[Beijing Temple of Heaven]

Introduction of Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is located in Beijing, in the southeast of the former outer city of Beijing. Located in the south of the Forbidden City, east of Zhengyangmen. It was founded in the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1420). It is the place where the ancient emperors of China sacrificed to heaven. The total area is 273 hectares. It is a building used by emperors in Ming and Qing Dynasties to "worship heaven" and "pray for the valley". The main buildings, the Hall of Prayer for the New Year, the Imperial Palace and the mound are all built on the north-south longitudinal axis. The Temple of Heaven is a national key cultural relic protection unit.

The Temple of Heaven covers an area of 2.72 million square meters, which is bigger than the Forbidden City. It has two walls, forming an inner and outer altar. The altar wall is round in the south and round in the north, which symbolizes the round place. The ball altar is in the south, the valley prayer altar is in the north, and the two altars are on the same north-south axis, separated by a wall. The main buildings of the ball altar are the ball altar and the imperial dome, and the main buildings of the valley prayer altar are the hall of prayer for the new year, the palace and the door of prayer for the new year.

According to historical records, the official activities of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty, which was still in a slave society in 2000 BC. The ancient emperor of China called himself "the son of heaven" and was very devout to heaven and earth. Every emperor in history regarded offering sacrifices to heaven and earth as a very important political activity. Sacrificial architecture occupies an important position in the construction of the Imperial Capital, and it must be built with the highest technical level and the most perfect art by concentrating manpower, material resources and financial resources. The Temple of Heaven, built in the late feudal society, is the most representative work among many sacrificial buildings in China. The Temple of Heaven is not only a pearl in China's ancient architecture, but also a treasure in the history of world architecture. The Temple of Heaven was built in the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1420), and it was built at the same time as the Forbidden City where Judy served for fourteen years. In the 9th year of Jiajing (1530), it was renamed the Temple of Heaven in the 13th year of Jiajing (1534) because of the system of offering sacrifices to the four suburbs respectively. After the reconstruction of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Guangxu, the current pattern of Tiantan Park was formed.

In the early Ming dynasty, heaven and earth were worshiped together, and the altars in the northern and southern suburbs were worshipped together. The place where the sacrifice is held is called Dasitang, which is a square building with eleven rooms. In the 9th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1530), heaven and earth were separated, and a dome altar was built in the Temple of Heaven to worship heaven, and another Fangze altar was built in the northern suburb. The magnificent temples originally dedicated to heaven and earth were gradually abandoned. In the 19th year of Jiajing (1540), the original big sacrifice hall was changed into a big pleasure hall, and a circular building began.

After the Qing court entered the customs, everything was still in accordance with the old system of the Ming Dynasty. During the Qianlong period, the national strength was strong and the Temple of Heaven was built. In the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747), the emperor decided to rebuild the inner and outer walls of the Temple of Heaven, changing the earth wall into city bricks, and wrapping two layers of city bricks from the middle to the top. The width of the top of the inner altar wall is reduced to 4 feet 8 inches, and there are no eaves columns, making it a hanging gallery without colonnade. After the reconstruction, the inner and outer walls of the Temple of Heaven are thicker, and the GAI is more than ten miles long, making it a magnificent scenery. The main buildings of the Temple of Heaven, such as the Hall for Praying for the New Year, the Imperial Palace and the Dome, were also rebuilt at this time and have been preserved to this day.

Layout of Temple of Heaven

The main building of the Temple of Heaven is located in the inner altar, which is arranged in a straight line from south to north. All the palaces and altars face south in a circle, symbolizing the sky. The whole layout and architectural structure are unique. The Hall of Prayer for the New Year is the place where the emperor prayed for a bumper harvest. It is a circular hall with three eaves, 38 meters high and 32.72 meters in diameter. It has a blue glazed tile roof, all brick and wood structure, and no long purlin beams. It is supported by 28 wooden pillars and 36 purlins, which has high artistic value in architectural modeling.

