Kong An Hall

Kong An Hall

Kong An Hall is a cultural relic protection unit of Shantou City.

Kong An Hall is located at Ximen Tou on Tingjiao Road, Wenguang Subdistrict, Chaoyang District, Shantou City, covering a land area of 2,000 square meters and a construction area of 840 square meters. Dating back to the Southern Song Dynasty, it is categorized as an ancient building.

During the Shaowu era of the Southern Song (1191–1193), Zhu Xi advocated Confucian teachings in the southeast, expounding on the orthodox school of Confucianism (namely, Neo-Confucianism). The local scholar Zheng Nanxing, together with Guo Shuyun from Jieyang (both renowned disciples of Zhu Xi), traveled to study under him and immersed themselves in the Confucian and Mencian teachings of Neo-Confucianism. Upon completing their studies and returning home, Zheng Kaixian, a local scholar-official, built a lecture hall for them on the west side inside Chengxi Gate of Miancheng, naming it “Kong An Hall.” During the Baoyou era of Emperor Lizong (1253–1258), Zheng Kaixian’s son, Zheng Cizhen (magistrate of Kuizhou Prefecture and military administrator of the region), expanded “Kong An Hall” into a structure with three halls, two courtyards, two corridors, as well as Qinglong (Azure Dragon) and Baihu (White Tiger) gates, plus an open front courtyard and a screen wall. It was then called the “Zheng Family Ritual Clan Ancestral Hall,” and continued to serve as a place for lectures. During the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, the hall was renovated due to the construction of the city wall. In the Zhengde era, it served as the site of a local school. In the eighth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1669), due to border relocations, the original ancestral hall of the Zheng clan from Shenshan in Jingdu was burned down by Qing troops. The clan members relocated the ancestral tablets of successive generations of the Zheng family to “Kong An Hall” within the county town, and renamed it “Kong An Hall Qinglong Gate Zheng Clan Ancestral Hall.”

This hall is the only well-preserved site of a Song Dynasty lecture hall dedicated to Neo-Confucian teachings in Chaoyang, and is a commemorative ancient building from that period.

On August 16, 2005, Kong An Hall was designated as a cultural relic protection unit of Shantou City.

Wenguang Subdistrict: Wenguang Subdistrict is located in Chaoyang District, Shantou City, Guangdong Province. It was established in April 1995 when Miancheng Town was restructured into a subdistrict. Situated in the central part of Chaoyang’s urban area, it hosts the government offices and the Wenguang Pagoda. It is also the political, economic, and cultural center of the city, with convenient transportation and active commerce. To the east, it borders Haojiang District; to the west, it connects with Jinping Subdistrict; to the south, it adjoins the neighborhoods of Xingong, Xinhua, Koumei, and Houshuangyuan in Chengnan Subdistrict; and to the north, it reaches Chengbei First Road. It administers ten neighborhood committees: Xinggui, Wenguang, Pinghe East, Xishuang, Pingdong, Taoyuan, Ximen, Shuangwang, Kuangyuan, and Gushuai. The area includes... More details about Wenguang Subdistrict ++