Beijing 2024 - Confucius Temple (北京孔庙) Next Building Front Garden

 

The Confucius Temple actually consists of two separate ground area. Once you've exited the main ground, you will find another area just to the right as you exit. Walk towards it and enter another different world! This place felt more casual and more like a garden. You will also find more Confucius statue here. 

Basically if you see a door way, and there is no entrance fees, just walk through it to see what's beyond it. If there is an entrance fee, check if your admission ticket includes the separate area. We tend to get combination tickets, so that we can visit multiple sites with a slight discounted price.

Some official information for your reading pleasure. The world in bold seems to say University Gate.

A lovely three arch gate building can be seen as the main entrance to the area. What with the rain in the morning, it does provide a very lovely reflective photography opportunity for me :)

Walking beyond the gates, you will find some cool corridors leading you further inwards. On the middle area are some temples and shrines.

At the back, the ground opened up to a huge pavilion seated inside a pond. Here, we saw many young kids running around dressed like scholars from the ancient time. They were there with their parents and photographer doing photoshoots at the place. It seems like a popular thing for parents with kids, perhaps hoping that their kids will grow up smart and enter university by coming to this temple to pray?

The water of the pond was pretty green, but sadly not much lotus could be seen inside of it. Still, it was pretty massive and you could walk all around it and of course cross the bridge into the pavilion.

Another auspicious door sign.

The following photos are taken inside the pavilion, with the four character signs hanging high inside.

I am not too sure what the middle is meant to be. It looked kinda like a throne on a stage. The pavilion was pretty empty apart that that. The throne is cordon off so you can't really get too closed to it. Lots of kids were getting their photos taken mainly inside the pavilion area and around it.

Walking further in past the pavilion, there was another bridge,  and a status of Confucius will greet you here as well, in front of what seems like another temple. But the temple here seems a lot quieter than the YongLe Temple we visited in the morning. Personally I prefer this place cause it's so much more serene and peaceful.

Here is the view of the bridge before crossing over. I love the colours of the place, the white, the green, and the red. The trees were so tall. It just looked so beautiful here. I love the simplicity. To me, this was so much a nicer place than YongLe Temple. A hidden gem for me.

Bright red building at the back, with the surrounding of slightly black. Picture perfect to me :)

The place was huge, and empty. So we could just hang around and take photos. We did have to avoid clashing with the kids running around. But compare them to the crowd at YongLe, it was not a problem at all. Here is one of my husband taken at the back of the pavilion. I was standing at the Confucius status side taking the photo from across the bridge. 

Here is a selfie of us on the marble bridge :)

Beijing 2024 - Confucius Temple (北京孔庙) Stone Tablet Library

 

The Confucius library of the 13 classic was nothing I would have imagined before. I guess this is one of the benefit of not doing your research when you travel, you can get pleasantly surprised by what you see! When I read that it was a collection of classics, I was thinking books, or even if it did says engraving, I thought maybe stones with text. But above is what the library looked like. Seriously! Straight out of Mulan movie! Or even Indiana Jones! Super high stone tablets engraved with text! OMG! Strike gold for me!

A visitor casually taking a scroll among the text. Every one, a classic.

It actually felt like I was walking inside a mausoleum than a library. I guess I was too influenced by Western culture. I've never seen a stone library in the western world before. Maybe i should go visit the pyramids! I bet that would top this! Ha!

This alove was worth my whole day's trip here! 

There were also these little stone houses that when you went closer to them....

Each panel was a text of it's own. Perhaps short stories? Poetry?

I love those with green text over white marble too. I guess these are the more modern stones. The classics were the huge tablets with text so worn out it was hard to read them.

Here is a closed up of what the text of one might looked like. Text in ancient time are written in traditional Chinese, which is more complicated than current modern Chinese. In my opinion, traditional Chinese is much more beautiful, and you can still use them in Taiwan, Japan, and even South East Asia. I hope they will never disappear from this earth.

Cordy is super happy to have the chance to visit such a unique library in her life time! 

