Jiading Confucius Temple reopens, honoring tradition

Jiading Confucius Temple is the best-preserved county-level Confucius Temple in the Jiangnan region. — Yu Chao

Yu Chao and Ye Fengting

JIADING Confucius Temple, the largest existing ancient archi-tectural complex in Shanghai, reopened to the public on Septem-ber 22 after a 167-day renovation.

One day earlier, the 2024 Shang-hai Confucius Cultural Festival was unveiled at the newly refurbished temple to promote Confucian culture.

Jiading Confucius Temple was built during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and under-went more than 70 renovations, expansions and reconstructions until the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The latest renovation project, launched in May 2023, aimed to protect the temple’s structural safety and historical appearance.

The core building, which is named as the Dacheng hall, in-terprets the connection between Confucius and the Confucius tem-ple, displaying the solemn ritual sense of ancient architecture.

The Danghu academy serves as the core exhibition platform for imperial examination culture. it has introduced a new social educa-tion experience area and a smart exhibition zone deploying digital technology to enhance visitors’ experience.

Within the temple, the renovated Chinese imperial Examination Mu-seum covers a construction area of 2,270 square meters and displays more than 300 sets of cultural rel-ics and auxiliary exhibits.

The Confucius temple has wit-nessed over 800 years of Jiading’s history, which holds irreplaceable significance for studying local heritage and promoting tradition-al culture, said Lu Fangzhou, Party secretary of Jiading, who attended the inaugural ceremony of the cul-tural festival.

The Shanghai Confucius Cultural Festival has been held for 17 years since its launch in 2008. it will run until October, featuring 16 themed activities. This year, Jiading Dis-trict has also launched traditional cultural exchange events with three sister cities that have rich Confucian cultural ties, namely Quzhou in Zhejiang, Suzhou in Jiangsu, and Taipei in Taiwan.

“I believe such cultural ex-changes will deepen emotional connections and promote the inheritance and development of excellent Chinese traditional culture,” said Kong Lingli, a 76th-generation lineal descendant of Confucius.

The festival invited foreign visi-tors and international students, enhancing the global influence of Chinese traditional culture.

They engaged in interactive cultural activities at Jiading Con-fucius Temple, including dressing in hanfu, Jiangnan embroidery painting, lacquer fan painting, and Song Dynasty diancha (creat-ing tea art in cups).