Confucius Temple

The Confucius Residence

Located in the east of the Confucius Temple, and merited the title of "The First Family in the World", the Residence of the Confucius, also named "Residence of Lord Yansheng", is the house of Zhangzhi, a lineal descendant of Confucius. The residence typically features the combined architecture of the official mansion and private house of China's feudal society. After the death of Confucius, his descents lived in the temple and guarded the relic. At the end of the North Song Dynasty, the residence of his descendants had been expanded to large residence with dozens of rooms. In Jin Dynasty, the descendants of Confucius had lived in the east of the Confucius Temple. With the promotion of ranks in court and increase of stipends of his descents, the Residence of the Confucius was renovated for many times and took shape early in the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Today the Residence of the Confucius covers and area of 7.4 ha. with 480 ancient rooms in nine compounds with the middle, eastern and western paths as its layout.

The Confucius Temple
Located in the center of the old city of Qufu, the Confucius Temple is a place for temple for people to offer scarifies to Confucius, the philosopher, educator and politician in the Spring and Autumn Period. The temple used to be a place of making sacrifices to Confucius, and now it became a historic site under special protection by the government. Following the year after Confucius's death, Lu Aigong, king of Zhou, changed three rooms of his residence into a temple with the clothes and utensils on display in 478 B.C. and offered scarifies to Confucius every year. After the Western Han Dynasty, the temple had been rebuilt and renovated and expanded many times, and has become a large architectural complex. Today's Confucius Temple was completed in Ming and Qing dynasties. The whole complex was modeled on the imperial palace with many courtyards and on the north -south axes. It is one kilometer long from north to south and the whole complex covers an area of 9.6 hectares. There are 54 archways, 466 rooms and many halls, pavilions and chambers. Encircled the complex is the wall with watchtowers on each corner. Inside pine trees lined, along with splendid halls, beautiful paintings, exquisite bridges and chirping birds. There are more than 2,000 tablets of various kind. These well-preserved tablets are rare ones in China and enjoy good fame at home and abroad and attract thousands of tourists to visit and worship

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