According to legend, Confucius set up a teaching in Xingtan, accepting 3,000 disciples and teaching six arts. Since ancient times, people have thought that speaking is beautiful and praised by scholars. Furthermore, as a symbol of Confucius' enlightenment, Xingtan was incorporated into the architectural system of Confucius Temple, and even influenced Southeast Asian countries covered by Confucianism.

Although many people praised the establishment of Confucius' apricot altar, it was not found in The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Zuo Zhuan, Dai Xiao and Li Ji, not far from Confucius, and even the name of apricot altar never appeared, which was quite puzzling. So, where did the teaching of Xingtan come from? Palm-sized historical records, remember the earliest, when the 47th generation of Confucius Sun Kongchuan's "East Society Miscellaneous Notes" in Shaoxing years in the Southern Song Dynasty, including "Xing Tan Shuo", which briefly said:

In the past, when Zhou Lingwang was in the world and Lu Aigong was in the world, the master drove from the east gate of the country and wandered around because he saw the apricot altar and went upstairs. Disciple Shi Lie, Gu said, "The altar where Zang Wenzhong will be sworn." Seeing things and thinking about people, singing and singing. The song says: "Live in summer, live in cold, spring returns to autumn, the sun sets, and the water flows east." Where is the general's horse now? Wild grass and flowers are everywhere. "

However, after careful consideration of this passage, there are many doubts: at the end of the article, Confucius sang a seven-character quatrain, which began between the Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, which was impossible for Confucius to exist in his life. The Spring and Autumn Period were chariots, and a book called Zuo Zhuan made it very clear. It was not until Zhao's mausoleum was riding and shooting that there were cavalry. At this time, it has entered the warring States period. Zang Wenzhong was a native of Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period. Why did Confucius sigh, "Where are the horses now?" ? The second is. Thirdly, as he said, the Xingtan was first created by Zang Wenzhong, and Confucius only took its name because of its location. According to these three points, it can be seen that this article is not credible because of the false entrustment of a busybody.

In the pre-Qin literature, only one "apricot altar" was found in Zhuangzi Fisherman.

Confucius swam in the forest, sat on the apricot altar, his disciples read books, and Confucius played string songs and drums. Before the tune was finished, the fisherman got off the boat ... (Confucius) asked for it, as for Ze 'an. ...

Sima Biao notes the cloud: "Hey, the black forest is also. Xingtan, high in Zezhong. " Gu's textual research in the late Ming Dynasty holds that:

Confucius is a fable in Zhuangzi. Fishermen don't have to have men, and apricot altars don't have to have places. Even if there is, it is on the land between reeds on the water, next to evil, and obviously not in Lu. Today's Xingtan is the ancestral temple built by Sun Daofu in the forty-fifth period of Song Ganxing, and later moved to the back of the main hall. Because the old stone of the lecture hall is an altar, apricots are planted around it, taking the name of the apricot altar.

Gu regarded The Fisherman as a fable. "The fisherman doesn't have to have a man, and the apricot altar doesn't have to have a place. It does, but it is also in the water reeds, on the land next to the pond, not in Lu." Further textual research shows that Daofu Kong in the Northern Song Dynasty was the earliest substitute for Xingtan. Today, the south of Dacheng Hall in Qufu is the former site of the lecture hall. Emperor Hanming traveled eastward to Confucius' House and once talked about classics. Daofu Kong expanded the ancestral temple, and didn't want to destroy it, that is, it used flint as an altar and planted apricot trees around it to become an apricot altar. Gu's theory can be described as extreme and unchangeable, except that it was recognized that an apricot altar could be built during the reign of Song Ganxing.

So, when was the Xingtan built? Qufu County Records refers to the construction of Tianxi in North Song Zhenzong in the second year of Daoguang (10 18), and the textual research of Queli in Qing Dynasty also refers to the construction of apricot altar between Tianxi.

