Zhengding County’s Temple of Literature, Confucian temple in Zhengding County, China

Zhengding County's Temple of Literature faces south on the west side of Yucai Street in the old town. Its surviving structures are a screen wall, Pan Pond, Jimen gate, east and west wings, and the Dacheng Hall, which measures 650 square metres, five bays wide and three deep, with a single-eave hip-and-gable roof and large bracket sets.

The county annals date the temple to the seventh year of Ming Hongwu (1374), but its architectural style points to the late Tang or early Five Dynasties. The Dacheng Hall is the oldest surviving main hall of a Confucian temple in China, possibly a Five Dynasties or early Song relic. It was listed as a Hebei provincial cultural relic in 1956 and as a national key cultural relic in 1996.

The temple preserves stone stelae such as the "Record of the Restoration of the Zhending County School" and the "Record of the Restoration of the Temple of Literature", which document past rebuilds. The name Zhending refers to the county's old designation. The Dacheng Hall, dedicated to Confucius, is the focus of the complex, preceded by the Pan Pond and Ji Gate that mark the ritual approach.

The temple faces south on the west side of Yucai Street inside Zhengding's old town, so enter from the street and walk the grounds in the order of screen wall, Pan Pond, Jimen gate and the east and west wings before reaching the Dacheng Hall. The Dacheng Hall covers 650 square metres, so allow time to walk around it and look up at the bracket sets under the eaves.

The Dacheng Hall is considered the earliest surviving main hall of a Confucian temple in China, dated by its architectural style to the late Tang or early Five Dynasties rather than to the Ming Hongwu year (1374) recorded in the county annals. Its column-head bracket sets are double-armed with hidden inner arms, and it has no intermediate bracket sets between the columns.