The Temple of Heaven is divided into an inner altar and an outer altar by a double altar wall, which looks like the word "Hui". The south corner of the double altar wall is a right angle, and the north corner is an arc, symbolizing "a round place". The circumference of the outer altar wall is 6553 meters. It turns out that the Western Wall only opened the Valley Gate and the Autumn Gate. After 1949, the east gate and the north gate were built one after another, and Zhao Hengmen in the south of the inner altar was changed to the south gate.

The perimeter of the altar wall in the Temple of Heaven is 41.52m, and there are six gates, namely, East Gate, North Gate and West Gate, while the south gate of the Ball Hall has Taiyuan Gate, Zhao Heng Gate and Guangli Gate. The main buildings are concentrated in the inner altar. In the south, there are Oahu Altar and Royal Dome, and in the north, there are the Hall of Praying for the New Year and the Hall of Emperor Gan. The two parts are separated by a partition wall. A "single bridge" (brick walkway) with a length of 360 meters, a width of 28 meters and a height of 2.5 meters connects the Oahu Island altar and the valley prayer altar, forming the north-south axis of the inner altar.

Ball altar is the place where the emperor holds gifts to worship heaven. It was built in the 9th year of Jiajing (1530). The altar is circular in plane and divided into three layers, all with white marble railings. The surface of the altar was originally made of blue glazed tiles. After being rebuilt in the 14th year of Qianlong (1749), it was paved with hard and durable mugwort bluestone. The railing head of each floor is engraved with dragon patterns, and there is a stone dragon head extending outward under each floor for drainage of the altar surface. The circular mound altar has two low walls, the outer and inner circles, symbolizing a round place. The ancillary buildings of the ball altar include the imperial vault and its accessories, the sacred vault, the sacrificial pavilion and the three vaults (sacrificial vault, musical instrument vault and Brown's recommendation vault). Standing on the boulder in the middle of the top floor of the ball altar, although whispering, it is very loud. So whenever the emperor sacrifices to heaven here, his loud voice is like an Oracle from heaven, and the solemn atmosphere during the sacrifice is even more mysterious. This is because the surface of the altar is smooth, and the sound wave can quickly spread in all directions, hitting the surrounding stone fence, reflecting back and merging with the original sound, so the volume is doubled.

The imperial vault is located in the north of Waqiu altar. It is a place to worship the Waqiu altar and store sacred monuments. It was founded in the 9th year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (1530), formerly known as Taimiao, and renamed as Royal Treasury in the 17th year of Jiajing (1538). It is a pyramid-shaped roof building with two eaves. In the seventeenth year of Qing Qianlong (1752), it was rebuilt and changed into a pyramid-shaped roof with gold-plated roof and single eaves and blue tiles. There are five rooms, and each room has something. The main hall and the east and west halls are surrounded by a smooth round wall. People speak in different positions on the wall, and people standing by the wall in the distance can hear clearly. This is the echo wall. Under the steps of the imperial vault, there are three stone slabs, namely echo stones: standing on the first stone slab near the steps, clapping your hands, you can hear one echo, standing on the second stone slab, clapping your hands, you can hear two echoes, and standing on the third stone slab, you can hear three echoes.

The main hall and the annex hall of the imperial vault are surrounded by circular walls, with a height of 3.72m, a diameter of 61.5m and a circumference of193m. The inner wall is smooth and flat, which can transmit sound waves regularly and has a long echo, so it is called "echo wall".

Another important building of the prayer altar is the Huang Gan Hall, which is located in a rectangular courtyard, surrounded by a prayer wall and connected by a glass door. This is a temple-style hall, covered with blue glazed tiles, with the base of white marble railings below. It is a temple dedicated to the "God of the Emperor" and the ancestors of the Emperor. God's slate is enshrined in a shrine shaped like a house. On the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the yamen responsible for offering sacrifices regularly sends officials to sweep away dust and burn incense. The day before the sacrifice, after the emperor came here to burn incense and salute, the minister of rites burned incense, and then he knelt down three times and knocked nine times. Then the officials of Taichang Temple headed by Qing asked them to put the tablet in Long Ting, and it was carried to the corresponding shrine in the Hall of Prayer for the Year by Yi Wei Er.

