Confucius Temple in Taipei

The Confucius Temple in Taipei was first built in 1879. It took 14 years from 1925 to 1939 to form the scale of today's Confucius Temple. It was the reconstruction of the Confucius Temple in Qufu and integrated the architectural style of Southern Fujian.

Many parents bring their children to the Confucius Temple and follow the blessing route guided by the signs to worship Confucius and pray for success in their studies. On the praying wall, there are wooden praying cards, on which the children's wishes are written, such as "golden list title" and "happiness". The natural environment here is quiet. It can also feed squirrels. It is also a good place to relax.

Confucius Temple in Taipei

The Confucius Temple in Taipei is located on Dalong street in Taipei city. Its appearance adopts the ancient palace style architecture and the original temple in Qufu. It is based on Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. It faces south, with yellow glazed bucket shaped roof tiles, beams, columns, doors and windows without inscriptions. It looks beautiful.

The main hall is the Dacheng hall, also known as the "Sutra pagoda", which is mainly dedicated to 17 gods, including Confucius and the twelve philosophers. On September 28 every year, a ceremony of sacrifice is held here. The ceremony is solemn, and Bayi dance attracts a large number of Chinese and foreign guests to watch the ceremony.

Brief introduction of Confucius Temple

Confucius Temple is dedicated to Confucius, the greatest teacher in China, as well as the sages and Confucians of all ages. Because Confucius advocated simplicity, the architecture of the Confucius Temple is simple and simple. Unlike other temples with gorgeous decorations, there are no stone lions even at the entrance. The main building of the Confucius Temple is Dacheng hall. Standing outside the Dacheng hall, you can see that on the roof in the middle, there are a pair of cylinders, called "Sutra tubes.". In ancient Chinese history, in order to facilitate the rule, the first emperor of Qin implemented the policy of foolishness. He once burned books and killed scholars. At that time, in order to save the books, the scholars built a chimney like library on the roof and hid the books there to avoid the fate of being burned. Therefore, the Confucian temple also built a scripture tube to express the admiration for the book loving spirit of the scholars at that time. At the same time, on the front roof, there are owls carved. Owl is a kind of bird that is neither filial nor cruel, but Confucius also educated it, so the carving of owl represents Confucius' spirit of "education without discrimination".

In addition, in the middle of the steps on both sides, there is an inclined step engraved with dragon body relief, which is called "Yulu". It is the stepping stone for the emperor or God to go up and down the hall at that time. In addition, all the pillars, doors and windows of Confucius Temple are different from other temples. There are no words on them. It is said that this means that no one dares to show off his articles in front of Confucius' door. And there are no statues in the temple. In ancient times, Confucius statues were originally carved in Confucius temples, but due to different carving techniques, some of them could not express Confucius' manner. Therefore, when Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty ordered that the new Confucius temples would be replaced by memorial tablets; when Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty ordered that the national Confucius statues be abolished and the memorial tablets should be used completely. From then on, although the Dynasty changed, they all followed this rule, which made Confucius show the greatness of personality relatively because he didn't deify the image of God. Every year, September 28 is the birthday of Confucius. On that day, a grand ceremony will be held to offer sacrifices to Confucius. On the platform outside the Dacheng hall, students will perform eight quietly dances to express their respect for Confucius. After the ceremony, many people will fight to pluck the wisdom hair (ox hair) for their children or themselves, which symbolizes praying for the wisdom of their children and the smooth learning process.

Great success of Architecture

The gate (West Gate) and Pangong (East Gate) of the Confucius Temple are chongzhan style archways, with a swallow tail on the ridge, an arch in the middle, and round windows on both sides. They are the main entrance of the Confucius Temple, which are on the left and right sides. There is a tall wall on Jiuquan street, Wanren palace wall. The allusion of the wall comes from the Analects of Confucius, which is necessary for the Confucius Temple. The painted unicorn on the inner wall of the wall symbolizes good luck.

Walk in and pass the ritual gate, then you can get to the Lingxing gate and panchi. The Lingxing gate is also a necessary building of the Confucius Temple. It is listed in front of the Confucius Temple. The central Panlong stone column is made of qingdou stone and Quanzhou white stone from Quanzhou. Through the Lingxing gate, the second hall is the Yi gate, which is also called Dacheng gate. It is the main gate to Dacheng hall. The Panlong Wai furnace windows on both sides of the gate are smooth in lines and complete in one stroke. They are masterpieces of wood carving. Dacheng hall is the main hall of Confucius Temple. In the middle of the hall, the shrine is dedicated to the tablet of Confucius, the most sage and forefather. There is a black gold plaque on it, and there are four decorations on the left and right walls: Yanzi, Zengzi, zisizi, Mencius, and twelve philosophers. Dacheng hall has a Xieshan heavy Zhan roof, five bay wide and six Bay deep. It shares 42 huge columns and is surrounded by a horse Gallery, which is grand in shape and strict in structure.

