Qianwei Confucian Temple 犍为文庙

About Qianwei Confucian Temple

Its walled courtyards and ceremonial halls present the Confucian tradition of honouring teachers and classical learning. Located on South Street, the temple fits naturally into an exploration of Qianwei’s urban centre. It is especially useful as a contrasting cultural stop on a trip that also includes the region’s mining railway, provided the two are linked by a planned road transfer.

Qianwei Confucian Temple was first built during the Xiangfu era (1008-1016) of the Northern Song dynasty's Emperor Zhenzong. Over more than 900 years spanning the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republican period, it was rebuilt three times, relocated three times, and given twelve major renovations.

The temple faces south and its ground plan forms a rectangular, convex ('凸') shape measuring 200 metres from north to south and 120 metres from east to west, presently covering an area of 36 mu (亩). It is enclosed by double perimeter walls, and its wood carvings, stone carvings and roof construction are noted as distinctive. Together with the nearby Kuige pavilion (奎阁) and the Jiexiao Zongfang (节孝总坊), it forms the South Street historic building cluster.

The temple was listed as a Sichuan provincial-level protected cultural site in the fourth such batch on September 16, 1996, and as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) in the sixth batch on May 25, 2006. In 2007 it was rated a national 3A tourist attraction (国家3A级旅游景区).

What to look for

• The Confucian ceremonial layout and courtyard progression.
• The relationship between the temple and Yujin’s South Street town centre.

Location & getting there

Getting to Qianwei Confucian Temple

Go to 犍为文庙 at 297 South Street, Yujin town, Qianwei. Visitors arriving by rail need onward local transport to the county centre; Jiayang’s railway is in a different part of the county.