My dear friends, Welcome to Qufu, the hometown of Confucius. Confucius had a famous remark: “What a delight to have friends from afar.” Today I am very glad to have an opportunity of making new friends and to be your tour guide. I wish to thank you for your cooperation and also ready to take your suggestions and advice regarding my service. What we are going to visit now is the Confucius Temple. This temple is where sacrifices are offered to Confucius. Work on these structures began during the second year after Confucius’s death. The Confucius Temple imitates the imperial palace’s construction. The layout is as follows: There are 5 halls, 1 pavilion, 1 altar, and 3 ancestral temples. It is divided into 9 courtyards. Altogether there are 466 rooms, 54 gateways and over 1000 stone tablets and steles. It covers an area of 21.8 hectares (equals to 327.5 mu) and is over 1 kilometers long from north to south. It is magnificent and resplendent and irrespective of the angle from which you enjoy viewing the temple. It is commensurate with influence and fame of Confucius. As such, it is very rare world historical treasure. The Confucius Temple’s first gateway is called Golden Sound and Jade Vibration Gateway (金声玉振门), “Golden Sound ” and “Jade Vibration” symbolize the whole process of playing music in ancient time. The music starts with the beating of a drum and ends with the striking of an inverted bell (磬). This means that Confucius’s thoughts are a comprehensive expressions saints’ ideas. Now we come to the Ling Star Gate. This gate was erected in Ming Dynasty and was rebuilt in 1754. The three characters were written by Emperor Qianlong. The legend has it that there are 28 constellations in the galaxy. The star in charge of culture is called “Ling Star” or “Wenqu Star”. People believe Confucius is the Ling Star. So they show respect to Confucius is as important as to show respect to Heaven. Look at this stone stele on the temple gate’s eastern wall. It is written on the stele that “officials should dismount here.” In the past, the civil and military officials and people in the street were required to get off from their horses or sedan chairs and walk on foot when they passed by the Temple to show their reverence for Confucius and his temple. We are now entering the Dacheng Gate (大成门). The Temple of Confucius is divided into three layouts from here. The middle gate is the Dacheng Gate; the two beside the Dacheng Gate are the Golden Sound Gate on the left and Jade Vibration Gate on the right. The one on farther western side is the Qisheng Gate (启圣门) and the one on 本文来源：https://www.wddqw.com/doc/c8df9d48e55c3b3567ec102de2bd960590c6d9e3.html