Confucius Church of Sacramento沙加缅度孔教会

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

United States · California · Sacramento · 915 4th Street, in Sacramento's Chinatown Mall

Coordinates

38.58337, -121.50097 Map ↗

First built

No reliable documentation gives the founding date; currently unknown

Overview

Sacramento's Chinatown has been California's second-largest Chinese settlement since the 1850s, and after urban renewal in the 1960s it became concentrated around what is now the Chinatown Mall. The Confucius Church is located there, one of the few Chinese religious organizations in North America to bear the name 'Confucianism' (Kongjiao). Confucianism was organized in the early twentieth century through the efforts of Kang Youwei, Chen Huanzhang, and others, forming church-like institutions among overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the Americas, venerating Confucius and performing the shidian sacrificial rite — a system distinct from Daoist religious organizations. This entry is noted accordingly: this is not a Daoist temple but a Confucian (Kongjiao) establishment, included here to present the full spectrum of Chinese religious sites in North America — within immigrant communities, Confucian temples, Daoist temples, Buddhist temples, and clan-hall altars often share the same body of worshippers and the same seasonal and festival customs, making them difficult to separate cleanly.

Highlights

• A surviving Confucian organization in Sacramento's Chinatown
• A Confucian (Kongjiao) rather than Daoist establishment
• Reflects the overseas legacy of early-twentieth-century Confucian organization