Yingqian Confucius Temple

Yingqian Confucius Temple

Yingqian Confucius Temple is a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangxi Province.

Yingqian Confucius Temple is located on Pingzi Street, Zhuling Village, Yingqian Town, Shangyou County (within the campus of Yingqian Middle School), and was built in the first year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty (1875). It consists of a front hall, main hall, rear hall, side rooms, corridors, and a courtyard, forming a quadrangle compound with a total area of 768 square meters. Due to years of disrepair, the front and rear halls were destroyed long ago, and some corridors and side rooms became dangerous structures after the catastrophic flood of July 26, 2007. Currently, only the main hall and the left and right side rooms remain. The temple is built with a brick-and-wood structure, features a hip-and-gable roof, and faces south. Its total width spans three bays at 17.9 meters, and it is 8.5 meters deep. The main hall has an octagonal caisson ceiling decorated with exquisite folk paintings. The ceilings of the side rooms feature painted motifs of peonies and deer, while the corridor eaves are adorned with carved floral arches. The wood carvings and paintings hold significant artistic value.

The Confucius Temple is a sacred site where the Hakka ancestors revered Confucian ideals and educated future generations. Today, Confucius Temples at the rural level are extremely rare. However, as this location served as a cultural hub for migrants during the Ming and Qing dynasties and became a secondary political center of Shangyou County, the temple was constructed here, making it of considerable importance for the study of Hakka migrant history and culture. In 2012, the county government funded its emergency preservation and repair. In August 2005, it was listed as a fourth batch cultural relic protection unit by the county government. In 2014, the county’s Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Press and Publication secured 800,000 yuan in special grassroots cultural relic protection funds from the provincial Department of Culture and Finance to carry out comprehensive repairs on the temple. In March 2018, it was listed as a sixth batch cultural relic protection unit by the provincial government.

Source: Publicity Department of the Shangyou County Committee

Zhuling Village: Zhuling Village…… More details about Zhuling Village++

Further reading:

· Sixth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units in Jiangxi Province