The Temple of Literature generally sits in the north and faces south, so from the direction of the opening of the Temple of Literature, we can roughly judge the north, south, west and east. On the central axis of the Confucian Temple, there will be the Lingxing Gate (or Zhuxing Gate), the Zhuangyuan Bridge and the Panchi, the Halberd Gate (or Dacheng Gate) and the Dacheng Hall in order. The main body of the Confucian Temple is the Dacheng Hall, and the hall will worship Confucius and the four and twelve philosophers in the form of shrines, and the buildings are more majestic. Here is a general introduction to the layout planning of the Confucian Temple, so that we can better appreciate the ancient town.
First of all, let's talk about the Lingxing Gate. "Lingxing", that is, Amada Star. The ancients believed that the Lingxing was "the celebration of the Lord's success", and it was a star that specialized in the management of official and cultural movements. The star gate expresses the meaning of the stars in the sky gathered at this threshold. Pan Pond, also called Crescent Pool, the bridge above Pan Pond is called Zhuangyuan Bridge or Yangsheng Bridge. "Panchi" *"Biyong" in "Zhou Li" originally meant that Zhou Tianzi set up a university hall (school palace) surrounded by water on all sides, and the pond was round, like a jade. The Temple of Literature uses its round half to show the difference. You may have also discovered that words such as "Lingxing", "檽星" and "Panchi" are rarely encountered in daily life and belong to rare words. In ancient China, they were all words related to Guanxing's cultural luck.
Let's talk about the halberd gate and the Dacheng gate. The halberd gate refers to the military gate in the ancient military camp, and also refers to the ancient times when people would line halberds in important and sacred places to show rank and majesty. Some people also feel that things like the halberd gate are not elegant enough in the Confucian Temple, so many Confucian temples have changed the halberd gate to the "Dacheng Gate" (commonly known as the "palace gate", and the Confucian Temple with a small area does not have this gate).
Dacheng Hall is the main building of the Confucian Temple, is a place to worship and pay homage to Confucius, its name comes from "Mencius": "Confucius is a collection of masterpieces." There may also be Confucian "four matching" statues on both sides of the Confucian temple, namely Yan Hui (Ziyuan), Zeng Shen (Ziyu), Kong Ling (Zisi), Meng Ke (Mencius); The larger Confucian temple also has the statues of the twelve philosophers of Confucianism, which are placed on the east and west sides of the Confucius statues, namely: Min Qian (Ziqian), Ran Yong (Zhonggong), Duanmu Ci (Zigong), Zhongyou (Zilu), Bu Shang (Zixia), Youruo (Ziruo), Ran Geng (Bo Niu), Zai Yu (Zi I), Ran Qiu (Zi You), Yan Yan (Zi You), Zhu Sun Shi (Zi Zhang), Zhu Xi (Yuan Hui) in the west. Deqing School Palace in Zhaoqing, Guangdong, its Dacheng Hall is a wooden structure building built in the Yuan Dynasty, more than 17 meters wide, more than 17 meters deep, breaking the traditional wooden beam frame structure of eight pillars supporting the air, subtracting the four pillars in the hall, so that the space in the hall is open and bright, it is rare to have the wooden structure building of the Yuan Dynasty in Guangdong with greater humidity.
There may also be a "Chong Temple" behind the Dacheng Hall, which is a place to worship the ancestors of Confucius in ancient times. In the future, there may also be a "Minglun Hall", which is a place for reading, lecturing, preaching, and research in ancient times. There is also a place to store books in the northernmost part of the ancient Confucian Temple, which is called "Zun Jing Pavilion". There are east and west wings in front of the Dacheng hall, and the east and west halls (or corridors) on the east and west sides.
At the southernmost end of the Confucian Temple, there may also be a high wall, similar to the Zhao Wall, with "Wan Qian Palace Wall" written on the outside. I saw these four characters outside the Confucian Temple in Tangchang Town, Chengdu, Sichuan, and I didn't know what they meant at first, but now I realize that the word "Wan Ling" reflects people's praise for Confucius's profound knowledge.
This article is excerpted from the book "Ancient Villages and Towns in Reading Time: Appreciating 150 Ancient Rural Towns from 30 Perspectives", all rights reserved.