Confucius Temple of Zhengding Prefecture

Confucius Temple of Zhengding Prefecture

The Confucius Temple of Zhengding Prefecture is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Confucius Temple in Zhengding County still retains a screen wall, a Pan Bridge (now buried underground), a front hall, eastern and western side halls, and the Hall of Great Achievement.

According to Volume Eleven, "Schools," of the Qing Dynasty edition of the Zhengding County Annals, the Zhengding Prefectural Confucius Temple was built in the seventh year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1374). From the "Plan of the Confucian School" published in these annals and textual records, it can be seen that the temple faces south, with a screen wall at the southern end of its central axis, followed in sequence by the Root Star Gate, the Pan Pond, the main gate, the Hall of Great Achievement, the Chongliang Shrine, and the Wenchang Pavilion.

The Ancestral Worthies Shrine and the Eminent Officials Shrine are located on the east and west sides of the Halberd Gate. The Xingwen Pavilion is situated on the east side of the Pan Pond, and at the southern ends of the east and west perimeter walls are the Righteous Path and the Ritual Gate. There are thirteen bays of side halls each on the east and west sides of the Hall of Great Achievement. Currently, only the screen wall, the Halberd Gate, the side halls, and the Hall of Great Achievement remain within the temple complex, covering an area of 5,000 square meters. The screen wall is damaged, while the main gate and the northern half of the western side hall are small grey-tiled structures. The eastern side hall has been renovated into a 15-bay flush-gable building. The main structure, the Hall of Great Achievement, features a single-eave hip-and-gable roof, built on a 58 cm high platform. It is five bays wide (total width 2353 cm), three bays deep (total depth 1080 cm), and fronted by a terrace that is 1861 cm wide from east to west and 1295 cm deep from north to south. The hall retains early architectural features in terms of beam frameworks, columns, and bracket sets. Mr. Liang Sicheng identified it as a remnant from the Five Dynasties period and as the earliest surviving Hall of Great Achievement in a Confucius Temple in China. Experts suspect it may have been converted from an ancient Buddhist temple hall.

The Hall of Great Achievement is five bays wide and three bays deep, covering an area of 650 square meters. It features a single-eave hip-and-gable roof with gently sloping, expansive surfaces. The columns show clear entasis, with no purlin plates at the column tops—only architraves are used. The bracket sets atop the columns are unusually large, and there are no tiered bracket arms in the intercolumnar spaces—only architraves with carved shadow brackets. The beam framework is composed of camel humps and diagonal struts.

The Hall of Great Achievement in the County Confucius Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Cultural Relics Protection Units in Hebei Province

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units