Confucius Temple Nanjing - Intangible Cultural Heritage - Chinese Imperial Examinations: History, Culture, Customs.
Confucius Temple in Nanjing Part 1
This photographic article continues the story of my recent trip to Nanjing [3rd April 2008] and Ningbo (12th April). Links to other articles appear at the end of this article. A smaller version of this article with some different photographs can be found in my column at Magic City Morning Star News.
Confucius
551 B.C. to 479 B.C.
Born in Quyi - (QuFu) Shandong.
As I have written previously on Thursday April 3rd. 2008, I headed off to Nanjing to meet up with my former student and current friend Zhang Mingxing. I caught the super fast train from SuZhou to Nanjing, whilst Mingxing was flying in from Chengdu. He made it from the airport to the Train station around the same time that I arrived there, but we spent two hours wandering around looking for each other.
One small section of the Ancient City Wall Nanjing Zhongshan East Street
Anyway, when we did meet up, we took the Tourist No 1 bus from the Railway station out to Zhongshan Donglu (East zhongshan street) and got off at the stop in front of the remnants of the ancient City wall. Mingxing had chosen this point to head for, because it was central to everything that we wished to visit. Within a few minutes walk we discovered the Ming Palace Hotel at No.311 East Zhongshan Road. They served great meals in their restaurant.
One View from that section of the Wall
It was late in the day by the time we arrived, and so after settling in at the hotel, we went for a walk up to the city wall remnants and had a look see. That section of the wall is very short, unlike other parts of it around the city, but from it we had some spectacular views, which prompted us to take a walk along the lake.
Another View and a nice place to stroll
The following day, April 4th we travelled out to the Zhongshan Mountain National Park and spent the day looking over Sun Yatsen's mausoleum area and the Ming Tomb. That was a strenuous day. Had we had more time in Nanjing, we might even have taken the cableway up to the top of the mountain, from which, as some tourists report, one has really spectacular views.
On Saturday 5th, Mingxing took me off to find the Confucius Temple and from there we went on to the Nationalist Government's Presidential Palace complex within which you can find relics related to the Taiping Heavenly King.
What started out as a quick trip to the Confucius Temple actually ended up becoming quite an interesting series of visits to nearby sites. We started out by Catching the No 2 tourist bus to the 'Walking Steet' and this took us to a section of the Qinhuai river.
Archway opposite entrance to the Confucius Temple
Note the Dragon on the far wall across the Qinhuai River
Qinhuai River
Qinhuai River, known as Huaishui River or Longcangpu in ancient times, rises from two places: Baohuashan Mountain in Jurong County and Donglushan Mountain in Lishui County. The two streams meet at the foot of Fangshan Mountain, Jiangning County, then winds its way of 110 km to Yangzi River. The river that flows through Nanjing measures 10 li (5 kn) and this part is called Inner Qinhuai River. The River has a long history. As early as in Neolithic Age, it nurtured the early settlers along the banks. Now the Inner Qinhuai has become the center of culture and economy of Nanjing.
The Archway seen from a different perspective
The walking street riverfront area is really beautiful, and in the second part of this article I provide a panoramic series of photographs that allows you to get a reasonable impression of the area.
The ticket office is to left of photo - This is the Entrance
The Confucius Temple is located right on the walking street opposite the river, and it is not all that imposing when you first look at it. When you enter (through the ticket gate of course) you follow a path that leads to the Bronze statue (shown below), and along the path are a series of 'Book-like' Statues that recount details of some notable scholars.
Ming Shun (536 B.C. --?)
Styled as Zi Ye, Ming Shun lived in State Lu in the late Spring-Autumn Period. As a disciple of confucius, he was noted for his devoutness to his parents, love for his brothers and self-discipline. Ming Shun was reputed for his "Refusal to become an official and stand against embezzlement." was regarded as one of ten philosophers of four subjects under Confucius (the subject of morality).
Confucius Himself - so to Speak
Bronze Sculpture of Confucius
Named as Qiu and styled as Zhongni, Confucius was born in 551 B.C. in Quyi, State Lu (present-day Qufu, Shandong province) during the Spring-Autumn Period. He passed away at the age of 73 in 479 B.C. As the great thinker, educator and statesman in Chinese history, Confucius is reputed by people of following generations as one who integrated the ancient history and culture of Chinese nation. The bronze sculpture of Confucius, 4.18 meters high and 2,500 kilograms in weight, was carved my Mr. Wu Xianlin, cast by Nanjing Chenguang Machine-Building Factory and erected on January 8, 1993. It is the highest bronze sculpture of Confucius in China so far.
The complex itself is a series of buildings (as you will read below) - nothing spectacular except for the Shrine room itself, which contains a series of Wall mosaics carved in Stone, and a monstrous painting of Confucius.
