Deqing Confucian Temple 德庆学宫

About Deqing Confucian Temple

Deqing Confucian Temple (德庆学宫) is a Confucian temple-school on Chaoyang West Road (朝阳西路) in Decheng Subdistrict (德城街道), Deqing County (德庆县) in Zhaoqing (肇庆), Guangdong. Its grounds cover more than 8,000 m².

The temple dates from 1011, in the Dazhong Xiangfu (大中祥符) era of the Northern Song, when Kang Prefecture (康州), today's Deqing, was ordered by imperial edict to found a Confucius temple. It first stood on the old site of the Ziji Palace (紫极宫), five li east of the inner city. The prefect Li Zhongqiu (李仲求) rebuilt it in 1043, and in 1081 it moved to its present site. When Kang Prefecture was raised to Deqing Prefecture in 1131, it became the prefectural Confucius temple. A flood swept it away in the first year of the Yuan dynasty's Zhiyuan (至元) era; it was rebuilt in 1297 and repaired repeatedly under the Ming, the Qing and in modern times.

The full complex once included a stone balustrade, gate, pool, two memorial shrines for renowned officials and local worthies, the main hall, the Apricot Altar (杏坛), east and west galleries, Chongsheng Hall (崇圣殿) and Zunjing Pavilion (尊经阁). Much of that was later destroyed. Among the survivors are the Lingxing Gate (棂星门), the Pan Pool (泮池) and the Dacheng Gate (大成门), as well as the principal Dacheng Hall (大成殿), a square building of five by five bays, about 17.4 by 17.5 m, with two tiers of eaves on a hip-and-gable roof and elaborate seven-tier bracket sets carrying the lower eaves.

Guangdong listed the temple as a provincial protected site in 1962. On 20 November 1996 the State Council added it, as a Yuan-dynasty building, to its fourth national list of key protected heritage sites (全国重点文物保护单位). The Confucius memorial ceremony held here (德庆学宫祭孔活动) entered Guangdong's provincial intangible cultural heritage list in 2009 under folk customs.

What to look for

• Dacheng Hall (大成殿), the five-by-five-bay main hall with a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof
• Lingxing Gate (棂星门), listed first among the temple's surviving structures
• The Pan Pool (泮池) and the Dacheng Gate (大成门)
• Northern Song carved stone lions flanking the Dacheng Gate
• The shrines to renowned officials (名宦祠) and local worthies (乡贤祠) beside the Dacheng Gate
• The east and west galleries, Chongsheng Hall and Zunjing Pavilion

Location & getting there

Getting to Deqing Confucian Temple

• Search for 德庆学宫 with 肇庆市 and 德庆县.