• Journal of architectural history
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.7-18
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• 2021

This paper studied the origin of Myeongnyundang(明倫堂), the common name of the main lecture halls at confucian schools in ancient China. Through an extensive investigation of local chronicles, biographies, decrees and construction essays, it found the first Myeongnyundang were titled on the main hall of a local school in the early Southern Song(南宋) period, and it might become the most popular name due to Zhuxi (朱熹), a famous confucian scholar in the Southern Song dynasty. In Yuan(元) period, it almost become the fixed name for the main lecture hall at local confucian schools, and even the official government documents began to use it as a common noun since the beginning of Ming(明) dynasty.