The photo does not do justice to the effect
The clearest photo I could get through the glass case - Spectacular.
The Scholastic Palace
It was the reading place for students ready to attend imperial examinations in the old days. The scholastic palace was already built together with the Confucius Temple since people in ancient times were bant on following the doctrines of preceding sages. As the culture and educational center of Nanjing in ancient times, this scholastic palace was built before Confucius Temple came into being. As Taixue (imperial school) in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was built in the third year under Xiankang reign of emperor Chendi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (337 A.D.) This scholastic palace is chiefly based on Mingde Hall and Zunjing Pavilion, with the temple in the front and the school in the rear. It was known as "Number One School in Southeastern China" thanks to its spectacular scale. The horizontal tablet above its gate, which reads "Number One School in Southeastern China", was inscribed by Qin Dashi, a Number-One Scholar of Nanjing in the Qing Dynasty.
This scholastic palace functioned as the National School for a time from the end of Yuan Dynasty to early Ming Dynasty. In the fourteenth year under the Hongwu reign of Ming Dynasy (1381), it was named Yintian School. In the late Qing Dynasty, imperial examinations gave way to school education. In 1906, the scholastic palace began to run Jiangnin Public School and Youyou Elementary School. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), Li Ziying started to run Jiangnin Municipal 24th Elementary School. After 1927, Fuzimiao (Confucius Temple) Elementary School was established based on the merger of three schools. For over 1,000 years, the scholastic palace has brought up many talents, giving an impetus to the prosperity of culture and education in Nanjing.
It is difficult to take photographs through the glass (Especially since I had forgotten my glasses and couldn't see to stop the 'flash' going off on the camera.)
The Complex is actually a series of buildings, including one room with a lot of stuff in Chinese that is obviously about the history of China, but for the poor foreigner who can't read Chinese, looking at the pictures and displays is all one can do.
Now if you have never seen a bell this big, this will be a treat. If like me you have, (Yellow Crane Tower Wuhan) then it might supprise you to know that it only cost 1 yuan to ring it.
After exploring the "ins and outs" of the place we found ourselves in a music hall by what appeared to be an exit. They have live performances at certain times of the day. Since the next performance was not scheduled for an hour or so we exited the premises into a public courtyard/street that branched off in several directions.
Opposite the exit was another tourist attraction relating to Intangible Cultural Heritage. Despite our initial fear that it was a separate place with a separate fee, it is in fact included in the price of the ticket to the Confucius Temple.
Intangible Cultural Heritage - Nanjing
First Batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage in Nanjing Spiritual Homeland of the Famous Historical and Cultural City.
The City of Nanjing had served as the capital city during six dynasties, and boasts of being a metropolis during ten dynasties over a history of nearly 2,500 years. During the long process of historical evolution, the people of Nanjing have created a huge cariety of invaluable cultural heritage, which had exerted fundamental influences upon history and culture. This uninterrupted historical and cultural river also contains profound and rare intangible cultural heritage. The Lantern Show by Qinhuai River, Nanjing Brocade (Yunjin), Nanjing Gold Foil, and Jinling Scripture Printing are the cultural heritages existing in an intangible form which had been approved to be among the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council in May 2006. These four items of intangible cultural heritage showcase the ingenious creativity and excellent cultural tradition of the people of Nanjing, representing an important and integral part of Chinese traditional culture.
Of the variety of things to be found there, the thing that fascinated me the most was the silk weaving loom. Each silk thread passes through so many who-jao-wotsa-ma-call-its (to put it technically), that the process, dexterity and patience of the weavers boggles the mind.
This photograph below is basically of the back of the Intangible Heritage Building, which, itself is opposite the back exit of the Confucius Temple, which faces the river. At the particular time that we arrived at this spot, the area was swamped with kids attending some special 'English' Day, and once Mingxing made me aware of what it was and that there were staff and cameramen from CCTV 9 present, I hid my 'white face' and hightailed it out there.
When we left the complex and before heading off to the Presidential Palace we were just wandering around, when we stumbled upon a funny little place which turned out to be the remnants of the Yingtian Imperial Examination School. At one time, it contained 20,644 examination rooms.
To find out a little more about those examination rooms, and to see the series of photographs showing the area out front of the Confucius Temple, you will have to go to Part 2, which contains another 20 photographs.
R.P.BenDedek is from Brisbane Australia and is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' at http://www.kingscalendar.com His academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
He writes photographic 'Stories from China' and social editorial commentaries, both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing newspaper columnist. He currently teaches Conversational English in China and in addition to his English Lessons at KingsCalendar, he has created specific sites for Students of English.