Xingtan is the former site of the temple before the Song Dynasty. During the Song Tianxi period, the forty-fifth generation Sun Daojian repaired the ancestral temple and moved it northward. I don't want to destroy its historic sites, because there is a saying in Zhuangzi that "Confucius swam in the forest and sat on the apricot altar", so he moved the altar and planted apricots around it, which is called "apricot altar".

Compared with the epitaph of Daofu Kong recorded in Quelizhi, Xingtan was first built in Tianxi, Northern Song Dynasty.

To sum up, we can make the following calculations on the establishment process of Xingtan:

Before the early Song Dynasty, the apricot altar had only a name but no reality. Until the 9th year of Song Zhenzong Dazhong Xiangfu (10 16), Daofu Kong, the 45th generation of Confucius, then the official of Dali Temple, slaughtered Qufu and took charge of the main temple, saying that the Confucius Temple was humble and could not be called "the Duke of Feast". Please repair it. The imperial court "ordered Taoism to assist in supervising labor" and "ordered officials to spend money to repair traffic", and allowed it to use the remaining wood of the closed temple in Taishan at that time, "all belonging to oak, camphor and catalpa", and carried out a large-scale transformation of the Confucius Temple, "building three gates, two book buildings, two Tang and Song steles, two instrument gates, two royal halls and two apricot altars". Daofu Kong moved the main hall to the north for the purpose of "enlarging the hall", that is, Dacheng Hall. Because the article "Zhuangzi Fisherman" has the sentence "Confucius swims in the forest instead of sitting in the apricot altar", the old base of the original lecture hall has been rebuilt, and apricot trees are planted around it, named "apricot altar". As for this, the apricot altar began to have physical objects, and Confucius' teaching theory in the apricot altar was also due to this.

Attachment: The ancients chanted apricot altars.

Yuan Wucheng's poem "Chen Yingyuan Xing Tan Ming" says: "The summit of Zhu Si, harmony and prosperity, is a tribute to the earth. Yuan algae is silent, flowers bloom and fall, Yan Dan Yan Yan, wax bomb Ying Ying. "

Isn't there a poem in Yang Huan's "Worship to the Temple": "When the spring breeze enters the apricot altar, Kuiwen Pavilion is independent."

There is a sentence in Li Ming's poem "The Temple of Literature is full of pines and cypresses, and the forum is warm in spring and fragrant with apricot flowers."

Chen Ming Feng Wu's poem "Imperial Court in the Palace Queli, Offering Dishes, Respecting the Chronicle" says: "Apricot flowers scatter in front of the altar, and juniper trees reflect outside the hall."

There is a poem in Zhengyu Guo's Gong Ji of the Temple Mount in the Ming Dynasty: "Apricot flowers are red on the altar, and the water in front of the forest is black."

Yao Ming Wenying's poem "Worship the Temple" has a sentence: "Around the altar, red apricots hang down, and Ran Ran depends on the tree Bai Yunfei."

Wei's "Qiao Lin Temple" poem says: "In spring, the cypress blossoms apricots, and the pottery singer is connected with heaven and earth."

Jin's "Poems on Xingtan" says: "Pines and cypresses are luxuriant, and red apricots lean on solitary pavilions."

In Zhu Yizun's Ode to Kong Lin in Qing Dynasty, there is a saying that the apricot altar is full of flowers, and the courtyard is full of flowers. The poem Qufu overlooks Liu Zhongcheng has a sentence that "the sunset is new and the rain is over, and the old apricot altar is open in spring".

In the Textual Research of Queli Literature by Jifen Kong in the Qing Dynasty, there is a poem "The Sixties Give a Feast to the Gongxing Altar", which says: "The ruins of Lucheng have become empty, and the point is long and imaginative. The unique apricot altar is in early spring, and it is old and red every year. "

Today, there is an "apricot altar monument" in the apricot altar in the Confucius Temple, and the front is the poem "Apricot altar" written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty: "When the flowers bloom again, several trees bloom in the east wind. Is the world more beautiful than flowers, and civilization stopped in ancient times? "