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The Temple of Mencius was built beside his tomb in fourth year of North Song Dynasty in 1037. Mencius, a famous thinker and educator in the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and a disciple of Confucius, gained the fame of being the "second sacred personage". After his death, Mencius was buried in the suburban area of the Town of Zhou.
Since the Temple of Mencius is far from the city of Zou, it is not easy to look at it with reverence and offer sacrifices to gods, so the imperial court ordered to move the temple to today's address in Zhenhe Year of North Song Dynasty in 1121. Later the Temple of Mencius was enlarged continuously, till Ming Dynasty the temple became present scope.
The Temple of Mencius is located north and facing south, divided front and back five courtyards, altogether 64 halls, 4 wooden houses and one stone house. All the constructions were built on a south-north axis symmetrically, with the Hall of the Second Sacred Personage at the center. The front part of the temple consists of 20 small courtyards. In the temple the layout of constructions is very vast and the layout of each courtyard is different.
Additionally, in the Temple of Mencius there enshrined more than 350 carvings and tablets. The whole temple is an artistic museum with Chinese ancient construction, sculpture and drawing technology.
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