The Imperial College (Guozijian), which neighbors the temple of Confucius, was the highest institute of learning from the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) to the Ming Dynasty (1368¨C1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in China's traditional educational system.

     It was called the Guozixue in the Jin Dynasty (265-420) and the Guozijian beginning with the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

     Beijing's Guozijian was built in the Yuan Dynasty after Kublai Khan (1215-1294) built Dadu, or the Great Capital (today's Beijing). Guozixue was built in 1287 inside the Chongrenmen (now Dongzhimen) east of Dadu.

     It was officially constructed in 1306 and was placed west of the Temple of Confucius built in 1302. The layout followed the ancient architectural rules "temple on the left and school on the right."

     It was named Beipingjunxue in the early part of the Ming Dynasty during the reign of the Hongwu Emperor, who was known as Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1404, it was called Guozixue and then Guozijian or Beijian. There are two Guozijians -- in Beijing and Nanjing. And Nanjian was located in Nanjing.

     It has been renovated in history. In 1600, it was re-roofed with glazed roof tiles. In 1737, the roof was demolished and changed to yellow glazed roof tiles. In 1784, it had turned out to be a grand institution featuring yellow glazed roof tiles, red walls, green cypresses and a pond. As it was well preserved, it was used as the Capital Library and Children's Library.

     In an effort to protect the Guozijian and Temple of Confucius, the Chinese government has allocated some 2 billion yuan to move the Capital Library and Children's Library out of the temple and build the libraries in other places. The government has earmarked 50 million yuan to rejuvenate Guozijian and the temple in order to open Guozijian and the temple with a new facelift to the public.