Historical evolution

ancient

Located in Dalong street, Datong District, the Confucius Temple in Taipei was founded in 1875, the first year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty. It set up the Taipei government in Northern Taiwan. When the construction of the city started in 1879, the Wenwu temple was built in the South Gate of the city. The two temples all face south. The Confucian temple is on the left and the wumiao is on the right, which is the Confucius Temple of the Taipei government.

During the founding period, during the Sino Japanese War of 1894, Taiwan was ceded to Japan. In the second year, the Japanese army occupied Taiwan and began the period of Japanese occupation. In 1907, in order to establish a Japanese language school, the Japanese demolished the Confucius Temple and established the first women's college.

modern

In 1925, Taipei gentry Huang zanjun, Chen Peigen and Gu Xianrong invited and raised money to build the temple again. In February of the same year, the preparatory office for the construction of the temple in Taipei was set up, collecting about 5000 square meters as the construction base of the temple. In 1951, he organized the Management Committee of Confucius Temple in Taipei to promote the annual ceremony. In 1971, it was approved by Taiwan's administrative department and handed over to the Taipei municipal government. In 1972, the Taipei Confucian Temple Management Committee was formally established and subordinate to the Civil Affairs Bureau.

The Confucius Temple in Taipei is built in Qufu. The beams, columns, doors and windows are not engraved, which is simple and solemn. The characteristics of Confucius Temple highlight the architectural art, and its layout is wanrenguan wall (Zhaoqiang on Jiuquan Street), panchi, Fuxing gate, Yimen, Dacheng hall and Chongsheng temple; the allusions of the wall come from the Analects, which are necessary for Confucius Temple. It is said that no one dares to show off his articles in front of Confucius.

There are no statues in the Confucius Temple in Taipei either. The reason is that the emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty ordered to replace it with a tablet (because of different carving techniques, it can't express Confucius' manner). The painted Qi on the wall symbolizes "auspicious" Dacheng hall as the main hall. There is a plaque hanging on it, which is the highest plateau of education. So far, no one has overstepped the lofty status of the most sage and pioneer.

The Confucius Temple in Taipei holds a grand ceremony of offering sacrifices to Confucius on September 28 every year. The ceremony begins with welcoming the gods, followed by offering incense, offering three gifts, reading congratulatory articles, drinking blessings, receiving happiness, watching the fire, and finally sending the gods to complete the whole sacrificial process. In the process, you can see the ritual students wearing dark purple clothes, accompanying the chief sacrificial officer, etc.

Among them, the ceremony of offering sacrifices to Confucius, which followed the ancient rites of the Ming Dynasty, with dancers moving forward and backward quickly and showing different postures, attracted most Chinese and foreign guests; besides, there were special customs such as "plucking intelligent hair".

Jiang Zhongzheng period

In 1945, China regained Taiwan, and Taiwan entered a new era. As a traditional Confucian temple in China, it was re valued.

In the 1950s, after Jiang Zhongzheng personally presented the plaque of "education without discrimination", the government not only continued to hold the Taipei folk ceremony for Confucius held by DALONGDONG public school since 1931, but also expanded its scale to become the most important ceremony at the official level.

In 1952, after the conversion, the official ceremony and the birthday of Confucius were changed from August 27 to September 28 every year. On that day, officials at the ministerial level of the government and the mayor of Taipei held relevant ceremonies at the Confucius Temple in Taipei. In the same year, Confucius' birthday was also designated as a one-day teacher's Day holiday in Taiwan.

In terms of buildings, the government not only managed and maintained them, but also built a three storey Minglun hall on the right side of the Confucius Temple in 1955, which was completed in September of the next year. However, its form and regulations were not in line with those of the Confucius Temple, causing considerable controversy. The building was not rebuilt until 1990.

In 1972, the Confucius Temple in Taipei was donated to the Taipei municipal government by Gu Zhenfu (son of Gu Xianrong) and Chen Xiqing on behalf of the temple.

Contemporary

On January 10, 1992, the temple was designated as the third level historic site in Taiwan by the Taiwan government.

On September 23, 2006, Chen Weiying was worshipped in Hongdao temple, the first person to be worshipped since 1919 when he was the first Confucian to be worshipped at the Confucius Temple in Taipei.

On October 5, 2008, Ma Ying Jeou personally attended the memorial ceremony postponed by typhoon and entered Shangxiang from the middle gate of Yimen. And presented the plaque of "Tao Guan De Ming". Because Ma Ying Jeou attended the ceremony in person, the six Yi dance at the local memorial ceremony was changed to the eight Yi dance at the central level.

At present, the total area of the Confucius Temple in Taipei is 13777 square meters, about 5200 square meters, and the temple building area is about 3000 square meters, about 1400 square meters. The temple with simple sports facilities is not only for sightseeing and sacrifice, but also for local people's leisure and sports.

Demolition and reconstruction

In June 1895, at the beginning of the war between Japan and Japan, Japan conquered Taipei. In addition to using the Yamen in Taibei city as an official office, Japan also damaged the utensils of the Confucius Temple in Taipei of the Qing Dynasty and renamed it Taibei

Chinese PinYin : Tai Bei Kong Miao