The Wenmiao Temple located in Wenmiao Street, not far from the Yuyuan Garden, is the only Confucian site in the center of Shanghai and is also where the city's first second-hand book market was located.
The Temple is in the Old City and the surrounding streets have all benefited from being associated with it.
A good example is Menghua Street in the north which has many legends spoken about it.
It's said that candidates for imperial examinations would walk the street before sitting for the exam so as to get help from Confucius.
The first Confucian Temple was built during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and was located to the east of Neixueyuan Lu. In 1854, it was destroyed by fire. The Shanghai County Magistrate planned the Temple's reconstruction and asked a xiucai (scholar) surnamed Jia to find a good place with perfect geomantic omens. Jia chose the current address at No. 225 Wenmiao Lu.
The Confucian Temple has been a cultural center for hundreds of years. Shanghai's educational institutions originated partly from it. Jingye Middle School, first built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and one of the oldest schools in Shanghai, is also on Wenmiao Lu.
There were many bookstores near the Temple in the old days and students took great delight in searching for good books among the stores. Modern cultural celebrities Tang Tao, Huang Shang and Zheng Zhenduo were frequent customers.
The writer A'ying once wrote of the happiness he found in rambling around the various bookstores and the joy he felt can still be detected in his lines today.
The good times ended when the "cultural revolution” (1966-76) began. All the bookstores were shut and excellent books suddenly became "poisonous grass”. It was a big calamity. Only a few second-hand bookstores survived that period.
In the 1980s, the local cultural department made use of the empty space in front of the Temple to set up the Wenmiao Book Market -- the first formal second-hand book market in Shanghai.
The market, with more than 200 stalls, is open every Sunday, attracting a multitude of people from every corner of Shanghai and the business of book browsing is once again in full swing.
Some book lovers can even find rare editions of some books such as the original edition of Vagrant Life of Sanmao, The Fourth Sickroom written by Ba Jin and Luotuo Xiangzi by Lao She and the Collection of Luxun's Essays published during the Republic of China (1912-1949).
(Shanghai Star January 24, 2003)
