The Temple of Heaven The Temple of Heaven is situated in the southern part of Beijing. It was first built in 1420 in the Ming dynasty, covers an area of 273 hectares, which is 3 times larger than the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven is not only the largest group of temple building in China, but also the largest heaven-worshipping architecture in the world. Originally the Temple of Heaven was built according to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing, so both heaven and earth were worshipped here, and it was called the Temple of Heaven and Earth at that time. In 1530, the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of the city, and from then on the heaven and the earth were worshipped separately. And from then on, it was renamed the Temple of Heaven.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Heaven was the place for the emperors to worship the God of Heaven and to pray for good harvest. The emperors came here twice a year. On the 15th day of the first lunar month, the emperor would come here to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest and hold a grand ceremony to pray for a bumper harvest. And on the winter solstice, another sacrificial ceremony would be held at the Circular Mount Altar to offer sacrifice to the heaven. If there happened to be a drought that year, the emperor would come here on summer solstice to hold a ceremony praying to the Heaven for rain. So sometimes the emperors came here three times a year. All the worships were firstly to the heaven, secondary to the ancestors of the emperors, as well as to the Gods of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the wind, the thunder and the lightening.
There are three main buildings in the Temple of Heaven: the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Circular Mound Altar. They are all built along the central axis and connected by the Red Stairway Bridge.
On the northern end of the Red Stairway Bridge is the main building of the Temple of Heaven, and it is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. It was first built in 1420 but was rebuilt several times. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperors came here on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year to pray for a good harvest. It is a cone-shaped wooden structure with triple eaves and a gilded ball on the top. The roof of the building is covered with dark blue glazed tiles, which symbolize the color of the sky. The building stands on a three-tiered white marble circular altar. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was built based on a model of the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing. So at that time it was rectangular in shape with the name the Hall of Great Sacrifice. In 1530, after the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing, only heaven was worshiped here. Then the Hall of Great Sacrifice was demolished and rebuilt into a circular hall with triple eaves, and was named the Hall of Great Enjoyment for the emperor to come here to pray for a good harvest. At that time the three-layered eaves were in three different colors, showing three different ranks. The top layer was in blue, symbolizing the heaven, the middle layer was in yellow, representing the emperor, and the bottom one was in green signifying the common people. During the Emperor Qianlong ’s reign, the hall was
rebuilt and all the three layers of roof were changed to dark blue glazed tiles just to symbolize the color of the sky. And then the hall was given the present name, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. In 1889, the hall was burnt down by lightening. In 1890, it was rebuilt according to the original design, and it was completed in 1896.
The construction of the hall is a fine example of the traditional Chinese architecture. The circle wooden structure is wholly made of wood without any use of steel, cement or even without a single nail.
The entire structure is supported by 28 giant wooden pillars, and all the pillars inside the hall have special significance. The 28 wooden pillars symbolize 28 constellations in the sky. The pillars are arranged in 3 rings, the 4 pillars in the center are the thickest. The space between each pillar of the four symbolizes the four seasons of the year. The 2nd ring has 12 pillars encircling the 1st ring. Each space between the 12 pillars represents 12 months of the year The other 12 pillars make the third ring the 12 spaces symbolize the 12 divisions of the day and night. The 2nd and the 3rd ring of pillars are totally 24 pillars, symbolizing 24 solar terms in traditional Chinese lunar calendar. The tablet of the God of Heaven was placed in the middle of the hall and the tablets of the emperors ancestors were placed on each side.
There are two annex halls on both sides of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. These two halls were the places for keeping the tablets of the Gods of sun, the moon, the stars, and the Gods of wind, clouds, rain, thunder and lightening. Now they are exhibition rooms.
The Hall of Imperial Zenith
The building behind the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is the Hall of Imperial Zenith. Inside the hall, the tablet of the God of Heaven and tablets of emperor ’s ancestors were kept, so it was called Heavenly Storehouse in the old days.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is in the northern part of the Temple of Heaven, and it is connected with the Imperial Vault of Heaven by the Red Stairway Bridge, which symbolizes the distance between heaven and human world.
