The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven (Traditional Chinese: Ì쉯; Simplified Chinese: Ìì̳; Pinyin: Ti¨¡nt¨¢n Manchu: Abkai mukdehun) is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. Construction of the complex began in 1420, and was thereafter visited by all subsequent Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is regarded as the taoist temples , although the worship of Heaven, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.
The Temple grounds covers 2.73 km² of parkland, and comprises three main groups of constructions, all built according to strict philosophical requirements:
The Earthly Mount (à÷Çð̳) is the altar proper. It is an empty platform on three levels of marble stones, where the Emperor prayed for favourable weather;
The House of Heavenly Lord (»Êñ·Óî), a single-gabled circular building, built on a single level of marble stone base, where the altars were housed when not in use;
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (ÆíÄêµî), a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests.
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.
Each winter solstice the Emperor and all his retinue would move through the city to encamp within the complex, wearing special robes and abstaining from eating meat; there the Emperor would personally pray to Heaven for good harvests. 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.
The Temple of Heaven is the grandest of the four great temples located in Beijing. The other prominent temples include the Temple of Sun in the east (ÈÕ̳), the Temple of Earth in the north (µØ̳), and the Temple of Moon in the west (ÔÂ̳).
According to Xinhua, in early 2005, the Temple of Heaven underwent a 47 million yuan (5.9 million USD) face-lift in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the restoration was completed on May 1st, 2006.
The Temple of Heaven was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.
Facts and figures
The Temple 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.
All the buildings within the Temple have special dark blue roof tiles, again representing the Heaven.The Altar of Heaven was constructed with details representing the number nine, the representative number of the Emperor.
It is said that if you stand at the centre of the platform and clap your hands, you can hear the echo because of the concavity of the surrounding wall.
The House of Heavenly Lord is surrounded by a curved wall, 6 metres tall and 32.5 metres in radius. The wall has one opening. It is nicknamed the 'Echo Wall' because a person at one end of the wall (one side of the opening) can hear the voice of a person at the other end of the wall (the other side of the opening).
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is 32 metres in diameter and 38 metres tall. It has four inner, twelve middle and twelve outer pillars, representing the four seasons, twelve months and twelve traditional Chinese hours respectively.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests was built without a single nail.
Hall of Annual Prayer has been said to be a more literal translation of Qi Nian Dian than Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. In fact, the original meaning of nian (meaning 'year' in modern Chinese) was 'harvest', a meaning still found in phrases such as Äê³É niancheng, 'harvest'. The earliest graph of the character is a representation of a man carrying a sheaf of grain.
Ethel Nelson, M.D., F.A.S.C.P., is a retired pathologist living in Tennessee who was a medical missionary in Thailand for 20 years.
Mystery concerns the 450-year-old Temple of Heaven complex in Beijing, China. Why did the emperors sacrifice a bull on the great white marble Altar of Heaven at an annual ceremony, the year’s most important and colourful celebration, the so-called ‘Border Sacrifice’? This rite ended in 1911 when the last emperor was deposed. However, the sacrifice did not begin a mere 450 years ago. The ceremony goes back 4,000 years. One of the earliest accounts of the Border Sacrifice is found in the Shu Jing (Book of History), compiled by Confucius, where it is recorded of Emperor Shun (who ruled from about 2256 BC to 2205 BC when the first recorded dynasty began) that ‘he sacrificed to ShangDi.’ 1
Who is ShangDi? This name literally means ‘the Heavenly Ruler.’ By reviewing recitations used at the Border Sacrifice, recorded in the Statutes of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368), one may begin to understand the ancient Chinese reverence for ShangDi. Participating in this rite, the emperor first meditated at the Temple of Heaven (the Imperial Vault), while costumed singers, accompanied by musicians, intoned:
‘To Thee, O mysteriously-working Maker, I look up in thought. . . . With the great ceremonies I reverently honor Thee. Thy servant, I am but a reed or willow; my heart is but that of an ant; yet have I received Thy favouring decree, appointing me to the government of the empire. I deeply cherish a sense of my ignorance and blindness, and am afraid, lest I prove unworthy of Thy great favours. Therefore will I observe all the rules and statutes, striving, insignificant as I am, to discharge my loyal duty. Far distant here, I look up to Thy heavenly palace. Come in Thy precious chariot to the altar. Thy servant, I bow my head to the earth reverently, expecting Thine abundant grace. . . . O that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to accept our offerings, and regard us, while thus we worship Thee, whose goodness is inexhaustible!’2
Thus we find the emperor worshipping ShangDi. Can we possible trace the original intention of this magnificent ceremony of antiquity? As the emperor took part in this annual service dedicated to ShangDi, the following words were recited, clearly showing that he considered ShangDi the Creator of the world:
‘Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The five elements [planets] had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and moon to shine. You, O Spiritual Sovereign, first divided the grosser parts from the purer. You made heaven. You made earth. You made man. All things with their reproducing power got their being’ 3
For the Christian, the above recitation sounds strangely familiar. How closely it reads to the opening chapter of the biblical Genesis! Note the similarity with excerpts from the more detailed story as recorded in the Hebrew writings:
‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. . . .
