Wenchang Pavilion

Wenchang Pavilion

Located at the intersection of Wenhe road and Wenchang Road, Yangzhou Wenchang Pavilion is a landmark building in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Wenchang Pavilion, built in the 13th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1585), belongs to Yangzhou Fu Xue building complex. There is a plaque of "Han Shang Wen Shu" on the old Pavilion. The buildings of Yangzhou Fu Xue have been destroyed one after another, and now only Wenchang Pavilion remains, which is a cultural relic protection unit of Yangzhou city.

Architecture Overview

Yangzhou Wenchang Pavilion, also known as Wenchang building, is located in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. It is an ancient building of Yangzhou government school. There is a saying that the name of Wenchang Pavilion is Wenhui Pavilion, while others think it is Kuixing Pavilion. Which one is right remains to be proved.

In ancient times, government schools had many meanings. Here, it specifically refers to the government-run educational institutions in the administrative divisions at the government level, which is one level higher than the county-level educational institutions (the government-run educational institutions in the administrative divisions at the county level).

The system of ancient official educational institutions was the integration of schools and sacrificial institutions, which combined the schools learning Confucian classics with the institutions offering sacrifices to Confucius. The institutions offering sacrifices to Confucius are usually called Confucius Temple, Confucian temple, Confucius Temple, Xianshi temple and Xiansheng temple. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were Confucius temples in every state, government and county.

Therefore, the official educational institutions are also called Confucian temples or Confucian temples, sometimes called Temple schools or learning temples. It is more common to call the official educational institutions Confucian temples.

However, the four Confucian temples, Qufu Confucian temple, Beijing Confucian temple, Qufu Confucian family temple and Quzhou Confucian family temple, are special institutions for offering sacrifices to Confucius, which have the nature of national special institutions for offering sacrifices.

The nature of other Confucian temples or Confucian temples in China are all learning temples, focusing on the word "learning". They are educational places and places for offering sacrifices to Confucius directly managed by the education departments of governments at all levels. Yangzhou Fuxue is the ancient school Temple of Yangzhou.

Yangzhou Fuxue is a large building complex across Wenhe river. In the 13th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1585), Cai shiding, the censor of Huaihe and Huaihe, built Wenchang Pavilion in xuemiao, which was built on the Wenjin bridge across the Wenhe river. It was named "Wenchang", which has the meaning of Changming Confucianism.

In the year after the fire, Zhang Ning, the governor of Jiangdu, rebuilt it, which is the Wenchang Pavilion seen today. However, the date of its destruction and reconstruction is unknown and remains to be verified. The plaque of "hanshangwenshu" hung in Wenchang Pavilion rebuilt by Zhang Ning, because the historical origin of Yangzhou came from Hanguo and Hancheng.

Han state was a vassal state in the spring and Autumn period. It was also called Gan state. It was destroyed by Fu Chai, king of Wu, and became the capital of Wu. It is located in the northeast of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

In 486 B.C., Wu built Hancheng, the former site of which is now Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

Today, the Wenhe river has disappeared in Yangzhou, or there are traces to be found. At present, Wenhe road and Wenhe road in Yangzhou are the river course of Wenhe river. There is also a reason why the river is named Wenhe.

In the Tang Dynasty, the river crossed the city, connecting the north and the south. It was the main channel of water transportation in the city. It was known as the Guanhe River. "Yangzhou Guoli Twilight tide", river tide water can enter the city of Yangzhou through the official river. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the shiliguan River gradually narrowed and finally became a small river in the city. In the Ming Dynasty, the Guanhe River regained its vitality. On both sides of the river, there were Yangzhou Fu school, Ganquan County school and Jiangdu county school, so it was named "Wenhe River". The homonym of "Wen" has a profound meaning.

After the Ming Dynasty, Wenhe is the ancient city of Yangzhou formed since the Song Dynasty, which is the fish bone style zhouzheng street. More than 1900 meters on the Wenhe River, from south to north, there are star bridge, Taiping Bridge, Tongsi bridge, Wenjin bridge (Wenchang Pavilion is built on Wenjin bridge) and Kaiming bridge, etc., surrounded by sipaiting, Taishou mansion and xunyan Yushi yamen, etc.

