Shimen Confucian Temple

Shimen Confucian Temple

Shimen Confucian temple, also known as Confucius Temple, is located at No. 6, Confucian Temple Road, Chujiang Town, Shimen County. Shimen County Museum has a courtyard.

The Confucian temple was first built in the fourth year of the Song Dynasty (1052 AD). It has a history of nearly a thousand years. The site of the temple has undergone several changes. The existing Confucian temple was built by Zhou bang, the magistrate of Shimen County in the 17th year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty (1504 AD). The buildings are symmetrically arranged according to the North-South central axis, and now there are two quadrangles.

historical origin

Shimen Confucian temple is located in Chengguan Town, Shimen County. According to the records of Shimen County by Tongzhi of Qing Dynasty, the Confucian temple was built in the fourth year of emperor you of Song Dynasty (1052 AD), which has a history of nearly a thousand years, and the site of the temple has changed many times. Ming Hongwu four years (AD 1371) county magistrate Liu Chengding built, orthodox nine years (AD 1444) magistrate Wang Mao added. In the 17th year of Hongzhi in Ming Dynasty (1504 A.D.), Zhou Gang, the Marquis of Yi, moved the Confucian temple to the north of Changxi.

In 1780, the magistrate song Xiaoxun rebuilt Chongsheng temple. From 1782 to 1784, Zheng peizhuang, the magistrate, instructed Li Shengchun, instructed Yu Shen and other officials. He maintained five Dacheng halls, five verandas and three Dacheng gates. Two on the left side of the gate were mingguan temple, Wenguan hall, and the right side were Xiangxian temple and military officer hall The temple has five rooms and a palace wall. In 1891, Zhang Zhongcheng planned to build Zunjing Pavilion, lingxingmen, panchi bridge, Jiaodao, Shilan, Baichang and surrounding walls.

Layout structure

The Confucian temple is symmetrically arranged according to the North-South central axis. It is divided into three parts: two natural compound courtyards. From south to north, there are Zhaobi, panchi, Lingxing gate, Dacheng gate, Dacheng hall, Chongsheng temple, Zunjing Pavilion, ritual (Music) ware storehouse and east-west veranda. The original area is more than 7000 square meters, the existing north-south length is 94.4 meters, east-west width is 47.6 meters, the total area is 4493.44 square meters, the construction area is 2269.4 square meters.

Panchi is 15 meters in diameter and 2.5 meters in depth. It is built of granite. It is surrounded by stone railings. Zhuangyuan bridge is 2 meters wide and strides 10 meters. The stone railings on both sides are carved with four treasures of study and eight immortals of darkness. There are steps and drums at both ends. The stones are all Taoyuan stone.

Ancient and modern archways

Lingxing gate is a wooden structure with four columns and three doors. It is 8.7 meters high and 8.27 meters wide. The main building has five colorful brackets in the Ming room, and the second building has three colorful brackets. On both sides of the main and second rooms are hollow wood carvings of Erlong Xizhu, Wulong Pengsheng and Shuangfeng Chaoyang. The three doors are inlaid with wood carvings of yundunque. The plaque of "lingxingmen" was written by Emperor Qianlong. On both sides of panchi, there are archways of "Daoguan ancient and modern".

Dacheng gate, also known as "halberd gate", is of brick and wood structure. It is three rooms wide with a depth of 12.4 meters. It has a single eaves and a hard peak. At both ends of the gable, there are clay sculptures of landscape figures, birds and animals. There are two sides of the ridge, a bottle in the middle, a yellow glazed tile, and a rolling shed under the eaves. On the left side of dachengmen gate are Wenguan hall, Minghuan temple and East stele corridor, and on the right are Wuguan hall, Xiangxian temple and West stele corridor.

