Jiading Confucian Temple

The Jiading Confucian Temple (嘉定孔庙, Jiādìng Kǒngmiào) stands at 183 Nanda Street in Jiading Town, in the suburban district of the same name. It occupies about 1.8 hectares and is a separate site from the Confucian temple in the old city.

It was founded in 1219, in the Southern Song, by county magistrate Gao Yansun, first as the Wenxuan Temple with a county school to the east. In 1241 a Confucius statue, the Pan pond and the Xingxian archway were added. The temple was rebuilt in 1265 and the main building was renamed Dacheng Hall. The Lingxing Gate and the Yucai archway followed in 1353. Later work, including Zunjing Pavilion in 1474, brought the layout close to its present form by about 1603.

The walk goes in order. Three archways and stone railings carved with 72 small lions, said to stand for Confucius’s 72 disciples, lead to a semicircular Pan pond crossed by three stone bridges. Beyond it the Lingxing Gate and the Dacheng Gate open onto the courtyard and Dacheng Hall. The hall stands on a stone platform about 2 metres high. Its timber frame is Ming, set on a Yuan-era base, and it holds a seated Confucius statue 3.35 metres high. Stone tortoise steles record repairs through the centuries, and a stele gallery holds 87 items.

The 20th century was rough. In the Republican era the buildings spent a long time as a rice mill, and Japanese bombing in the war did further harm. Repairs ran from 1959 to 1963, but in 1968 Zunjing Pavilion and other buildings were demolished. Restoration began in 1981, and the statues of Confucius and the Seventy-Two Sages were remade in 1991.

The temple was listed as a Shanghai municipal heritage site in 1962 and became a national key heritage site in 2013. Since 2006 it has housed the Shanghai China Imperial Examination Museum, and Dangzhou Academy, a three-courtyard complex, includes a replica of an examination hall.

Chinese Wikipedia reports that the temple closed for repairs on 22 May 2023 and reopened on 22 September 2024. No hours or ticket details were found from an official source, so check locally before you go.