Guozijian or Ancient Education Department and Confucius Temple Ming and Qing Dynasties

Guozijian is located at Guozijian St. (also called Chengxian St.), AN DING MEN NEI Ave., Beijing. It was the highest administration in Chinese education and state schools established in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was first built in the 10th year (1306) of Yuan Emperor Dade. The Hall of Piyong is the center building of Guozijian, and was established in the 49th year (1784) of Qing Emperor Qianlong. It was like a library for emperors and its chief administer was called “Jijiu (meaning official of the wine ceremony)”.

Beijing Guozijian was the highest administrative organ supervising education and also the nation's highest academy during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties(1279-1911) of ancient China. In ancient times, Guozijian was called “Taixue” which means "the Highest Scholarship of the Imperial College". In 1905, the Imperial Examination system was abolished by the Qing Government and at the same time Guozijian finished its historical mission.


Confucius Temple
Confucius Temple also lies on Guozijian St. and is the place where people worshipped Confucius in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was first built in 1302, and is now more than 700 years old. The Temple covers an area of 20,000 square meters, with 198 inscribed stones carved with the names of 198 scholars in the 3 Dynasties standing in the court. There were also 14 stone inscriptions built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.