Jiaxian Confucian Temple

Confucious'Temple

synonym

Jiaxian Confucian temple generally refers to the Confucian Temple (Jiaxian Confucian temple, Henan Province)

Jiaxian Confucian temple, also known as wenxuanwang temple, Confucius Temple, Confucius hall.

Located in the east of the middle of the South Street of the old city in Jiaxian County, Henan Province, it is a typical system of left learning and right temple. It is not only a school palace in Jiaxian County, but also a temple dedicated to Confucius worship by ancient officials, Kong family and all walks of life in Jiaxian county.

It is a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Cultural relics protection

Confucian temple is a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Elegant structure

Because of its magnificent architecture, exquisite workmanship, elegant structure, unparalleled carving and superb painting, it is known as the Confucian temple with "Royal specifications".

The origin of history

Jiaxian is one of the settlements of the descendants of Confucius, a thinker, politician and educator in the spring and Autumn period. The descendants of Confucius moved to Jiaxian in the Tang Dynasty, known as "Jiaxian school". Jiaxian school is one of the top ten branches of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong Province.

In the late Zhou Dynasty, with the support of Guo Zhongshu, the county magistrate at that time, the clansmen of the Kong family joined hands with the clansmen of Ningling and Lushan tribes to build the Kong family temple, which was completed in 954. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was destroyed by war.

Multiple maintenance

In 1206 (the sixth year of Jin Tai He), Zhang Zhixing, then magistrate of the county, rebuilt the official Confucian temple on the original site and advocated the people to respect Confucianism. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were ten overhauls, and many overhauls after the founding of the people's Republic of China.

Jiaxian Confucian temple is a group of ancient buildings with Oriental architectural color. In terms of scale, organizational system and preservation, it is superior to other Confucian temples all over the country except Qufu Confucian temple in Shandong and Confucius Temple in Nanjing. It has high cultural and artistic value.

Main building

The overall layout of Jiaxian Confucian temple is north facing south. The central temple area covers an area of more than 9000 square meters, with a controllable area of more than 160000 square meters. There are 22 preserved buildings and 71 rooms.

The overall layout runs through three north-south axes of East, middle and West, with Dacheng hall as the main building. In the north and south of the East axis, there are the general square of filial piety, the ancestral hall of filial piety, the ancestral hall of Chongsheng and the ancient Confucianism department, with the ancestral hall of Chongsheng and the ancestral hall of Jiexiao as the main buildings. The West axis has Zhongyi temple, Land Temple and other buildings. The layout of the three axes is complete, but they are interdependent, which reflects the comprehensive and alternative architectural pattern of Qufu Confucius Temple and Confucius Mansion.

The preserved Dacheng hall, Jimen, Minghuan temple, Xiangxian temple and Liangwei are all wooden buildings of Qing Dynasty. The building covers an area of 50 thousand square meters, and has obvious characteristics: long established, magnificent, magnificent and well preserved. Building regulation is an ancient architectural complex with Oriental architectural color, which is the essence of the two major buildings in Qufu, Shandong and Qufu.

The scale

Dacheng hall has five rooms in width and three rooms in depth. It is a single eaves Xieshan style building with green glazed tiles covering the top of the hall. Under the eaves, large square and flat square are carved with beautiful wood carvings, such as sun, moon, clouds, chariots and horses, bridges and houses, flowers and birds, mountains and waters, bedrooms, tables and chairs. There are four wooden eaves and columns on the front eaves. The head of the tiger is carved in relief. The whole body of the column is carved with rolling dragon clouds, which is exquisite and lifelike.

These gorgeous relief and openwork woodcut pictures have important historical and artistic value. Although it is not as early as the Song Dynasty wooden dragon pillars in the Notre Dame Hall of Shanxi Jinci, it is rare in the whole country. This is the only case in Henan, which can be described as the leader of the Qing Dynasty wooden dragon pillars.

There are some original color paintings in the eaves, brackets and purlins of Dacheng hall, which is of great research value.

Because the color tone, painting technique, style and painting content of the color painting here are not only different from the "Dian style" color painting popular in Beijing, Chengde and other areas, but also different from the "Su style" color painting popular in Suzhou and Hangzhou and other areas, and have unique local characteristics of the Central Plains. In view of the reasons that color paintings are not easy to preserve, such original color paintings are rare in Henan and other central plains areas, so they are particularly precious.

Well preserved

The Cypress Street in front of the Confucian temple is a Shinto set up when the Confucian temple was founded, with a length of 400 meters. In the northern part of Shinto, there are Temple keepers with the surname of Kong, who are still living there. Taking baishuxing street as the main axis, to the north are the screen wall of Confucian Temple (i.e. Zhaobi) and the flower wall of Yudai street. To the north of the screen wall, there is a semicircle pan pool, on which a stone arch Pan Shui bridge is built, commonly known as Zhuangyuan bridge. The east side of the central axis is Shengyu gate, and the west side is xianguan gate.

Lingxing gate is a memorial archway, which is the main gate of the Confucian temple, followed by halberd gate. On the east side of halberd gate are Minghuan temple and Yubei courtyard. In Minghuan temple, there are 19 county magistrates who have worked in Jiaxian county since Han Dynasty, and in the west side are Xiangxian temple. In the temple, there are ancient sages from Jiaxian county. The halberd gate is a sacrificial courtyard with East and West corridors and ear rooms. The main building, Dacheng hall, is 15.5 meters high, 19.7 meters wide and 1.76 meters deep, with five temples. It is a nine ridge Xieshan veranda building. Interior art decoration is luxurious and magnificent. The three beams in the hall are erected, and the colored paintings on the beams are well preserved by the folk techniques of the Central Plains.

There are 8 Pillars in front of the hall, 1.85 meters thick and 4.6 meters high. Facing the four eaves pillars, the whole body is deeply embossed with dragon, and the top of the pillar is carved with tusk tiger face. Overlooking the dragon, the dragon and tiger play. The base of the column is embossed on eight sides. In the middle, the river map and Luoshu are carved on the front, and the other auspicious stories, such as yuyuelongmen, Yipin reign, Fenghou seal, are carved exquisitely. The Dougong used in this work adopts the technique of openwork carving, and has made artistic processing of Dou, Gong, ang, Qiao, Fang, queti, etc. Under the eaves, the Dougong is cocked up. The upper layer is a colorful dragon head, and the middle and lower layers are elephant heads. After that, it is decorated with carved clouds and waves. On the forehead under the Dou Gong is painted the flying clouds of the auspicious dragon.

Great significance

The ancient architecture of Jiaxian Confucian temple has the following unique features:

1、 It has been established for a long time, has a large scale, is magnificent, and is well preserved. The wood and stone carving art and color painting art are the best among the county-level Confucian temples in China.

2、 Its architectural regulation is another ancient architectural complex with Oriental architectural color, which is built after the synthesis and choice of the Confucian temple and Confucian mansion in Qufu, Shandong Province.

3、 It is closely related to the descendants of orthodox Confucius. It is not only the Confucius family temple, but also the official Confucian temple. It has been highly praised and concerned by the national heritage experts, ancient architecture experts and all walks of life.

Address: southeast corner of Jia County, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province

Longitude: 113.214828

Latitude: 33.967432

Chinese PinYin : Jia Xian Wen Miao