Jiading Confucian Temple

Jiading Confucian Temple was built in 1219, the 12th year of Jiading Period of the Southern Song Dynasty, by Gao Yansun, the first magistrate of Jiading County. The building complex covers a land area of 1.8 hectares and a floor area of 11,000 square meters, with relatively intact shape and structure. It is the most well-preserved Confucian Temple in Shanghai. In 2013, it was announced as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.

The existing building complex is divided into east and west sections. The west section takes the Hall of Achievements of the original Confucius Temple as the centre, and on its central axis from south to north are the memorial archway, Lingxing Gate, Panchi pond and three bridges, and the Gate of Achievements and the Hall of Achievements. The east section takes the former county school Minglun Hall as its main building, with east and west side rooms (with Stele Gallery behind) and three ceremonial archways in the front. There are three finely carved stone archways (Xingxian Archway, Yucai Archway, Yanggao Archway) in front of the Lingxing Gate. The stone railings along Huilong Pond are carved with 72 stone lions in different shapes, symbolizing the 72 disciples of Confucius. The Hall of Achievements is built on a stone platform, with five bays in width and depth. The hall takes up three bays, and the rest bays are ambulatories. It has a double hip and gable roof structure. The purlins and columns are painted with wood grain in different colours. The Minglun Hall is five bays wide and three bays deep, and have porticoes on three sides. The entire plane is like an upturned“T”. The beam frame structure of the Hall of Achievements and Minglun Hall is quite special that the big crescent beams span a six-step frame, the two principal columns in front of gate are removed, and the internal space is thus expanded, which is typical of the Ming Dynasty style.

In the early years of Emperor Yongzheng's reign in the Qing Dynasty, Xingwen Academy was built in the east of Minglun Hall, and it was renamed Yingkui Academy in 1757, the 13th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign. In 1765, the 30th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign, it was renamed Danghu Academy after the literary name of the honest official Lu Long. The Danghu Academy is the only existing academy of the Qing Dynasty in Shanghai.

The continuous construction of Jiading Confucian Temple also contributed to the emergence of Yingkui Hill and Huilong Pond. In the Tianshun, Zhengde and Wanli periods of the Ming Dynasty, local scholars decided to a pond build a hill in front of the temple to safeguard the temple for matters of fengshui, and named it “Yingkui Hill” to shade the Liuguang Buddist Temple south of the confucion temple. As a result of digging and piling up a hill, a large water surface was formed, and water was diverted and five rivers around Yingkui Hill were dredged to make them look like “Five Dragons holding a pearl”, which gave the pond the name of “Huilong Pond (Dragon Gathering Pond)”.

Today, there is a Chinese Imperial Examination Museum in Jiading Confucian Temple. The exhibits in the museum are intended to help visitors to better understand the history of China's ancient examination system and imperial examination culture.