Research On Temple And Cemetery Of Mencius And The Meng Family Mansion In Mencius's Hometown Zoucheng Of Shandong

Mencius (372BC?—289BC) was a great Chinese philosopher and sage, one of the principal interpreters of Confucianism and the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself. Similar and close to the Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu (World Heritage sites), Mencius's hometown Zoucheng, Shandong Province of east China, there are well-preserved the Temple and Cemetery of Mencius and the Meng Family Mansion as the monumental sites to commemorate the great thinker and his thoughts. Taking related sites such as Confucius Temple, Yan Temple, Zengcius Temple, Zhougong Temple and Confucius Temple on Ni Hill as a whole system in Jining region, this paper focus on the study of the Temple and Cemetery of Mencius and the Meng Family Mansion. Integrating the history and status changes of Confucianism along with the reformation of social rites, it also fills the blank of the history study during the turn of the 20th century. To study on the genius loci, environmental components and building methods, the writer visited many buildings in Jining, Subei and consulted a lot of sources about the buildings in South China. Besides the building methods represented by the Temple and Cemetery of Mencius and the Meng Family Mansion, analysis and comparison with that of South China are also presented in this paper. In the end, this paper explains existed problems and corresponding solutions.