Today, people think that the architecture of Confucius Temple in Qufu imitates the specifications of the imperial palace. What happened? It turns out that with the gradual improvement of Confucius' position in the traditional society, emperors have paid more and more attention to him, and the admiration of scholars has also increased day by day. Confucius Temple has been repaired and built repeatedly, and its scale is expanding day by day. In the past 2500 years, the Confucius Temple has undergone 15 major repairs, 3/kloc-0 minor repairs and hundreds of minor repairs, and has been continuously expanded, finally reaching the grand scale of today's Jin Jiu quadrangle.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Confucius Temple in Qufu expanded to its present scale, forming a layout like a palace. The Confucius Temple we see today was rebuilt in accordance with the pattern of the Song Dynasty during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty. Confucius Temple is a long and narrow square, symmetrical along the central axis, and its layout completely imitates the regulations of the palace. Its building area is about 95,000 square meters, with nine courtyards and 466 houses of various types.
Like the palace, the Confucius Temple is equipped with a guard room and a watchtower. There are red walls in the yard and yellow tiles in the main hall. The color and style of ceramic tiles are completely royal, not inferior to the palace. Confucius Temple in Qufu is centered on Dacheng Hall. This hall dedicated to Confucius is nine rooms wide and five rooms deep. Like the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, it has nine ridges and double eaves, covered with yellow glazed tiles, and enjoys the highest specifications of ancient temples.
There are cloisters around, and there are ten large terrazzo columns under the front eaves. The column is 5.98m high and 0.8 1 m in diameter. There are two dragons carved on the pillar. These twenty dragons have different shapes and are lifelike, and their carving techniques are superb. There are 18 stone pillars under the cloisters and behind Dacheng Hall on both sides. These stone pillars are octagonal and octagonal, with dragons carved on each side. 18 There are 1296 dragons with different postures on the column, which are exquisite and vivid, and are also fine works in ancient architecture carving. From specifications to details, it can be said that the Confucius Temple fully meets the specifications of the palace, comparable to the palace.
However, no matter how lofty Confucius was in the traditional society, he was not an emperor after all. Why can the temple dedicated to him enjoy the specifications of the palace? It turns out that ancient rulers and scholars all thought that Confucius had the way of being king, although he did not have the position of king. In particular, the Spring and Autumn Annals compiled by him is "acting as a king's law", which sets a moral standard for rulers to maintain dynasty rule. Because of this achievement, he was called "Wang Su", Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty named him "King of Wenxuan", and Song Zhenzong further named him "King of the Most Holy Wenxuan", offering sacrifices to the king. In this way, it is not surprising that there has been a Confucius Temple on today's scale since the Song Dynasty, which was built in the style of the palace.
Summary: In the past 2500 years, once the Confucius Temple in Qufu was destroyed, it was immediately repaired and well protected. Today's Confucius Temple, with its grand scale, magnificent spirit and exquisite architecture, is called the three ancient buildings in China together with the Forbidden City and chengde mountain resort.