Temple of Heaven

The temple of heaven is located at the south end of Beijing. It is the place where the emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to the God of heaven and earth and prayed for a bumper harvest of grain. The temple of heaven consists of two altars: the Circular Mound and the Qigu altar. The north wall is arc-shaped, and the south wall intersects the east wall and the west wall at right angles, which is square. This kind of South North circle, commonly known as "heaven and earth wall", symbolizes the ancient "Heaven round place" theory. There are no doors on the East, South and north sides of the outer altar wall. Only two gates are built on the west side of the outer altar wall, namely, the gate of Yuanqiu and the gate of Qigu (also known as the gate of Tiantan). On the other hand, there are four heavenly gates in the East, South, West and North. The inner altar consists of an altar and a Zhai palace, with a horizontal wall between the East and the West. In the south is the Circular Mound Altar, and in the north is the grain praying altar.

Temple of Heaven Park

synonym

The temple of Heaven (Beijing Temple of heaven) generally refers to the temple of Heaven Park (Beijing Ming and Qing Dynasties Temple of Heaven Park)

Temple of heaven, world cultural heritage, national key cultural relics protection unit, national AAAAA scenic spot, national civilized scenic spot demonstration site.

Temple of heaven, in the south of Beijing, east of yongdingmennei street, Dongcheng District. It covers an area of about 2.73 million square meters. The temple of heaven was first built in the 18th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1420). It was rebuilt during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty. It was a place for the emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties to offer sacrifices to the emperor and pray for abundant grain. The temple of heaven is the general name of the two altars of Yuanqiu and Qigu. It has two walls, forming the inner and outer altars. The wall is round in the South and North, symbolizing the round heaven and place. The main building is the inner altar. The round hill altar is in the South and the valley praying altar is in the north. The two altars are on the same north-south axis, separated by walls in the middle. The main buildings in the Circular Mound Altar are the Circular Mound Altar, the imperial vault and so on. The main buildings in the valley praying altar are the hall of praying for new year, the hall of emperor Qian, the gate of praying for new year and so on.

According to the news on July 12, 2018, the open area of Tiantan Park will be increased by another 2.24 hectares.

In September 2018, the daily maximum carrying capacity of the park will be reduced from 58000 to 50000.

Historical evolution

According to historical records, there are official activities of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, which can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty, which was still in a slavery society in 2000 BC. The emperors in ancient China called themselves "the son of heaven", and they respected heaven and earth very much. In 1420, the temple of heaven was built in imitation of Nanjing's shape to offer sacrifices to the emperor, heaven and earth. Jiajing nine years (1530) Jiajing emperor listen to the minister said: "the ancient worship in the round hill, worship in the square hill.". Round mound, the southern suburbs of the mound on the ground, round and high mound, as the sky also. The square hills are the hills in the northern suburbs. The hills are square and downward, like the earth. " Therefore, it was decided to divide heaven and earth into two parts: one was to build a round mound to worship heaven in the south of the great sacrifice hall, and the other was to build a Fangze altar outside anding gate in the north city. In 1534, Yuanqiu was renamed Tiantan and Fangze was renamed Ditan. After the temple was abandoned, it was changed into a ceremonial altar. In 1538, the altar of praying for grain was abandoned. In the 19th year, another hall of enjoying grain was built on the altar, which was completed in the 24th year. In 1751, it was renamed the hall of praying for new year. Later, it was repaired and expanded many times.

In 1900, the Allied forces of the eight countries set up a headquarters in the temple of heaven Zhai palace and set up guns on Yuanqiu. Cultural relics and sacrificial vessels were swept away, and buildings and trees were destroyed. After the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, the government invested a lot of money in the protection and maintenance of the temple of heaven. Many renovations and large-scale greening have been carried out to make the ancient temple of heaven more magnificent. The park covers an area of 200 hectares, with one gate on each side. There are more than 2500 ancient cypresses more than 200 years old in the garden. There are also a lot of flowers planted in Baihua garden.

In 1961, the State Council announced the temple of heaven as a "national key cultural relics protection unit.". In 1998, it was recognized as "world cultural heritage" by UNESCO. On May 8, 2007, the temple of Heaven Park was officially approved as a national 5A scenic spot by the National Tourism Administration.

On July 12, 2018, Li Gao, the director of Tiantan Park, introduced that Tiantan Park will increase the green area by nearly 20000 square meters and expand the open area for tourists by 2.24 hectares.

Architectural features

The temple of Heaven Park is a place where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties worship heaven and pray for a bumper harvest of grain every year. The temple of heaven is famous for its rigorous architectural layout, peculiar architectural structure and magnificent architectural decoration. It covers an area of about 2.7 million square meters and is divided into inner altar and outer altar. The main buildings are the inner altar, the round dome altar and the imperial vault in the south, the prayer hall and the Huangqian hall in the north. The two groups of buildings are connected by a corridor connecting the north and the South Danbi bridge. The outer altar is full of ancient cypresses, which surround the inner altar, making the main buildings more solemn and grand. There are also echo wall, three tone stone, dialogue stone, etc. built by skillful use of acoustic principle in the altar, which fully shows the developed level of ancient Chinese architectural technology. The temple of Heaven Park is the largest preserved altar complex in China.

