Xingtan refers to the field of education, because Confucius gave lectures at Xingtan that year, so it later refers to education. Now there are still the remains of apricot altar in Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong Province.

Xingtan was built to commemorate Confucius' lecture. When Daofu Kong, the grandson of the 45th Confucius, supervised the renovation of the Confucius Temple, he moved the main hall to an altar, and apricot trees were planted around it, which was named "Apricot Altar".