According to the records of the old streets and alleys of Yangzhou City, in 1916, due to the demolition of the city walls between the old and new cities, a large number of bricks and soil entered the Wenhe River, and the river gradually silted up. From 1952 to 1959, Yangzhou cleaned up the appearance of the city, filled the Wenhe River, built Wenhe road and Wenhe Road, Wenhe River disappeared, and Wenhe road became an important north-south street in Yangzhou.

Wenjin bridge is buried underground, while Wenchang Pavilion stands on the ground. Due to the war and the vicissitudes of history, the huge buildings of the old Yangzhou Confucian temple have been destroyed one after another. Only Yu Wenchang Pavilion survived. Therefore, Wenchang Pavilion is listed as a cultural relic protection unit of Yangzhou city.

Yangzhou Wenchang Pavilion stands at the intersection of jiangwenhe road and Wenchang Road in the middle of the road. It is 24.25 meters high and located in the center of the city. It is a landmark building in Yangzhou city. See Figure 1. The height of Wenchang Pavilion should be the measure of the top of the vase.

The existing Wenchang Pavilion is a three-level brick and wood structure with a top Pavilion style, which is similar to the hall of praying for new year in the temple of heaven in Beijing. The upper part is the dome structure of the world, which is rare in the pavilion style Confucian temple.

The three-layer double eaves contract upward layer by layer to form an umbrella shape. After the tips are gathered, the top is closed with a vase, and the top is an ellipsoid. The bottom floor of Wenchang Pavilion is octagonal, with arches on all sides, connecting with the street.

Presumably, there should be no walls at the bottom of Wenchang Pavilion, because it was built on a bridge. The second, third and second floors of the pavilion are cone-shaped with windows around them.

It can be imagined that if you climb the building and look at it, you can have a panoramic view of the streets. On the night of the festival, when the colored lights are in full bloom on the pavilion, the use of spotlights and other light sources, Wenchang Pavilion will certainly shine on the streets, which is really a beautiful scene (Fig. 2).

The newly renovated Wenchang Pavilion is surrounded by flowers and trails to facilitate the public and tourists to take photos.

geographical position

It is located at the intersection of Wenhe road and Wenchang Road in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

Doubts about Wenchang Pavilion

Yangzhou Wenchang Pavilion is unique. Because of historical changes, there are some questions to be researched.

Doubts about the name

Yangzhou Wenchang Pavilion has the following names:

(1) Wenchang Pavilion

(2) Wenchang building

(3) Wenhui Pavilion

(4) Kuixing building

Among the above four names, only the name Wenchang Pavilion has been recorded in literature.

What is the relationship between other names and Wenchang Pavilion? What is the official name? It needs further research.

Doubt about time

Wenchang Pavilion, built by Cai shiding, was destroyed by fire. Today, Wenchang Pavilion is rebuilt by Zhang Ning, governor of Jiangdu. However, the date of its destruction and reconstruction is unknown, which needs further research.

Doubts about Han characters

Due to the restoration of Wenchang Pavilion by Zhang Ning, the plaque of "hanshangwenshu" was hung on it. Therefore, the interpretation of "Han" is also meaningful.

(1) "Han" word from the dry, from the city (right ear side, that is, the meaning of Yi Yi), dry also sound. "Gan" means riverside, so "Han" means riverside city.

(2) "Gan" originally refers to "shield", and extended to "defense". The combination of "Gan" and "Yi" means the city of frontier fortress.

The exact meaning of "Han" needs the textual research of exegetics.

Doubts about Wenhe River

Wenhe road has been built by filling and leveling Wenhe River, but is there any local existence of Wenhe river? To be tested.

Doubt of destruction

The old Yangzhou Confucian temple was a huge building complex, which was destroyed one after another due to the war and the vicissitudes of history. Only Wenchang Pavilion survived. What is the scale of the old Yangzhou Confucian temple? What is the track of historical evolution? There is no way to know. There is a saying that Yangzhou Confucian temple was demolished in 1958, waiting to be tested.

The question of structure

Originally, Wenchang Pavilion was built on Wenjin bridge. How wide is Wenjin bridge? Is there a wall at the bottom of Wenchang Pavilion? How about the overall structure? To be tested.

Address: Jiande City, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Longitude: 119.33382436765

Latitude: 29.329009454143

Chinese PinYin : Wen Chang Ge