【Introduction】
The temple was first built by a chief of the militia guard, Chen Yonghua in 1665 (the 19th year of Yongli reign of the Ming Dynasty). The Confucius Temple of Tainan encompassed only three halls, two corridors and the adjoining Hall of Moral Instruction. During the Qing Dynasty, it was renamed the Temple of Ancestral Teachers. The temple underwent many rounds of renovation, gradually expanding its scale. In the late-Qing Dynasty, Taiwan became a province and Tainan became a city. The Confucius Temple was renamed as the Tainan Prefecture Academy. In 1917 (the 6th year of Emperor Taisho), it was disassembled and rebuilt. The current layout consists of structures including the Gate of Great Achievements, the Hall of Great Achievements, the Temple of the Sages, the Hall of Moral Instruction, the East and West Corridors, the East and West Arches of Great Achievements, the Gate of Etiquette, the Road of Righteousness, the Wenchang Pavilion, Panchi (a semicircular pond for contemplation), and the Pangong Arch (stone arch of higher learning institutions).
The temple has a layout featuring concentric rectangles with three halls and two corridors. The first hall contains the Gate of Great Achievements, which is a colonnade structure and is also called the Halberd Gate. On each side of the gate are shrines dedicated to famous officials and local sages. The second hall is the Hall of Great Achievements, which has a layered gable-on-hip roof with a balcony. It has a shrine hosting Confucius as its primary deity. The third hall is the Hall of the Sages, which connects on the left and right with storage rooms for ceremonial relics and musical instruments, respectively. On the left side of the temple stands the Gate of Entry into Virtue, behind which is the Hall of Moral Instruction with a pavilion. Behind the hall, an octagonal tower stands to the left. The tower is built in an unusual manner, with its shape changing from square to circle and then to octagon.