The Ball Altar, the Imperial Dome and the Valley Prayer Altar are three main buildings on the central axis. Connecting these three main buildings is a long platform running through the north and south, which is called Single Pen Bridge, also known as Shinto or Seaview Avenue. It is 360 meters long, 29.4 meters wide and 1 meter high at the southern end. It gradually rises to 3 meters from south to north, symbolizing that this road is connected with the Tiangong, and the emperor ascended to heaven step by step from south to north. In the middle of the single bridge is Shinto, on the left is Imperial Road, and on the right is King Road. The emperor takes the imperial way, the ministers take the kingly way, and the immortals take the Shinto way. There is an east-west tunnel under the bridge, which is the hole where livestock are sent to be slaughtered before sacrifice.

■ Zhaixing Palace is located in the south of Xitianmen of the Temple of Heaven, east-west. It is the place where the emperor fasted and bathed before coming to the Temple of Heaven to pray for blessings. Therefore, it can also be said to be a small palace. It has Miyagi, and the palace wall has two layers: the outer layer is called brick wall, and the inner city is called purple wall. The outer city is mainly a defense facility, and there are duty rooms in the four corners of the outer city. There is a bell tower in the northeast corner of the outer city. Every time the emperor went in and out of the fasting palace, he would ring the bell to greet him. The inner city of Zhan Mu Palace is divided into three parts: front, middle and back. The front is centered on the main hall; Behind is the emperor's inner house; In the middle is a long and narrow courtyard with five cloisters and tile houses at both ends, which are the eunuch manager and the eunuch duty room respectively. Zhai Palace covers an area of 40,000 square meters and has more than 200 buildings. Although it is not as grand as the Forbidden City, it is also magnificent and elegant. Emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties came to this "wisdom house" for three days. Only two days before Yong Zhengdi's "Smart House" was changed to the Forbidden City, and moved to the Temple of Heaven on the last day. There are two imperial ditches on the periphery, and there is a 163 corridor around the inner dike of the outer ditch. There are five halls in the east of the palace, which are brick structures without beam hall coupons. On the platform of the main hall, there is a bronze pavilion for fasting and an hour tablet pavilion. There are five sleeping halls behind the temple, and there is a bell tower in the northeast corner, which contains the Yongle Year Clock.

The Divine Music Department was established in the northwest outside the Xitianmen Gate of Waqiutan in the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1420). The Divine Music Department is the organ that manages the performance of ancient music when offering sacrifices to China. The Ming Dynasty called God optimistic. At that time, Taoist priests were music and dance officials and musicians who valued God. When Yongle moved its capital to Beijing in the 18th year of Ming Dynasty, 300 musicians and dancers entered Beijing. After that, God was optimistic and kept about 600 musicians and dancers. By Jiajing, the total number of musicians and dancers had reached 2,200.

Waqiutan

Qiu Qiu altar, also known as Tiantan altar and Tiantai altar, is an open-air three-story circular stone altar where the emperor worships heaven from winter to the sun. It was built in the 9th year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (1530) and expanded in the 14th year of Qingganlong (1749). The altar is 534 meters in circumference and 5.2 meters in height. Divided into three layers: upper, middle and lower. The number of columns and steps on each floor is Yang (also called "Tian", that is, a multiple of nine), which means "Ninth Five-Year Plan". The surface of the altar is made of mugwort bluestone. Except that the stone in the center is round, the outer circle of the altar is fan-shaped and the figures are positive. Each floor has a white marble fence post, which is a multiple of 9. The circular slate in the center of the top floor is called the sun stone or the Tianxin stone. When you stand on it and shout or knock, the sound waves will be reflected by the nearby fence, forming a significant echo.