Beijing 2024 - Confucius Temple (北京孔庙) Poet Garden

After finishing the main part of the Confucius Temple, we were now at the back of the temple ground. While my husband went off looking for a toilet, I found a nice poet garden behind and wandered in to have a look. So far what I've seen in the temple so far is more or less what to be expected. But from here onwards, everything was just a pleasant surprise :)

A quiet part o the temple where most visitors seems to by pass. Perhaps it looked more like a staff quarters area. Later I did found some areas that are closed off to visitors. But the signs seems to say the place was only for family members. Seems like there are shines inside of perhaps scholars?

A cool information board on the Confucius Temple.

Lots of sitting bench to take a rest at, surrounded by trees and walls filled with Chinese poets. 

Here are some of the shrines that were off limits to visitors and closed off. 

After resting a while, we joint the usual visitor path and headed to what seems to be a hall of the 13 Confucius Classic.

More information here. I guess this would be a kind of library. Not surprising this is after all the center of Confucius.

Lots of information on these 13 classics. I guess I should one day go find our more about them? With the age of the internet, and now AI, it's a shame to leave these uncovered. So in case you would like to learn together with me, here is the Wiki page to read about it.

And so we enter the library next.....

Beijing 2024 - Confucius Temple (北京孔庙) Hall 2

 

Entering the second hall at the Confucius Temple. Note the door sign.

Enter into a different era. I like it that every time you walked into a different hall, you are greeted by a time piece, welcoming you into the past.

The map of the Imperial College Museum.

Seems more like an altar than a school

From my visit to the Confucius Temple in Tainan, I learnt that these four character signs here are of significant importance to the temple. In Tainan these signs were usually gift from China, from Emperors etc to the school of Confucius. Perhaps it's the same here? Now that I think of it, I wonder if those in Tainan were actually replica or actual gift from the imperial emperor of China....With my Chinese Language standard, one can never be 100% sure! Hahahahaha. 

Beautiful blue ceilings matching with the signs.

Offerings, or sacrifice to the temple. Usually of small mammals like pig, goat and cows. No, this is not one of those vegetarian temples. And no, I don't know why this is so.

Above information on how Confucius spread his teaching, and his disciples. 

And outside the hall, there are also beautiful stone carvings like those found in the palace.

Beijing 2024 - Confucius Temple (北京孔庙) Hall 1

 

Confucius says..... that there will be two halls containing information and history of Confucius. And so it was to be. We took a short break outside these halls to have some snacks before heading inside to visit the exhibition. I've read the review that English explanation was available and it was a great place to learn more about Confucius. 

First, the door sign for my collection.

Enter, into the hall of scholars! Everything you ever wonder about Chinese scholars, the entrance exams, how classic text are being taught etc, all those information, can be found here among the two halls. Here also tells the story of Confucius and his life time.

Yeah, no food and drink allowed inside, hence we ate our snacks before entering. The hall wasn't huge like all those national museums were, but the information inside was pretty compact. So we ended spending a fair long time inside, or at least I did. I found the information inside fascinating, like finally coming to terms with my pass on why I was always made to study everything this sage has to say.

Here is an official information of Confucius. 

All the photos here must have been important to me, hence I'm putting it here to be remembered and read. 

I hope you find them enlightening as much as I did. It's nice that they are in two languages so that I don't have to translate them with my limited language talent.

Confucius was a sage in China, but somehow being worship like gods by others. There are multiple temples in multiple countries dedicated to him. This one was actually the 3rd I have visited since I started my wandering lifestyle.....

Wooden statues showing how classes were conducted in ancient times. Looks pretty oral and outdoor-ish. Like those Buddhist dharma teaching sessions. 

In ancient time, scholars were pretty respected. From Confucius to Mencius. Lao Tze too? I know them all, but I am always confused by who comes after who, just like those Greek philosophers.... lol.

Perhaps this photo will explain more?

Or this well? Oh my, where did those English text went? So note, not everything has English translation. 

The Book of Change! Not sure if this is the original. I am thinking now..... cause I saw the original Art of War by Sun Tzu in the library before, and it was so much more older looking than this. Even the text medium was different..... You will see soon when I post about the library I visited in Beijing!

Took this photo at the exit of the first hall cause I felt acknowledge by it :) 

I am the friend who has traveled from a far to come and visit. And I am glad I have been acknowledged.