The Red Stairway Bridge is 360 meters long and 29.4 meters wide. It is high in the north and low in the south. The central passage was called the Way of Spirit, which was reserved for the God of Heaven, the east road was called the Imperial Road for the emperor and the west one was called the Road of King for the ministers and royal family members. It is called “bridge ” because there is tunnel under the bridge for sending the sacrificial animals to pass through, and because all the animals passed through this tunnel would be killed, it is called the “gate of hell”. There is a square platform near the northern end on the east of the Red Stairway Bridge. That is the Dressing Platform. Before the worshiping ceremony, a tent was set up for the emperor to change his imperial yellow robe into the sacrificial garment. And after the ceremony, the emperor would return to the platform to change his clothes back.
The long corridor outside the eastern gate of this courtyard is called the seventy-two section connected house. This long corridor was the place to transport the sacrificial of rings when the worshipping ceremony was on. The Seven Star Stone is located on the southeastern side of the seventy-two section connected long corridor. These stones were placed here in 1530. At that time a Taoist priest said that the eastern part of the
Temple of Heaven was too spacious and open, which was not good for the emperor’s throne and the Ming dynasty. So the emperor set up these stones to overcome the undesirable geomancy. After the Manchu established the Qing dynasty, a smaller one was set up in the northeast corner of the Seven Star Stone. It is because that the Qing rulers just wanted to commemorate the merits and virtue of their ancestors and to show that they would not forget their origin, for their ancestors of the Qing emperors came from northeast China.
The Circular Mound Altar is in the southern part of the Temple of Heaven. It was built in 1530 and was really a dominant part of the Temple of Heaven.
Every year at the time of winter solstice, the emperor would come here to offer sacrifices to the Heaven on the Circular Mound Altar. The emperor reported to the God of Heaven the year’s good harvest and the country’s prosperity and also prayed for the coming year’s prosperity and peacefulness. If there happened to be a drought, the emperor would come to pray for rain on summer solstice.
The ceremony consisted of the following steps: ushering in the God of Heaven, presenting offerings, and seeing the deities off.
The altar is 5 meters high with three-tiered white marble terrace and is enclosed by a double wall. The inner wall is round while the outer wall is square, which symbolizes the heaven is round and the earth is square respectively. This was the ancient Chinese belief.
Since the number nine was the favorite number for the emperor, it can be found everywhere in the Temple of Heaven. The altar has a nine-step flight on each terrace leading down in four directions. On the upper terrace in the center there is a piece of round stone known as the Heavenly Heart Stone which is surrounded by nine concentric circles of fan-shaped stone slabs. The 1st ring surrounding the stone has 9 blocks of stone slabs; the 2nd ring has 18 while the 3rd has 27 and then the multiples of the figure of nine till the 9th ring which has 81 stone slabs and the second terrace shows another 9 circles. It starts from the 10th to the 18th ring. The bottom terrace starts from the 19th to the 27th ring. Even the balusters can show the multiple of number nine.
And there is something interesting here. If you stand on the Heavenly Heart Stone and speak in a low voice, you can hear your voice much louder. Because the surface of the altar is very smooth, the sound waves spread in different directions and are sent back to the center by the surrounding balusters.
Around the Circular Mound Altar, there are some iron burning stoves used to burn the offerings. And there is a firewood stove in the southeast of the courtyard. The firewood stove is a huge round green glazed brick stove, before the ceremony began, a clearly washed and shaved calf was put on the stove and burnt with pine twigs and reeds in order to welcome the god of heaven. After the ceremony, all the offerings and ceremonial placards and silk scrolls were burnt here and the emperor would stand by watching, which was called “watching the burning”.
And in the courtyard there is a huge pole. There was originally only one and two more were built during the Ming emperor ChonZhen ’s reign. But Yuanshikai demolished two of them. So there is only one left here. During the ceremony, a lantern was put on the top, and it was a symbol of the ceremony.
