Zhangpu Confucius Temple

　　Zhangpu Confucius Temple (Temple of Confucius) is situated in Zhangpu County. It was originally constructed in 1198 during the Southern Song Dynasty’s Qingyuan era and was rebuilt in 1369 during the second year of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty. Today, only the Dacheng Hall remains. The Dacheng Hall has a width of three bays and a depth of five bays, featuring a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof and a dougong bracketing post-and-lintel structure. Inside the Dacheng Hall are five stone stelae from the Ming and Qing dynasties. During a renovation in 1964, the wooden pillars were replaced with stone ones, but the rest of the hall has largely retained its original appearance.

　　Zhangpu Confucius Temple is one of the historic sites of the “Zhangpu Incident” that occurred in 1937.

　　Starting in February 1937, the Min-Yue Border Special Committee and the Red Army forces in the Min-Yue border region, for the sake of national survival and the greater good of the nation, voluntarily proposed to the Nationalist authorities to cease the civil war and cooperate in resisting Japan. On June 26, a political agreement was reached, and the Red Army forces in the Min-Yue border region were reorganized into the “Independent Security Battalion.” On July 13, 1937, the anti-Japanese Red Army forces of the Min-Yue border region descended from the mountains to be mustered and regrouped, taking up residence at the Confucius Temple (i.e., the Confucius Temple/Confucian Temple) in Zhangpu County. On July 16, the 157th Division of the Nationalist army betrayed their word and set an ambush with heavy troops in the stadium, using military drills as a pretext to forcibly disarm nearly a thousand Red Army soldiers who had gathered there. The site was then used as a detention facility. That same night, over a hundred Red Army soldiers managed to escape and, with the support of the Zhangpu County Committee of the Communist Party, gathered at Qingquan Rock to regroup the anti-Japanese armed forces of the Red Army and rebuild the 3rd Red Regiment, with Lu Sheng appointed as the regiment commander. This incident came to be known as the “Zhangpu Incident.” With the attention of Comrade Mao Zedong and the efforts of the Party Central Committee, the “Zhangpu Incident” was eventually resolved amicably, enabling the formation of the anti-Japanese national united front in southern Fujian. The reestablished 3rd Red Regiment was incorporated into the New Fourth Army and departed for the front lines of resistance in January 1938. The former site where the anti-Japanese Red Army forces of the Min-Yue border region were detained — the Zhangpu Confucius Temple in Suian Town — was originally quite large but gradually fell into disrepair after the Xinhai Revolution. In August 1979, the Zhangpu County People's Government designated the Zhangpu Confucius Temple as a county-level cultural relics protection unit, and in May 2006, it was declared a national-level cultural relics protection unit by the State Council.

　　 ------ Source: Zhangpu County Party History Research Office