Mencius Temple, also known as "Yasheng Temple", is a place where Mencius was worshiped in the past. The temple dedicated to Mencius began in the fourth year of Jingyou of the Song Dynasty (1037). It was built at the southwest foot of Siji Mountain, 12 kilometers northeast of Zouxian County, in front of Mencius's mausoleum. Later, it moved to Nanguan, the present town of Zouxian County.
Mencius Temple is 458.5 meters long from north to south and 95 meters wide from east to west, covering an area of ??43,600 square meters, or 66 acres. Second only to the Confucius Temple in size, it is one of the oldest and best-preserved ancient building complexes in Shandong Province. It is a representative work of ancient architecture from the Song and Yuan to the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China. In 1988, it was designated as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council. .
The Meng Temple Yasheng Temple
The front and rear of the Meng Temple are composed of five courtyards, with the main building "The Yasheng Temple" as the center, the north and south as a central axis, and the left and right buildings are arranged symmetrically . There are currently 64 pavilions, 2 steles and pavilions, 4 wooden squares and 1 stone square.
Lingxing Gate is the south gate of Mencius Temple. There are wooden squares on the left and right sides of Lingxing Gate, named "Jiwangsheng" and "Kailaixue", in recognition of Mencius's achievements in "following Confucius and pioneering Confucianism".
The stone square of Yasheng Temple is the second courtyard gate of Yasheng Temple. It was built in the early Wanli year of Ming Dynasty. The stone square is 5.2 meters high, with four pillars and three doors. The top of the pillars is decorated with treasure bottles and cloud-piercing panels, similar to a Chinese watch. The forehead of the center square is engraved with "Yasheng Temple" in regular script in gold. The left and right squares are engraved with the patterns of "Pterosaur in the Clouds" and "Sea Dragon", which are extremely exquisite.
The east verandah and the west veranda are located inside Chengshengmen ("veranda", that is, the corridors and houses under the ancient hall). The east and west verandas are dedicated to Mencius's disciples and 11 scholars who contributed to Mencius' theory, and each has a wooden shrine for worship. These worshipers include Gongduzi, Gaozi, Penchengkuo, Wululian, Haokaobuha, Gongsun Chou, Chen Zhen, Qian Tang, Zi Shuyi, Sun Shuang, Peng Geng, Xu Pi, Xian Qiumeng, Meng Zhongzi, Wan Zhang, Chong Yu, Ji Sunshi, Taoying, Kong Daofu.
The Yasheng Temple was built in the third year of Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty (1121). It has seven couplets, 17 meters high, 27.7 meters wide and 20.48 meters deep. It has double eaves covered with green glazed tiles. Mountain-style palace architecture. His Highness erected 26 eight-sided terrazzo columns, with lotus-shaped bases under them. The eight pillars under the front porch are decorated with patterns such as flying double-winged pterosaurs, precious peonies, and passion lotus, showing exquisite craftsmanship. The beams and brackets outside the hall are decorated with palace and seal paintings, which are magnificent and magnificent. On the lintel in the middle of the hall hangs a giant carved dragon plaque "Daochanni Mountain" written by Qianlong of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty. A huge couplet hangs on the golden pillar of the entrance door in the hall: "Respecting the king's words must be praised by Yao and Shun, and caring about the world is the same as Yu Yan." Written by Qianlong. In the middle of the Yasheng Temple is a carved dragon and gold-plated shrine, which enshrines a statue of Mencius. The clothing adopts the etiquette system of the Yuanyou period of the Song Dynasty: it has nine chapters of the nine tribes (the crown has nine tribes, and the clothing has nine patterns). It is the duke's clothing and the first-class clothing. The statue on the east side of the hall is enshrined in the shrine of Mencius, the high-ranking Marquis of Ashikaga Kingdom, Raku Masako. On the west side of the hall, there is an inscription "The Temple of Mencius, the First Master Zou Guogong" dating from the third year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty.
There are 280 tablets from the Qin, Han, Jin, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties preserved in the Meng Temple. The main contents include imperial decrees from feudal emperors, the Meng family genealogy, and repairs in the past dynasties. Records of expansion, poems and praises of literati and poets, etc. Its fonts are in regular script, running script, official script and seal script, and are of high calligraphy artistic value. Important inscriptions include the "Stone Carvings by Laizihou" in the Western Han Dynasty, the "Stone Carvings in Qinyi Mountain", the "Stone Carvings in Shiqiang Village" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial edict tablet "Conferring Mencius as the Holy Duke of Zou Guoya" written by Emperor Wenzong of the Yuan Dynasty, and the "Biography of the Meng Family" in the Ming Dynasty. Ancestor Pictures" stele, etc. are precious materials for studying the history of our country and the evolution of Mencius Temple.
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