Outside the south gate of the Circular Mound Altar, there is a stone platform. That is the Dressing Platform. Before the worshiping ceremony, a tent was set up for the emperor to change his imperial yellow robe into the sacrificial garment. And after the ceremony, the emperor would return to the platform to change his clothes back. The Imperial Vault of Heaven is a smaller structure in the southern part of the Temple of Heaven, on the north of the Circular Mound Altar. It is a circular structure with dark blue glazed tiles. It is a completely wooden structure supported by 16 pillars. 8 of them are propping the eaves and the other 8 inside are gilded. The Imperial Vault of Heaven was the place to keep the tablets of the God of Heaven, popularly known as Bed Chamber. In the center of the Imperial Vault of Heaven the tablet of the God of Heaven was placed in the shrine, engraved with a gold-gilded inscription in Manchu and Han languages. There are eight stone platforms, four on each side on which placed the tablets of eight deceased Qing emperors.
One day before the heaven-worshipping ceremony, the emperor would come here to read prayer for blessing and burn incense in front of these tablets, and respectfully invited all the tablets to the Circular Mound Altar before the ceremony began.
There are nine concentric rings of fan-shaped stones on the floor in this building. Each ring contains 8 or multiples of 8 pieces of stone, totaling 360 pieces. Here the number 8 indicates the 8 directions.
The side halls on each side of the Imperial Vault of Heaven were used to keep the tablets of secondary deities, such as the God of the sun, the moon, the star, and the God of the cloud, the rain, the wind, the thunder and the lightening.
The Echo Wall is a circular wall surrounding the Imperial Vault of Heaven. If you speak in your normal voice at any point close to the wall, the wall will send the sound traveling along the wall, so another person can be able to hear you clearly at the other end. This is because that the wall is round, and it has eaves on the top and all bricks are hermetically laid. So the wall can send the sound to travel along the wall easily. In front of the Imperial Vault of Heaven there are three stones known as Triple-Sound Stone. If you stand on the first stone and clap your hands, the echo can be heard once; and if you do it on the second stone, you can hear the echo twice, and you can hear three times on the third stone. Hence the name. This due to the reflection of the sound waves.
Outside the Imperial Vault of Heaven there is a cypress known as the Nine-Dragon Cypress. It is so gnarled, that looks like being entwined by nine dragons, hence the name. It was planted in the Ming dynasty and is more than 500 years old.
The Temple of Heaven The Temple of Heaven is situated in the southern part of Beijing. It was first built in 1420 in the Ming dynasty, covers an area of 273 hectares, which is 3 times larger than the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven is not only the largest group of temple building in China, but also the largest heaven-worshipping architecture in the world. Originally the Temple of Heaven was built according to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing, so both heaven and earth were worshipped here, and it was called the Temple of Heaven and Earth at that time. In 1530, the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of the city, and from then on the heaven and the earth were worshipped separately. And from then on, it was renamed the Temple of Heaven.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Heaven was the place for the emperors to worship the God of Heaven and to pray for good harvest. The emperors came here twice a year. On the 15th day of the first lunar month, the emperor would come here to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest and hold a grand ceremony to pray for a bumper harvest. And on the winter solstice, another sacrificial ceremony would be held at the Circular Mount Altar to offer sacrifice to the heaven. If there happened to be a drought that year, the emperor would come here on summer solstice to hold a ceremony praying to the Heaven for rain. So sometimes the emperors came here three times a year. All the worships were firstly to the heaven, secondary to the ancestors of the emperors, as well as to the Gods of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the wind, the thunder and the lightening.
There are three main buildings in the Temple of Heaven: the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Circular Mound Altar. They are all built along the central axis and connected by the Red Stairway Bridge.
On the northern end of the Red Stairway Bridge is the main building of the Temple of Heaven, and it is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. It was first built in 1420 but was rebuilt several times. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperors came here on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year to pray for a good harvest. It is a cone-shaped wooden structure with triple eaves and a gilded ball on the top. The roof of the building is covered with dark blue glazed tiles, which symbolize the color of the sky. The building stands on a three-tiered white marble circular altar. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was built based on a model of the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing. So at that time it was rectangular in shape with the name the Hall of Great Sacrifice. In 1530, after the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing, only heaven was worshiped here. Then the Hall of Great Sacrifice was demolished and rebuilt into a circular hall with triple eaves, and was named the Hall of Great Enjoyment for the emperor to come here to pray for a good harvest. At that time the three-layered eaves were in three different colors, showing three different ranks. The top layer was in blue, symbolizing the heaven, the middle layer was in yellow, representing the emperor, and the bottom one was in green signifying the common people. During the Emperor Qianlong ’s reign, the hall was
rebuilt and all the three layers of roof were changed to dark blue glazed tiles just to symbolize the color of the sky. And then the hall was given the present name, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. In 1889, the hall was burnt down by lightening. In 1890, it was rebuilt according to the original design, and it was completed in 1896.
