council approved it as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit. In May 2000, the western axis of the ancestral temple and the Confucius Mansion, reconstructed under the leadership of the Quzhou Municipal Government, were completed.

IV. Major Cultural Relics: Hand-carved wooden statues of Confucius and his wife by Zigong, a painting of Confucius wearing a sword by Wu Daozi, stone steles, and others.

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units