In ancient China, odd numbers were called positive numbers and even numbers were called negative numbers. In yang number, the number 9 is "the pole of yang number", which means the highest and largest celestial body and is called "heaven". The ancients thought that nine was the pole of yang number, indicating the highest to the maximum, and the emperor was the son of heaven, which was also the highest to the maximum, so the whole world used multiples of nine to express the authority of the son of heaven. The number of columns and steps on the fence of the ball altar is 9 or multiples of 9 everywhere. The outer layer of the round slate at the top is 9 layers of fan-shaped stone. There are 9 stones in the innermost layer, and 9 stones are added to each outward layer, as are the middle and lower layers. The number of three-layer railings is 72 in the upper layer, 0/08 in the middle layer and 0/80 in the lower layer, for a total of 360 days. The total diameter of the three-layer altar surface is 45 feet, which is not only a multiple of 9, but also implies the meaning of "Ninth Five-Year Plan".

There are two walls outside the ball altar, an inner ring and an outer ring, and a star gate on each side. It is estimated that there are three lampstands in the southwest corner (only two in the north and south), and there are firewood stoves, pits, burners and service tables in the southeast corner. On the east side of the altar, there are also ancillary buildings such as the God Library, the God Chef, the Sacrificial Pavilion, the Sacrificial Vessel Library, the Musical Instrument Library, and the Brown Building Library.

Imperial vault

To the north of the dome is the Imperial Dome. The Imperial Dome Courtyard is located on the north side of the outer branch of the dome, with a circular wall facing south and three glazed doors in the south. The main buildings are the Imperial Dome and the East-West Annex Hall, which is the place to worship the Dome. The dais for worshipping heaven are all stored here. Built in the 9th year of Jiajing (1530), it was originally named Taimiao. In the seventeenth year (1538), it was renamed the imperial treasury. In the seventeenth year of Qianlong (1752), it was transformed into a pyramid-shaped building with single eaves. The roof was gilded and covered with blue glazed tiles, symbolizing the blue sky. The main hall is15.6m in diameter and19.02m in height. Supported by eight gold pillars and eight eaves pillars, the caisson of three-layer ceiling is assembled layer by layer, and the structure is exquisite. In the center of the hall, there is a circular stone platform carved with white marble, which is dedicated to the memorial tablet of the "God of the Emperor", and each side enjoys the memorial tablet of the ancestors of the Emperor. There are halls in the main hall, which are dedicated to the memorial tablets of gods such as the sun, moon, stars, clouds, rain, thunder and lightning. The whole temple looks like a circular pavilion, located on the base of the white marble Mount Sumi, which is more than 2 meters high, and surrounded by stone guardrails. In addition, on the stone slab road from the front of the palace to the middle of the gate, the three stone slabs from north to south are called Sanyin Stone. When the doors and windows of the imperial vault are closed and there are no obstacles nearby, standing on the first slate and clapping your hands can hear an echo; High-five on the second slate, you can hear two echoes; High-five on the third slate and you can hear three echoes.

Echo walls are the walls of the imperial vault. The wall is 3.72m high, 0.9m thick, 61.5m in diameter and193.2m in circumference. The wall is made of brick on the ground, with blue glazed tiles on it. The radian of the fence is very regular, the wall is extremely smooth and tidy, and the refraction of sound waves is also very regular. As long as two people stand behind the east and west annex halls respectively, stick to the wall, and one person speaks to the north wall, the sound waves will continue to refract along the wall and reach the other end of one or two hundred meters. No matter how small the voice is, it can also make the other party hear clearly. The voice is long and interesting, giving people a mysterious atmosphere of "the connection between heaven and man". So it is called "Echo Wall".

Hall of Prayer for the New Year [in Beijing]

The Hall of Prayer for the Year is located in the north of the Temple of Heaven, also known as the Hall of Prayer for the Year. It was originally called the Great Hall of Prayer and the Great Hall of Pleasure. Built in the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1420), it is the earliest building in the Temple of Heaven. After the renovation in the 16th year of Qianlong (175 1), it was renamed the Hall of Praying for the New Year. In the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), it was destroyed by thunder and fire, and it was rebuilt as before a few years later. At present, the Hall for Praying for the New Year is a circular building with a diameter of 32.72 meters. Jinbiwagai, a pyramid-shaped roof with three double eaves, is folded layer by layer, with a total height of 38 meters.