The temple of heaven has two walls, forming the inner and outer altars, which are round in the north and round in the south. At the beginning, in order to show the image of heaven and earth on the wall, to symbolize the saying that "the sky is round and the place is round". There are no doors on the southeast and north sides of the outer altar wall, but there are two doors on the inner street of Yongdingmen in the West. The north gate is an old one in Ming Dynasty, which is called "qigutan gate"; the south gate was added in 1752, which is called "Yuanqiu altar gate". The two doors are of three arched style, with green glazed tiles and Hill Style roofs. Both the north gate and the east gate of Waitan were built after 1975. There is also an east-west partition wall in the middle of the inner altar, which can be regarded as the north wall of the round hill altar. This section of partition wall protrudes to the north in an arc at the two axes, bypasses the outer wall of the imperial vault and connects with the wall of the East and West Inner altar, dividing the two altars of Qigu and Huanqiu into two areas.

The circular mound of neitan is located in the south, and the Qigu is located in the north. They are all on the North-South central axis. The middle part is connected by the Shinto (Danbi bridge) which is 360 meters long and 30 meters wide. The main buildings in the round Mound Altar are the round mound platform (sacrificial platform), the imperial vault (Temple of worship, God storehouse and God kitchen, and slaughter Pavilion), etc.; the main buildings in the grain praying altar are the gate of praying for new year, the Great Hall of worship (Hall of praying for new year), the East and west side hall, the Huangqian hall, the long corridor (with seven star stone), the God storehouse and God kitchen, and the slaughter Pavilion, etc.

The temple of heaven is the general name of Qigu and Huanqiu. It is surrounded by two walls, which divide the altar area into two parts, the inner and the outer. The sacrificial architecture in the altar is concentrated in the inner altar, which is surrounded by doors. The axis connecting the two altars is a 360m long, 28m wide and 2.5m high brick platform, which is called "Shinto" or "Haipeng Avenue", or "Danbi bridge". It means a long way to heaven. Located at the south end of the central axis, the Circular Mound Altar complex is an altar for emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties to worship the God. To the north of the altar is the imperial vault. Located at the north end of the central axis, the main building of the altar is the hall of praying for the new year. In the altar are the gate of praying for the new year, Huangqian hall, dongxipeidian hall, burnt firewood stove, burying ridge, brick gate and other buildings. The ancillary buildings include 72 rooms, God kitchen, slaughter Pavilion and so on. Most of the subsidiary buildings of Yuanqiu altar and Qigu altar are in the East, which makes the western part of the temple of heaven open. In the south of the west gate of the inner altar, there is a palace surrounded by a city, named "zhaigong", which is the palace where the emperor lived during the period of "fasting".

Main attractions

The temple of heaven is the largest architectural complex in the world. The temple of heaven has two walls, which are divided into inner and outer parts. The main buildings are concentrated in the inner altar. The temple of heaven is mainly built on the North-South central axis of the inner altar. The Circular Mound Altar is in the south, offering sacrifices to heaven, including the Circular Mound and the imperial vault. The valley praying altar is in the north, including the hall of praying for new year, Huangqian hall and the gate of praying for new year. There are walls in the middle. The two altars are connected by a Danbi bridge (also known as Haipeng Avenue or Shinto) which is 360 meters long, 30 meters wide and low in the South and high in the north. On both sides of Danbi bridge is a large area of ancient Berlin. In the west wall of the inner altar, there is a Zhai palace, which is the residence for worshiping the former Emperor. In the west wall of the outer altar, there are the shrine and the sacrificial place. The main buildings in the altar are the hall of praying for the new year, the hall of emperor Qian, the Circular Mound, the imperial vault, the Zhai palace, the Wuliang hall, the long corridor, the double ring Wanshou Pavilion, etc., as well as the echo wall, the Sanyin stone, the Seven Star stone and other places of interest.

Round hill altar

Yuanqiu altar is the place where the winter solstice ceremony is held. The main buildings are Yuanqiu, huangqiong and auxiliary hall, Shenchu, sanku and Zaiyu Pavilion, and the auxiliary buildings are the platform with clothes and the lantern. In the Ming Dynasty, Yuanqiu was a three-layer blue glazed round altar, which was expanded in 1749. The blue glazed altar was replaced by AI Ye Qingshi mesa, white jade pillars and columns. Round mound shaped round elephant sky, three-tier altar system, 5.17 meters high, the lower diameter of 54.92 meters, the upper diameter of 23.65 meters, each layer of four steps out of each nine. The center of the upper layer is a round stone, with nine circles of fan-shaped stones on the outside and nine pieces on the inner ring, which extend outward in turn by the multiple of nine. The fence and pillar also use the multiple of nine to symbolize the number of "heaven".

The number of stone slabs, barriers and steps on the platform of circular mound is odd nine or multiple of nine. For example, the top stone slab starts from the center round stone of the upper layer, with nine pieces in the first circle and 18 pieces in the second circle, and increases by a multiple of nine from each circle around to the bottom layer. The same is true of the number of white marble railings in each layer. The burnt firewood stove is located in the southeast of the outer wall and the inner wall of the Circular Mound Altar. It faces north from the south. It is cylindrical and made of green glazed bricks. It has nine steps on each side of the East and southwest. The burnt firewood stove is used to burn the things offered to the emperor during the winter solstice ceremony.

Imperial vault

The imperial vault courtyard is located in the north of the outer wall of the circular dome altar, facing south. It has a circular wall and three glazed doors in the south. The main buildings are the imperial vault and the East and west side halls. It is a place for worshiping the shrine of the circular dome altar. The imperial vault turns from a ring to 16 pillars

Chinese PinYin : Tian Tan