The surface is wide and the depth is deep

Dacheng hall is five rooms wide, 24.6 meters wide and three rooms deep, 17 meters deep and 16.92 meters high. It has double eaves on the top of the mountain, covered with yellow glazed tiles, high cornices, double dragons playing with pearls on the main ridge, and no Dougong under the eaves for rolling shed. There are corridors around. The whole roof is supported by eight gold pillars, sixteen porch pillars and sixteen eaves pillars. The eaves pillars are decorated with carved arches and sparrows, with patterns of Qilin Baozi and Danfeng Chaoyang. There is a stone platform in front of the hall, which is 11.5 meters long, 8.5 meters wide and 0.6 meters high. It is surrounded by stone railings and carved with four treasures of flowers and birds, dragons and phoenixes and study. In front of the platform, there is a Danlong on the royal road, which is a relief design of five dragons playing with pearls. The East and west sides of Dacheng hall are the East veranda, the West veranda, the bell tower and the drum tower. The bell and Drum Tower is a hexagonal structure with single eaves and a sharp roof. It is of pure wood structure, 14.72 meters high. It is simple and thin, and its cornices are tilted. The East and West verandas are hard hilltops with single eaves. They are five rooms wide, 19 meters long, 9.25 meters deep and 10.31 meters high. They are covered with green glazed tiles. The main ridges are equipped with Erlong Xizhu glazed ornaments.

During the cultural revolution, the Confucian temple was greatly damaged, including the East veranda, the bell tower, the ritual ware storehouse, the musical instrument storehouse, the Chongsheng temple, the Zunjing Pavilion, the Daoguan ancient and modern building, the Debei Tiandi building, and hundreds of stone pillars and stone railings.

Cultural relics management

In 1982, the county government clearly handed over the Confucian temple to the cultural relics department for management, and established the Shimen County Cultural Relics Management Office, which turned the Shimen Confucian temple into a County Museum and opened it to the outside world. According to the principle of keeping the old as before, it gradually restored the Toumen, Daoguan Gujin building, panchi, zhuangyuanqiao, dachengmen, Wenwu official hall, Xiangxian temple, Minghuan temple, dongxibeilang, Zhonggulou.

Maintenance and reconstruction

In 1998, in order to welcome the Eighth International Symposium on Ming history held in Shimen, the Confucian temple was repaired on a large scale, painted and painted, and the Lingxing gate, the East veranda, the ritual storehouse and all the stone railings and pillars were rebuilt. Now, except for Zunjing Pavilion, Chongsheng temple and other buildings, the others have been basically restored.

In the same year, Mr. Tang Enjia, President of the Hong Kong Institute of Confucius, donated a 3.4-meter-high bronze statue of Confucius, worth 300000 yuan, to the Shimen Confucian temple, which is now standing on the central platform in front of the Dacheng hall.

Architectural features

Despite the disaster, the Confucian temple is still a rare ancient building in our province. It is also the only county-level Confucian temple in Changde. It is mainly of brick and wood structure, with the style of imperial palace building and the characteristics of Hunan double eaves and corner building. It has exquisite construction technology, especially Dacheng Hall, bell tower and Drum Tower. The four corners of Dacheng hall are raised, the dragon is flying and the Phoenix is soaring. The bell and Drum Tower is hung with eaves on six sides, and the Phoenix is raised. Each face is hung with copper bells in the air. The six hanging bells are all standing, and the dome is covered. They are used as Pavilion crowns. They are exquisitely shaped. Stone carvings, wood carvings, clay sculptures and color paintings contain rich folk culture. They have high historical, scientific and artistic values, and also vividly reflect social history, natural history, science, art and art The tradition of art enables people to broaden their knowledge field and obtain various kinds of lessons. It plays an important role in improving people's humanistic quality, cultural taste and aesthetic taste.

Cultural relics protection

Shimen Confucian temple was announced as a county-level cultural relic protection unit by the county government in May 1984, a municipal cultural relic protection unit by the municipal government in June 2000, and a provincial cultural relic protection unit by the provincial government in May 2002. Now it plans to declare as a national key cultural relic protection unit.

In October 2019, Shimen Confucian temple was approved as the eighth batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Address: No.6, Wenmiao Road, Chujiang Town, Shimen County, Changde City

Longitude: 111.3754196167

Latitude: 29.584749221802

Ticket information: market price: 10.0 yuan

Chinese PinYin : Shi Men Wen Miao