The Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is situated in the southern part of Beijing. Its main structures are under deep-blue tile roofs, harmonizing with the blue sky. Artisans in those days pursued that kind of effect, and the Temple of Heaven was designed according to the people's conception of heaven.

The Temple of Heaven was built in 1420, the 18th year of the reign of Emperor Yong Le of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was originally named the Temple of Heaven and Earth, and both heaven and earth were worshiped here. In 1530, the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Jia Jing of the Ming Dynasty, a new Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing, and the Temple of Heaven and Earth became a place for worshiping heaven only and praying for good harvests; hence its current name, the Temple of Heaven.

On the 15th day of the first lunar month, on the winter solstice (22nd solar term), and some time during the first month of summer, the emperor would go to the Temple of Heaven to worship heaven, to pray for good harvests and rainfall, and to offer sacrifices to the ancestors, to the gods of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and to the gods of clouds, wind, rain, and thunder and lightning.

The Temple of Heaven is the largest existing complex of ancient sacrificial buildings in China. The temple is divided into Neitan (Inner Temple) and Waitan (Outer Temple) by a double wall. The southern part of the Inner Temple is square, and the northern part is semi-circular, a pattern representing the ancient belief that heaven is round and the earth, square.

The main buildings of the Inner Temple are on a north-south axis, including the Circular Mound Altar (Huanqiutan) in the south and the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests (Qigutan) in the north. The two altars are connected by a brick and stone walkway named Shendao (Sacred Road), an allusion to the long road to the imperial court.

The Circular Mound Altar, also known as the Altar for Worshiping Heaven (Baitiantai) and the Sacrifice Altar (Jitai), is the place where the emperor worshiped heaven on the winter solstice. The altar was built of blue-glazed tiles and white marble in 1530, the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Jia Jing of the Ming Dynasty, and was rebuilt with gray stone slabs in 1749, the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Qian Long of the Qing Dynasty.

In ancient China, odd numbers were regarded as heavenly or as related to the sun. Since nine was considered the most powerful of all numbers, the altar, a three-tiered terrace, was constructed with rings of stone slabs in multiples of nine, and the steps and balustrades are also in multiples of nine. At the center of the top terrace lies a round stone known as the Center-of-Heaven Stone (Tianxinshi). If you stand on the stone and speak normally, your voice will resonate louder.

Lying north of the Circular Mound Altar, the Imperial Vault of Heaven is the place where the tablets of the gods were kept. It includes a circular hall, five rooms in the east, and five rooms in the west. The Imperial Vault of Heaven is surrounded by a circular wall of polished bricks, known as Echo Wall. If a person whispers close to the wall at any point, his voice can be heard distinctly at any other point along the wall. It is one of the wonders of the Temple of Heaven.

In the northern part of the temple, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a lofty, round structure with triple eaves and a cone-shaped blue-tile roof crowned with a gilded knob. When the hall was built in 1420, the colors of the triple eaves, from top to bottom, were blue, yellow, and green, representing the god of heaven, the emperor, and the common people. In 1752, all the eaves were painted blue. The hall burned down in 1889 after being struck by lightning. It was reconstructed in 1890 and renovated in 1970.

The ceiling of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is painted with an exquisite design of nine dragons and is supported by 28 wooden columns. The four central columns, called the Dragon-Well Columns, represent the four seasons. They are surrounded by two rings, one inside the other, of 12 columns each. The inner ring symbolizes the 12 months of the year, and the outer, the 12 divisions of day and night according to the old Chinese way of reckoning time. Every year, the emperor led civil and military officials to the hall and prayed for good harvests.

Behind the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the Hall of the Imperial Zenith, housing the tablets of the gods. It was built in 1420, the same year as the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, and was rebuilt in 1545. The tablet of the god of heaven is kept in a shrine on a square stone platform inside the hall, and on its left and right are smaller shrines, four on each side, where the tablets of eight ancestors of the Aisin-Gioro imperial family were kept.

The Palace of Abstinence is one of the main buildings of the Temple of Heaven. Here, the emperor fasted and bathed before the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the god of heaven. The palace contains a main hall and sleeping quarters for the emperor. On the terrace in front of the hall are two pavilions, one for storing a bronze statue in the pose of supervising the emperor's fasting and the other for keeping the tablets bearing the names of the 12 divisions of day and night. Northeast of the hall is a bell tower with the Supreme Harmony (Taihe) Bell, cast during the reign of Emperor Yong Le of the Ming Dynasty. On ceremonial days, when the emperor left the Palace of Abstinence, the bell would be rung until he arrived at the altar and rung again when he left after the ceremony.

In ancient China, altars and temples could be found everywhere because people needed them for offering sacrifices to ancestors, gods, and Buddhas. Compactly, exquisitely, and distinctively designed and magnificently decorated, the temple of Heaven is a building complex of a beauty rare even among the sacrificial buildings in China and a valuable architectural heritage for the world.