The internal structure of the Hall of Prayer for the New Year is quite unique, without girders and long purlins, and only nanmu columns and purlins are used to support the roof. There are 28 nanmu pillars in the temple, the number of which accords with the astronomical phenomena: the central four dragon pillars are19.2m high and1.2m in diameter, symbolizing the four seasons, the middle circle 12 gold pillars symbolize twelve months of the year, and the outer 12 giant pillars symbolize twelve hours a day. There are three columns. In the middle of the floor of the hall is a round marble with a natural dragon and phoenix pattern, which echoes the dragon algae well at the top of the hall and the dragon and phoenix seal pattern drawn in gold around it, making the whole hall look very grand.

The seat of the Hall of Prayer for the Year is a circular altar of the Valley of Prayer for the Year, which is 6 meters high and has three floors. There are low walls around the altar, and firewood stoves, mounds, stoves and service tables are set in the southeast corner. In the north of the altar, there is Huang Gan Hall, which is five rooms wide. Originally, the ancestral tablets were placed, but later they moved to the ancestral temple. Next to the altar, there are ancillary buildings such as the door for praying for the new year, the god library, the god chef, the sacrificial pavilion, the sacrificial road and the promenade. There is a seven-star stone in the square to the south of the promenade, which was placed in Jiajing period.

The main building of the Temple of Heaven is the Hall of Praying for the New Year, which was built in the 18th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1420). Every year, the emperor held a ceremony to worship heaven here, praying for good weather and good harvests. The Hall of Prayer for the New Year is circular, with a diameter of 32 meters and a height of 38 meters. This is an rotunda with triple eaves and a gilded roof. The eaves are dark blue and covered with blue glazed tiles, because the sky is blue and symbolizes the sky.

The architectural excellence of the Hall of Prayer for the New Year is that it is supported by 28 nanmu columns and 36 interconnected table rafters. These big pillars have different symbolic meanings: the four pillars in the middle are called Tian Tongzhu, representing the four seasons; Twelve gold pillars in the middle layer represent twelve months; Twelve eaves columns on the outer layer represent twelve o'clock; Twenty-four solar terms are expressed by adding the middle layer and the outer layer; The three layers add up to 28, representing 28 stars; Add eight sub-columns at the top of the column, representing thirty-six days; The Leigong column under the top of the treasure represents the emperor's unification of the whole country. Its ancillary buildings include the Imperial Palace, the gate for praying for the New Year, the God Library, the God Chef, the sacrificial pavilion, the wood stove, the coffin pit, the service platform, the sacrificial road and 72 long corridors. There is a seven-star stone in the square to the south of the promenade, engraved with mountain-shaped moire, which was placed in the Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty.

This hall is located on a circular white marble pedestal, covering an area of over 5,900 square meters. The base is divided into three layers and is 6 meters high. Each floor has carved white marble railings. This platform and the main hall are an inseparable artistic whole. When tourists walk out of the gate of the New Year's Prayer Hall and look south, they see a straight tunnel, which extends all the way south. The porches along the way are heavy, and the farther you go, the more endless you can see, and there is a feeling of falling from the sky. No wonder a French architectural expert said after visiting the Temple of Heaven: skyscrapers are much higher than the Hall of Prayer for the Year, but they are not as tall and deep as the Hall of Prayer for the Year, and they cannot reach the artistic height of the Hall of Prayer for the Year. This temple was destroyed by lightning in 1889 (the 15th year of Guangxu reign). It is said that at that time, the pillars of the hall were made of Daphne, and when they burned, they could smell delicious for miles away. The following year, the emperor called ministers to discuss the reconstruction of the Hall of Prayer for the New Year. Unable to find the pattern, the Ministry of Industry, which is in charge of national construction affairs, called the craftsmen who had participated in the restoration of the Hall of Prayer for the Year, and asked them to make the pattern according to memory and dictation before construction. Therefore, the current Hall of Prayer for the New Year was built during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, but the basic architectural form and structure still retained the appearance of the Ming Dynasty.

