Binchuan Zhoucheng Confucian Temple, Confucian temple in Zhoucheng, Binchuan County, China

Binchuan Zhoucheng Confucian Temple is a traditional temple complex featuring several interconnected courtyards and wooden buildings decorated with intricate hand-carved details. The structures display the typical layout and craftsmanship of Chinese temple design from its period.

The Binchuan Confucian Temple was founded in 1494, the seventh year of the Ming Hongzhi reign, and rebuilt in 1541. In 1681 the Chongsheng Shrine was repaired, and in 1700 the Jinsheng Yuzhen Archway, Lingxing Gate, Dacheng Hall and the two side halls were restored. The complex, together with the adjacent Martial Temple, was listed as a Yunnan provincial cultural relic in 1998 and as a National Key Cultural Relic in 2001.

The temple's name, Binchuan Zhoucheng Confucian Temple, marks it as the prefectural school temple of Binchuan. Its four successive courtyards follow the standard Confucian school sequence: a screen wall, the Lingxing Gate, the Hall of Famous Officials and Local Worthies, the Dacheng Gate, the Dacheng Hall and the Chongsheng Shrine. The Chongsheng Shrine, rebuilt in 1681, honours Confucius's ancestors.

The temple faces west and is laid out in four successive courtyards covering over 5,000 square metres, so allow time to walk from the screen wall through the Lingxing Gate and Dacheng Gate to the Dacheng Hall and Chongsheng Shrine. The main structures date from the mid-to-late Qing period.

The complex pairs a Confucian temple with a military temple, both protected together since 2001 as a National Key Cultural Relic Unit; Yunnan had listed them as a provincial site in 1998. The Confucian temple faces west, an unusual orientation, and its Dacheng Hall is 17.7 m wide and 10.93 m deep.