An American in Beijing

I've been rather delinquent about posting these pictures... they are actually from either day one or day two (I've already forgotten!) of our social study week. We made a quick stop at the Temple of Confucius after visiting the Lama Temple (maybe that post has the date in it...?). the Temple of Confucius in Beijing is the place where people paid homage to Confucius during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It was quite beautiful, but (like much of Beijing) under a great deal of construction at the time we visited, so not many pictures (and still fewer good-looking pictures) were actually taken. Sorry!


Picture of one of the outer temple buildings. This temple consists of four courtyards. The main structures include Xian shi Gate (Gate of the First Teacher), Da cheng Gate (Gate of Great Accomplishment), Da cheng Hall (Hall of Great Accomplishment) and Chong sheng ci Hall (Worship Hall). Da cheng Hall is the main building in the temple, where the memorial ceremony for Confucius was often held. I think this one might be the Chong sheng ci Hall, but I am far from certain about that.


Statue of Confucius, with offerings in front and construction in the back on what I'm pretty sure is the Da cheng Gate. Confucius, or Kong fu zi (also spelled K'ung-fu-tzu under the old Wade-Giles system) is arguably the most formative figure in China's cultural, political, and (!) philsophical history. I'll spare you all the fancy details of Confucianism here, although more than you could ever want to know about it and its relationship to the temples constructed to further its study and worship can be found in this website.


Unlike the Buddhist temples we visited, temples built to honor the spirit of Kongzi were often part of a larger system of cult sacrifices to other gods and spirits rather than reflecting worship of and devotion to a truly spiritual entity. Kongzi is regarded as a wise scholar and is unequivocally revered in China, but "temples" in his honor have nothing of the air of worship of the holy of their Buddhist counterparts.


One of the funniest things about Beijing is the constant juxtaposition of a beautiful and ancient culture with a modern society which itself contains as much that is poverty-stricken and undeveloped as it does that is modernizing at a million miles an hour. This picture has it all: shirtless, shoeless, dust-coated young men, playing net-less soccer in the courtyard of one of Beijing's most ancient cultural sites, rich in philosophical and historical significance, but at present covered over with ropes, fences, and other construction-related manifestations of Beijing's full-tilt-ahead-no-holds-barred-head-long-modernizing charge into a new future.