In the Hall of Prayer for the New Year, the ceiling is an exquisite "Jiulong Algae Well", and the Longjing column is painted with gold characters. There is a flat round marble in the center of the temple, and the pattern on the stone surface is a natural dragon and phoenix pattern. Yi Long leads a phoenix, which is called "Dragon and Phoenix Stone", that is, "Dragon and Phoenix are auspicious". According to legend, there is only a phoenix pattern on this stone, but there is only a carved dragon in the algae well at the top of the temple. With the growth of age, the dragon and the phoenix are inspired, and Jinlong often flies down to find the phoenix on the Phoenix Stone for fun. Unexpectedly, one day, I met Emperor Jiajing and bowed down on the stone. Jinlong has no time to fly back. Together with the phoenix on the stone, it was crushed into the boulder by Emperor Jiajing and never came out again. Since then, it has become a deep and shallow dragon and phoenix stone. 1889 When the Hall of Prayer for the New Year was burned, this dragon and phoenix stone was smoked and burned for a day and a night. Although the stone was not burned to pieces, the dragon pattern was burned to light black and the phoenix pattern was blurred. In front of the Hall of Prayer for the New Year, there are nine halls in the east and nine halls in the west, which are called Dong Gai and Xi Gai, and are warehouses for collecting memorial tablets. When offering sacrifices to heaven in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to offering sacrifices to the emperor gods, it is also necessary to offer sacrifices to the ancestors of the royal family Zhu, as well as the gods and emperors of the past dynasties, such as the sun, the moon, the five stars, the five mountains in the east, the west, the south, the north and the middle, the five small mountains and five towns, the four seas (rivers and lakes), storms, mountains and rivers, traditional Taoism and so on.

architectural feature

The Temple of Heaven in Beijing is the largest ancient architectural complex dedicated to heaven in the world. In China, the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven originated from the Zhou Dynasty, and emperors of all dynasties have attached great importance to it since the Han Dynasty. After Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, every winter solstice, the first month, the new day and Xia Meng (the first month of summer), emperors would come to the Temple of Heaven to hold ceremonies of offering sacrifices to heaven and praying for blessings. If it rains a year, we will pray for rain at Waqiu altar. Fasting is usually required before sacrifice. When offering sacrifices, the emperor not only offered sacrifices, but also led hundreds of civil and military officials to worship sacrifices in order to pray for God's mercy.

The main design idea of Tiantan architecture is to highlight the vastness and height of the sky to show the supremacy of "heaven". In layout, the inner altar is located on the east side of the north-south central axis of the outer altar, while the ball altar and prayer altar are located on the east side of the central axis of the inner altar. These are all to increase the openness of the west, so that people can gain a broad vision after entering the Temple of Heaven from the main entrance in the west, and thus feel the greatness of heaven and its own smallness. As far as single buildings are concerned, the Hall for Praying for the New Year and the Royal Hall both adopt circular pyramid roofs, and their external bases and eaves shrink and rise layer by layer, which also reflects a feeling of being close to the sky.

The Temple of Heaven also displays the unique meaning and symbolic expression of China traditional culture everywhere. The altar wall and outer wall in the south of the North Circle are square and circular architectural design, which symbolizes the traditional world view of "the sky is round and the place is round". The widespread use of blue glazed tiles in major buildings, as well as the "Yang Shu" in the altar and the design of columns in the Hall of Prayer for the New Year are also concrete manifestations of this expression.

world heritage

The Temple of Heaven has been selected as a world cultural heritage. According to the cultural heritage selection criteria C(I)(II)(III), the Temple of Heaven was listed in the World Heritage List on 1998.

World Heritage Committee's evaluation of the Temple of Heaven;

The Temple of Heaven was built in the first half of15th century. It is located in the royal garden and surrounded by Gu Song. It is a well-preserved temple complex, and both the overall layout and the single building reflect the relationship between heaven and earth, which occupies a core position in China's ancient world outlook. At the same time, these buildings also reflect the unique role played by the emperor and the prince in this relationship.

