Southern Kong Family Temple
孔氏南宗家庙
One of only two Kong family temples in China. When descendants of Confucius moved south with the Song court and settled in Quzhou, the city earned the nickname “Southeast Quli.”
At the end of the Northern Song dynasty, as Jin troops advanced south, Kong Duanyou, the 48th-generation descendant of Confucius, carried wooden statues of Confucius and his wife, Lady Qiguan, as he followed Emperor Gaozong of Song south. He settled in Quzhou and founded the Southern Kong lineage. The family temple and the Confucian Temple in Qufu, Shandong are known together as “Qufu in the north, Quzhou in the south.”
The surviving temple was rebuilt in the Qing dynasty. Its central axis runs from Dacheng Gate to Dacheng Hall to Silu Pavilion. Dacheng Hall houses a statue of Confucius. Silu Pavilion displays wooden statues of Confucius and his wife, said to have been carved by Zigong, a disciple of Confucius (mostly replicas on display). The east axis is the Kong family private school, and the west axis holds the Five Branches Ancestral Hall and the Kong Mansion.
The temple is on Xinqiao Street in the old town and can be linked on foot with Fushan Park, the Bell Tower and Shuiting Gate. Admission is in the tens of yuan (subject to on-site announcements; entry may be free during winter free-admission events). Each year around September 28, Confucius’s birthday, the Southern Kong Ceremony is held. It is a national intangible cultural heritage.
Opening hours
08:30–17:00
Nearby sights
- Quzhou Museum
- Quzhou Bell Tower
- Tianning Temple
- Tianwang Pagoda
- Quzhou City Wall
- Shuitingmen Historic Block
- Xin'an Lake
- Luming Park