The
Confucius Temple is located in the old part of Beijing, where family compounds
called, Hutongs, still exist, and the old style architecture is being
preserved. The Beijing Confucius Temple is not as well preserved as the
one at Qufu in Shandong Province Confucius’s birthplace. It is not
nearly as large, elaborate, or has as many rooms yet it is far more important
in the strictly hierarchical feudal society of the Yuan, Ming and Qing
Dynasties. It was here that the Emperors came to show their respect during
the last three Dynasties.
The
Beijing Confucius Temple was built in 1302, and now has three sets of
buildings. It reached the size it is today in 1916, after more than six
centuries of expansion. 
As you pass through the Dacheng Gate (Great Achievement
Gate), there is a straight path leading to the two sets of steps leading
to the Dacheng Hall (Great Achievement Hall). Between the two sets of
steps leading to the Hall there is an amazingly huge piece of Turquoise
Rock (approximately 23 ft. long x 10 ft. wide), sculptured with dragons
flying through the mist, water, and fire. The marble railings that surround
the hall are elegantly carved with forming clouds. It was here at this
temple that Emperors had sacrificial rites and showed homage to Confucius.
There are 14 pavilions in the temple, all having the golden tiles of Royalty
on the two-tiered, arched roofs. The small sculptures near the edge of
the corners of the roof indicate the rank and importance of the buildings.
Inside these pavilions are stone sculptures and exquisite calligraphy,
telling of important events, achievements, and conquests of the Ming and
Qing Dynasties. It was here that those aspiring to public service would
come for long, and vigorous training. Testing was offered once a year,
or sometimes only once every three years. The highest achieving candidate
was called Jin Shi, and was selected to work with the Emperor. The remaining
candidates would become county officials, city officials, or provincial
leaders.
Each
of the Jin Shi had his name placed on huge tablets of stone called steles.
One thousand, six hundred and seventy-four scholars, over 600 years had
their names placed on these steles.
In the courtyard are beautiful, old cypress trees that are between three
hundred and seven hundred years old. The most famous tree named, Evil
Eliminator has a legend about it. An infamous and devious minister Yan
Hao, of the Ming Dynasty, came to the temple to show his respect to Confucius.
As he passed beneath the tree, a burst of wind aided one of the branches
to knock off the hat of the now humiliated Minister. This act sealed his
fate, thus, the name ‘Evil Eliminator".
During the time of Confucius (twenty-seven hundred years ago), there were
four books of rites. One of the books was called Da Xue (DA sha), written
by Cheng Zi, a student of Confucius, and it is held up to be a classic
work on politics and the philosophy of Confucius.
In
one of the buildings there is an amazing site to see. The Qian Long stone
scriptures are inscribed into these huge stone steles. The steles contain
the thirteen classics, which entail a lot of the Confucian philosophy.
There are 630,000 Chinese characters written by Jiang Heng (1672-1742).
He started work on the steles in 1726, and finished twelve years later.
This is now considered one of the greatest works in Chinese history, and
is a treasure of the Chinese culture. 
The
total number of steles is 190. One hundred eighty-nine have the thirteen
classics, and the One Hundred and ninetieth contains the Emperors orders.
The calligraphy is neat and beautiful and refers to the works between
Confucius and his students during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476
B.C.), and The Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD). These steles
were in the sixth classroom of the Imperial College, and held up as examples
for standard handwriting for students to learn. The steles were moved
to the Confucius Temple in 1956 for restoration and preservation and have
remained here protected from the elements.
Traveler's Tip:
One of our famous nationally ranked doctors at the Yan Huang Clinical Medical Hospital is a 73rd generation descendent of Confucius. Professor Kong-Si-Bo’s father was also one of the four most eminent doctors in the history of Beijing.