Jiāngchuān

Jiangchuan was one of the counties attached to Chengjiang in Yunnan's lake country. The Ming converted Chengjiang's administration into a prefecture in 1382 while retaining its subordinate counties. Local government and education later found a substantial architectural expression in the Confucian temple at Jiangcheng, north of the county town.

Built between 1779 and 1824, the temple complex took forty-five years to complete. Its courts led past a semicircular pond and examination bridge to the five-bay Dacheng Hall. Carved screens depicted birds, animals and flowers, while dragons curled around stone columns on the platform outside. The temple combined worship of Confucius with the education of students. Under the Qing, the annual ceremony on the twenty-seventh day of the eighth lunar month brought officials and people from surrounding villages together. Civil and military officers occupied designated places, linking the county's educational aspirations with the ordered ritual of local government.