The construction of the hall is a fine example of the traditional Chinese architecture. The circle wooden structure is wholly made of wood without any use of steel, cement or even without a single nail.
The entire structure is supported by 28 giant wooden pillars, and all the pillars inside the hall have special significance. The 28 wooden pillars symbolize 28 constellations in the sky. The pillars are arranged in 3 rings, the 4 pillars in the center are the thickest. The space between each pillar of the four symbolizes the four seasons of the year. The 2nd ring has 12 pillars encircling the 1st ring. Each space between the 12 pillars represents 12 months of the year The other 12 pillars make the third ring the 12 spaces symbolize the 12 divisions of the day and night. The 2nd and the 3rd ring of pillars are totally 24 pillars, symbolizing 24 solar terms in traditional Chinese lunar calendar. The tablet of the God of Heaven was placed in the middle of the hall and the tablets of the emperors ancestors were placed on each side.
There are two annex halls on both sides of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. These two halls were the places for keeping the tablets of the Gods of sun, the moon, the stars, and the Gods of wind, clouds, rain, thunder and lightening. Now they are exhibition rooms.
The Hall of Imperial Zenith
The building behind the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is the Hall of Imperial Zenith. Inside the hall, the tablet of the God of Heaven and tablets of emperor ’s ancestors were kept, so it was called Heavenly Storehouse in the old days.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is in the northern part of the Temple of Heaven, and it is connected with the Imperial Vault of Heaven by the Red Stairway Bridge, which symbolizes the distance between heaven and human world.
The Red Stairway Bridge is 360 meters long and 29.4 meters wide. It is high in the north and low in the south. The central passage was called the Way of Spirit, which was reserved for the God of Heaven, the east road was called the Imperial Road for the emperor and the west one was called the Road of King for the ministers and royal family members. It is called “bridge ” because there is tunnel under the bridge for sending the sacrificial animals to pass through, and because all the animals passed through this tunnel would be killed, it is called the “gate of hell”. There is a square platform near the northern end on the east of the Red Stairway Bridge. That is the Dressing Platform. Before the worshiping ceremony, a tent was set up for the emperor to change his imperial yellow robe into the sacrificial garment. And after the ceremony, the emperor would return to the platform to change his clothes back.
The long corridor outside the eastern gate of this courtyard is called the seventy-two section connected house. This long corridor was the place to transport the sacrificial of rings when the worshipping ceremony was on. The Seven Star Stone is located on the southeastern side of the seventy-two section connected long corridor. These stones were placed here in 1530. At that time a Taoist priest said that the eastern part of the
Temple of Heaven was too spacious and open, which was not good for the emperor’s throne and the Ming dynasty. So the emperor set up these stones to overcome the undesirable geomancy. After the Manchu established the Qing dynasty, a smaller one was set up in the northeast corner of the Seven Star Stone. It is because that the Qing rulers just wanted to commemorate the merits and virtue of their ancestors and to show that they would not forget their origin, for their ancestors of the Qing emperors came from northeast China.
The Circular Mound Altar is in the southern part of the Temple of Heaven. It was built in 1530 and was really a dominant part of the Temple of Heaven.
Every year at the time of winter solstice, the emperor would come here to offer sacrifices to the Heaven on the Circular Mound Altar. The emperor reported to the God of Heaven the year’s good harvest and the country’s prosperity and also prayed for the coming year’s prosperity and peacefulness. If there happened to be a drought, the emperor would come to pray for rain on summer solstice.
The ceremony consisted of the following steps: ushering in the God of Heaven, presenting offerings, and seeing the deities off.
