Covering an area of around 4.4 acres (18,000 square meters), the museum is located inside of the Temple of Confucius in Taiyuan, a city of Shanxi Province. According to historical records, Temple of Confucius was very small before the Ming Dynasty. It was reconstructed to a brand-new monastery in 1383 and named as Chongshan Monastery. Unfortunately, it was burnt down in 1864. Then Zhang Zhidong, the provincial governor of Shanxi Province, ordered to build the Temple of Confucius on the site of the monastery in 1881.