| | | Temple of Heaven
Tiantan
UNESCO World Heritage Site : 1998
Pékin (China)
| | | The Temple of Heaven was originally established as the Temple of Heaven and Earth, but was given its current name during the reign of Ming Emperor JiaJing (1522-1567), who built separate complexes for the earth, sun and moon. The Temple of Earth (DiTan) can be found in north Beijing. The temples of the sun and moon are in the east and west of Beijing.
The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.
The Temple of Heaven was the place where the Emperors of the Ming Dynasties would worship heaven and pray fir bumper crops. The Northern part of he outer surrounding wall is semi-circular in shape, while the southern part square, a pattern symbolic of the ancient, belief that heaven was round and the earth square. The double surrounding wall separates the temple into two parts. The inner and outer temples with the main structures in the inner one, covering a space of 273 hectares at all.
The inner temple is also partitioned by a wall into two groups of buildings. The North structure in the altar of praying for bumper crops with the hall of prayer for good harvests as the principal building used to pray in spring for a bumper harvest in the year.
The South structure is the circular mound altar used to worship heaven at the winter solstice where the principal construction is a large round marble terrace name the circular mound.
The two altars, connected by a 360-meter-long raised walk called the the Danbi Bridge, are arranged in a line forming a North-South axis, 1.200 meters long, and flanked by century-old cypresses in a spacious area with a formal and solemn environnment.
To the inner South of the West Celestial Gate is the Fasting Palace where the feudal emperors observed abstention before the rituals. In the Western part of the outer temple is located the Divine Music Office, which was in charge of teaching and performance of the ritual music. In the Temple of Heaven are situated such main buildings as the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Hall of Heavenly Emperor, the Circular Mound, the Imperial Vault of heaven, the Beamless Hall, the Long Corridor, as well as the Echo Wall, the three Echo Stones, the seven Stars Stones and Nine-Dragon Juniper.
Built first in 1420, a masterpiece of the Ming and Qing architectural and a precious example of China's ancient architectural group for worshipping heaven in the world. | | Temple of Heaven : Virtual tour |  | 8 sections and 18 items |
 Temple of Heaven : Outdoor Architecture (8)
|  | Dressing Terrace
Ming Dynasty
The Dressing Terrace is a square stone surronded with white marble balustrades. In the occasion of the sacrificial ceremony, on the terrace was erected a yellow brocade canopy (populary known as "The small Throne Hall").
|
| The Imperial Vault of Heaven (5)
Huang Qiong Yu
Ming Dynasty - 1530
The Imperial Vault of Heaven sits in the center. It is a round building with a roof that resembles the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, though smaller and with only one gable of eaves and a single tier marble base. The back half of the building is constructed with bricks. In the past, the vault contained memorial tablets of the emperor's ancestors.
|
| | |
| | Temple of Heaven : Description | |
|
The Temple grounds covers 2.73 km˛ of parkland, and comprises three main groups of constructions, all built according to strict philosophical requirements :
- The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, 32 metres in diameter and 38 metres tall, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. The building is completely wooden, with no nails. It had to be rebuilt after it burned down in 1889.
- The Imperial Vault of Heaven is a single-gabled circular building, built on a single level of marble stone base. It is located south of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and resembles it, but is smaller. It is surrounded by a smooth circular wall, the Echo Wall, that can transmit sounds over large distances. The Imperial Vault is connected to the Hall of Prayer by the Vermilion Steps Bridge, a 360 meter long raised walkway that slowly ascends from the Vault to the Hall of Prayer.
- The Circular Mound Altar is the altar proper, located south of the Imperial Vault of Heaven. It is an empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones, where the Emperor prayed for favorable weather. It was built in 1530 by the Jiajing Emperor and rebuilt in 1740.
Earth was represented by a square and Heaven by a circle; several features of the temple complex symbolize the connection of Heaven and Earth, of circle and square. The whole temple complex is surrounded by two cordons of walls; the outer wall has a taller, semi-circular northern end, representing Heaven, and a shorter, rectangular southern end, representing the Earth. Both the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and the Circular Mound Altar are round, each standing on a square yard, again representing Heaven and Earth.
The number nine represents the Emperor and is evident in the design of the Circular Mound Altar: a single round marmor plate is surrounded by a ring of nine plates, then a ring of 18 plates, and so on for a total of nine surrounding rings, the outermost having 9×9 plates.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests has four inner, twelve middle and twelve outer pillars, representing the four seasons, twelve months and twelve traditional Chinese hours respectively.
All the buildings within the Temple have special dark blue roof tiles, representing the Heaven.
The Seven-Star Stone Group, east of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, represents the seven peaks of Taishan Mountain, a place of Heaven worship in classical China. | | Temple of Heaven : History | |
|
The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, who was also responsible for the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The complex was extended and renamed Temple of Heaven during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor in the 16th century. The Jiajing Emperor also built three other prominent temples in Beijing, the Temple of Sun in the east, the Temple of Earth in the north, and the Temple of Moon in the west. The Temple of Heaven was renovated in the 18th century under the Qianlong Emperor.
In 1914, Yuan Shih-kai, then President of the Republic of China, performed a Ming prayer ceremony at the temple, as part of an effort to have himself declared Emperor of China.
In ancient China, the Emperor of China was regarded as the Son of Heaven, who administered earthly matters on behalf of, and representing, heavenly authority. To be seen to be showing respect to the source of his authority, in the form of sacrifices to heaven, was extremely important. The temple was built for these ceremonies, mostly comprising prayers for good harvests.
Twice a year the Emperor and all his retinue would move from the Forbidden city through Beijing to encamp within the complex, wearing special robes and abstaining from eating meat. No ordinary Chinese was allowed to view this procession or the following ceremony. In the temple complex the Emperor would personally pray to Heaven for good harvests. The highpoint of the ceremony at the winter solstice was performed by the Emperor on the Earthly Mount. The ceremony had to be perfectly completed; it was widely held that the smallest of mistakes would constitute a bad omen for the whole nation in the coming year.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven
Text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License | | Temple of Heaven : More pictures | |
| | | |
| | |
|
