The original three-room house of Confucius was removed from the temple complex during a rebuilding undertaken in 611 AD.

In 1012 and in 1094, during the Song dynasty, the temple was extended into a design with three sections and four courtyards, around which eventually more than 400 rooms were arranged.

In total, the Temple of Confucius has undergone 15 major renovations, 31 large repairs, and numerous small building measures.

The temple complex is among the largest in China, it covers an area of 16,000 square metres and has a total of 460 rooms.

The main part of the temple consists of nine courtyards arranged on a central axis, which is oriented in the north–south direction and is 1.3 km in length.

Each year at Qufu and at many other Confucian temples a ceremony is held on September 28 to commemorate Confucius' birthday.

A recent book on Confucian stelae in Qufu catalogs around 500 such monuments on the temple's grounds,[3] noting that the list is far from complete.

[4] The steles commemorate repeated rebuildings and renovations of the temple complex, contain texts extolling Confucius and imperial edicts granting him new honorary titles.

Some of the most important imperial stelae are concentrated in the area known as the "Thirteen Stele Pavilions" (十三碑亭, Shisan Bei Ting).

[7] A large number of smaller tablets of various eras, without bixi pedestals, are lined in the open air in "annexes" around the four corners of the Thirteen Stele Pavilions area.

[8] Four important tortoise-borne imperial stelae from the Ming dynasty can be found in the courtyard south of the Star of Literature Pavilion.

The eastern pavilion houses a stele from Year 4 of the Hongwu era (1371), designating deities associated with geographical directions etc.