The altar is 5 meters high with three-tiered white marble terrace and is enclosed by a double wall. The inner wall is round while the outer wall is square, which symbolizes the heaven is round and the earth is square respectively. This was the ancient Chinese belief.
Since the number nine was the favorite number for the emperor, it can be found everywhere in the Temple of Heaven. The altar has a nine-step flight on each terrace leading down in four directions. On the upper terrace in the center there is a piece of round stone known as the Heavenly Heart Stone which is surrounded by nine concentric circles of fan-shaped stone slabs. The 1st ring surrounding the stone has 9 blocks of stone slabs; the 2nd ring has 18 while the 3rd has 27 and then the multiples of the figure of nine till the 9th ring which has 81 stone slabs and the second terrace shows another 9 circles. It starts from the 10th to the 18th ring. The bottom terrace starts from the 19th to the 27th ring. Even the balusters can show the multiple of number nine.
And there is something interesting here. If you stand on the Heavenly Heart Stone and speak in a low voice, you can hear your voice much louder. Because the surface of the altar is very smooth, the sound waves spread in different directions and are sent back to the center by the surrounding balusters.
Around the Circular Mound Altar, there are some iron burning stoves used to burn the offerings. And there is a firewood stove in the southeast of the courtyard. The firewood stove is a huge round green glazed brick stove, before the ceremony began, a clearly washed and shaved calf was put on the stove and burnt with pine twigs and reeds in order to welcome the god of heaven. After the ceremony, all the offerings and ceremonial placards and silk scrolls were burnt here and the emperor would stand by watching, which was called “watching the burning”.
And in the courtyard there is a huge pole. There was originally only one and two more were built during the Ming emperor ChonZhen ’s reign. But Yuanshikai demolished two of them. So there is only one left here. During the ceremony, a lantern was put on the top, and it was a symbol of the ceremony.
Outside the south gate of the Circular Mound Altar, there is a stone platform. That is the Dressing Platform. Before the worshiping ceremony, a tent was set up for the emperor to change his imperial yellow robe into the sacrificial garment. And after the ceremony, the emperor would return to the platform to change his clothes back. The Imperial Vault of Heaven is a smaller structure in the southern part of the Temple of Heaven, on the north of the Circular Mound Altar. It is a circular structure with dark blue glazed tiles. It is a completely wooden structure supported by 16 pillars. 8 of them are propping the eaves and the other 8 inside are gilded. The Imperial Vault of Heaven was the place to keep the tablets of the God of Heaven, popularly known as Bed Chamber. In the center of the Imperial Vault of Heaven the tablet of the God of Heaven was placed in the shrine, engraved with a gold-gilded inscription in Manchu and Han languages. There are eight stone platforms, four on each side on which placed the tablets of eight deceased Qing emperors.
One day before the heaven-worshipping ceremony, the emperor would come here to read prayer for blessing and burn incense in front of these tablets, and respectfully invited all the tablets to the Circular Mound Altar before the ceremony began.
There are nine concentric rings of fan-shaped stones on the floor in this building. Each ring contains 8 or multiples of 8 pieces of stone, totaling 360 pieces. Here the number 8 indicates the 8 directions.
The side halls on each side of the Imperial Vault of Heaven were used to keep the tablets of secondary deities, such as the God of the sun, the moon, the star, and the God of the cloud, the rain, the wind, the thunder and the lightening.
The Echo Wall is a circular wall surrounding the Imperial Vault of Heaven. If you speak in your normal voice at any point close to the wall, the wall will send the sound traveling along the wall, so another person can be able to hear you clearly at the other end. This is because that the wall is round, and it has eaves on the top and all bricks are hermetically laid. So the wall can send the sound to travel along the wall easily. In front of the Imperial Vault of Heaven there are three stones known as Triple-Sound Stone. If you stand on the first stone and clap your hands, the echo can be heard once; and if you do it on the second stone, you can hear the echo twice, and you can hear three times on the third stone. Hence the name. This due to the reflection of the sound waves.
Outside the Imperial Vault of Heaven there is a cypress known as the Nine-Dragon Cypress. It is so gnarled, that looks like being entwined by nine dragons, hence the name. It was planted in the Ming dynasty and is more than 500 years old.