Cangzhou Confucian Temple, A Quintessence of Ming Dynasty Architecture

Guangrong Road, Yunhe District, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province
4.4

Introduction

The Confucian Temple, also known as Kong Temple, is the only important place in Cangzhou city that preserves the ancient Ming-style Liang frame fighting arch structure. It was built in the early Ming Dynasty and currently consists of three main halls and an east-west corridor. The temple is considered a key cultural heritage protection unit in Cangzhou city. The entrance to the temple is 1,105 meters long from north to south and 37.2 meters wide from east to west, with three courtyards. The original length of the wall in front of the door was 7 meters, with the ceremony hall on the east side and the Yilu on the west side. North of the entrance hall, there is a single-hole stone arch bridge called Panshui Bridge, and there is also a storage room for sacrifices on the west side (now converted into a modern office building with brick and concrete structure). The hanging mountain top gate is the main building in the courtyard, with two corridors on the east and west sides of the central courtyard. The main building of the temple is the Dacheng Hall, which has a double-eaved roof, five heavy and tall arches, and a width of five faces with entrances on three faces. There are eight Mingzhu decorations on the roof, and the grid-style doors are covered with yellow and green sulfur glazed tiles. It is a very exquisite building. The Ming Zutang hall is located north of the backyard of the temple, but the exact construction date is unknown. In 1993, the government of Hebei Province announced that the temple was a key protected cultural heritage unit in Hebei Province.
Address
Guangrong Road, Yunhe District, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province
Opening hours
24 hours (Monday-Sunday, January 1st-December 31st)