Fujian Confucian Temple&Schools In Song Dynasty From The Perspective Of Hisorical Geography

A Confucian Temple&School is one construction consisting of one confucian temple and one school in terms of its double functions—performing a memorial service and a teaching duty at the same time. The study of the Confucian Temple&Schools in Fujian in Song Dynasty (960A.D.—1279A.D.) in the perspective and through the methodology of historical geography helps to richen the contents of the history of education in Fujian and historical geography as a discipline, and contributes a lot to the development of the current education of China and furthermore to the tapping and utilizing of the current Chinese cultural resources in terms of the immediate significance of the study.On the basis of the related documental and field researches and with an emphasis of macroscopic investigation and micro empirical study through the combination of both qualitative descriptions and quantitative analyses, a study is made in the dissertation of the Confucian Temple&Schools in Fujian in Song Dynasty in terms of the following main aspects—their development background, their historical changes, their geographical distributions, their spatial layout and their real operations.The following three groups of factors together constitute their development background in Fujian in Song Dynasty—the local physical geographical conditions in Fujian, i.e. with three sides surrounded by mountains and one side facing seas, with mostly hilly areas and a few plains, and with abundant rainfalls and water resources, thus all these physical features forming five regional geographical belts; the anthrop geographical conditions there, that is, the state policy of respecting Confucius and valuing his cultural education, the movements of establishing schools, the developed science of the Fujian area, and the flourishing block-printing industry; and the historical evolution of confucian temple, namely, the evolution of the confucian temple from home temple to Confucian Temple&School.From the viewpoint of diachronic development, the Confucian Temple&Schools in Fujian in Song Dynasty roughly experiences the following five stages of recuperation, popularization, downturn, boom and delay, in company with such three features of development as intermittent ups or downs, and regional imbalance and relatively steady development at the turn of the Song Dynasty from the early period (960A.D.—1127A.D.) to the late one (1127A.D.—1279A.D.).The potential underlying causes of which are also shown in the paper—the rulers’ close attention to the Confucian Temple&School and the growth and decline of the Confucian Temple&School and the academies of classical learning at that time.From the viewpoint of geographical distributions, the Confucian Temple&Schools in Fujian in Song Dynasty extends itself from points to a surface, in company with the following features existing in the early and late Song Dynasties like obvious differences in distribution at different levels, distinct structures of distribution, and regional distribution imbalance, all the occurrence of which are proved in the dissertation to be closely related to such factors in the Fujian area—its geographical environment, its regional economy and its population distribution.From the viewpoint of their spatial layout, the Confucian Temple&Schools in Fujian in Song Dynasty is explored in the dissertation in the following four aspects—first, the two dominant choices of their sites, i.e. being mainly oriented towards the east and the southeast of the political center of Fujian directly to meet the requirements of geomancy (fengshui), tranquil environments, and real immediate needs; second, the Confucian Temple&School landscapes, mainly consisting of other constructors and the following two kinds of space—one constituting memorial space (including one main hall of a confucian temple and its accessory buildings) and the other actually functioning as the teaching and learning space (one lecture hall and its accessory buildings included); third, their architectural forms, including three standard forms of layout—a formal temple plus a latter school, a right temple and a left school, and a left temple and a right school and also including three special forms of layout—a temple in the middle in comply with a school, a sole temple or school, and a temple and a school established as separate; and fourth, the factors of influence, mainly involving geomancy (fengshui), and the actual layouts of the confucian temple in the city of Qufu and architectural layout of the confucian temple-school in the capitals of the two Song Dynasties. From the viewpoint of their real operations, the Confucian Temple&School in Fujian in Song Dynasty mainly perform such two functions—an instructing part and a memorial one. As for their instructing function, it mainly covers four aspects:the management of the schools—the duties, number and positions of the learning officials and lecturers or masters; the requirements for students—the admission qualifications and required tasks of the disciples or students; the management of teaching—teaching contents and methods, daily assessment of students and entrance examinations for a higher grade or school; and the last, the management of the school logistics—the source of fields for learning, number, their management and other methods of funds raising. As for the memorial function, it mainly involves three kinds of memorial targets—main worships, sharing worships and accompanying worship, three kinds of memorial contents or rites—releasing dishes and drinks to former sages and masters in the Confucian Temple&School (shidianli), worshiping without any sacrifice (shicaili) and drinking in township (xiangyinjiuli), and performing one two-folded function of memorizing and teaching plus learning.