Xianlao Temple of Heaven

1420, in the 14th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty, Judy and the Forbidden City built the Temple of Heaven at the same time. This huge temple of heaven is located in the south of the Forbidden City. Maybe there are some similarities with that time. Cheng Nan is still a relatively developed area in Beijing. Due to the development of post-cult era, there are few high-rise buildings used to cover the sky in Cheng Nan. Even if you walk south from the center of Chang 'an Avenue, you can see the gilded sapphire glass roof of the Hall of Prayer for Good Years, which is held high in the air, or the corner of a simple gray brick wall that stretches for several kilometers.

The gardens in the north are not as exquisite and elegant as those built in the south of the Yangtze River. Most of them are grand narratives, covering hundreds of hectares at every turn. There is a saying that the designers of the Temple of Heaven are worried that the Temple of Heaven is a place to worship heaven. Because the emperor calls himself the son of heaven, the residence of God is naturally larger than that of the son of heaven, so the area of the Temple of Heaven is twice that of the Forbidden City. Probably because of the same scruples, the main buildings in the Temple of Heaven are covered with dark blue glazed tiles, and dare not use bright yellow glazed tiles belonging to the royal garden. Before the annual ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven, the emperor must go to the special service desk on the east side of Danbi Bridge and temporarily change his yellow robe into a blue robe to express his sincere reverence and worship for heaven. This festival lasted for hundreds of years here, and it was not until the last century 19 14 that Yuan Shikai, who was known as a national thief in history, became emperor and staged it again with great fanfare that it officially came to an end.

There is a temple of heaven in the north, south, east and west, and its main buildings are concentrated at the north and south ends of the central axis of the inner altar. For tourists who are in a hurry, it is best to start the tour from the south gate. Entering the garden from the south gate, we went to Qiu Huan altar in turn. This geometric building dedicated to the Temple of Heaven is full of ingenious skills. The white marble stones used in the altar, steps and railings are all multiples of nine, symbolizing the nine heavens; The imperial vault is the place where the memorial tablet of the emperor is placed, which looks like a hall for praying for the New Year. There is a circle of walls outside the imperial vault, with a pair of ground bricks on it. The door faces south, which is an interesting echo wall. Try to echo in the echo wall in an appropriate way. If you travel with two people, they should stand in the East Hall and the West Hall facing north and listen to each other. To the north of the echo wall, there are the Hall of Praying for the New Year and the Hall of Emperor Gan, which are important buildings at the north end and connected by a wide bridge. In the late autumn when the sky is high and the clouds are light, we walked out of the gate of the Hall of Prayer for the New Year and looked south along this 300-meter-long straight aisle. The porch is heavy, and the farther you look, the more majestic and endless the world seems to be, which makes people have to admire the design methods and inspiration of the year. There are other buildings and historical sites on the east side of the Temple of Heaven, such as verandahs, chefs, sacrificial pavilions and Ximen Zhai Palace. In particular, the Zhai Palace is not as grand and lofty as other buildings in the Temple of Heaven, because it is a place for bathing and burning incense before the emperor's ceremony. In late spring, the Hechi of two moats inside and outside Zhaigong is covered with purple Adenophora adenophora, and the gorgeous branches of elm leaves and plums are hidden in the heavy cloister houses and the crescent door built by green glazed tiles hanging from the top of the red wall, revealing the deep humanistic atmosphere of the courtyard. It's hard to imagine how Eight-Nation Alliance set the headquarters of the Allied Forces in such a quiet and pure place at that time, which had no influence.

In fact, for citizens who extend the Temple of Heaven as a living space to the outdoors, the magnificent architecture of the Temple of Heaven is only a big background for their activities here, and the greater attraction comes from the unique forest park in the urban area. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, pine and cypress have been widely planted in the Temple of Heaven, which has become a huge forest.

After winter and summer, at dawn every day, a large number of middle-aged and elderly people from far and near, holding annual tickets, go to the altar outside the park to dance boxing until their swords kick shuttlecocks and scream for a walk. They are more active than birds, completely ignoring the doctor's advice and the early morning carbon dioxide index released by the meteorological department, and start their new day with enthusiasm.