‘And God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas. . . .
‘And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. . . .
‘So God created man in His own image; . . .’ (Genesis 1:1-2, 9-10, 16, 27-28)
ShangDi, the Creator-God of the Chinese, surely appears to be one and the same as the Creator-God of the Hebrews. In fact, one of the Hebrew names for God is El Shaddai, which is phonetically similar to ShangDi. Even more similar is the Early Zhou pronunciation of ShangDi which is ‘djanh-tigh’ [Zhan-dai].4 Another name for their God which the ancient Chinese used interchangeable with ShangDi was Heaven (Tian). Zheng Xuan, a scholar of the early Han dynasty said, “ShangDi is another name for Heaven (Tian)”.5 The great philosopher Motze (408-382 BC) also thought of Heaven (Tian) as the Creator-God:
‘I know Heaven loves men dearly not without reason. Heaven ordered the sun, the moon, and the stars to enlighten and guide them. Heaven ordained the four seasons, Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Summer, to regulate them. Heaven sent down snow, frost, rain, and dew to grow the five grains and flax and silk so that the people could use and enjoy them. Heaven established the hills and river, ravines and valleys, and arranged many things to minister to man’s good or bring him evil.’ 6
How did ShangDi create all things? Here is one further recitation from the ancient Border Sacrifice rite:
‘When Te [ShangDi], the Lord, had so decreed, He called into existence [originated] heaven, earth, and man. Between heaven and earth He separately placed in order men and things, all overspread by the heavens.’ 7
Note that ShangDi ‘called into existence,’ or commanded heaven and earth to appear.
Compare this with the way the Hebrew text describes the method of creation by El Shaddai, who, we suspect, is identical with ShangDi, and the similarity in name and role would suggest:
‘. . . by the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. . . . For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast’ (Psalm 33:6, 9).
We have not yet explained the reason for the emperors’ bull sacrifice to ShangDi. Let us compare this Chinese sacrifice with the instruction given by God to the Hebrews:
‘Take thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the LORD’ (Leviticus 9:2)—a practice which began in earliest times (Genesis 4:3,4; 8:20).
The origin of the Border Sacrifice would appear to be explained in the book, God’s Promise to the Chinese.8 The authors, Nelson, Broadberry, and Chock have analyzed the most ancient forms of the pictographic Chinese writing and found the foundational truths of Christianity. In these ideograms, which date from before the time of Moses—we have the entire story of creation, the temptation, and fall of man into sin, and God’s remedy for sin in the animal sacrifices, which pointed to the coming Savior, Jesus Christ. All the elements of the Genesis narrative are found recorded, and still in use, in the Chinese character-writing.
The associated box shows some startling realities about the written Chinese language, indicating that we are all related—and not so long ago. All people in the world, not just the Chinese, are descended from the inhabitants of Babel, the first civilization after the Flood. God first gave His promise of a coming saviour, the ‘Seed of the Woman,’ in Genesis (3:15). The foreshadowed sacrifice of the coming Lamb of God, Creator and Saviour, is as old as mankind.
Should a Chinese person tell you that Christianity is a ‘foreigner’s religion,’ you can explain that the Chinese in antiquity worshipped the same God as Christians do today. Like the Hebrews often did, the ancestors of today’s Chinese wandered off after false gods; the memory of who their original God was dimmed with time.9 The ancient Chinese script gives powerful evidence for the historical truth of Genesis.
天坛始建于明永乐十八年（1420年），最初实行天地合祀，叫做天地坛。嘉靖九年（1530年）实行四郊分祀制度后，在北郊觅地另建地坛，原天地坛则专事祭天、祈穀和祈雨，并改名为天坛。清代基本沿袭明制，在乾隆年间曾进行过大规模的改扩建。目前的主体建筑除祈年门和皇乾殿是明代建筑外，其余都是清代建造的。
1860年和1900年天坛先后被英法联军和八国联军占据，他们将几乎所有的陈设和祭器都席卷而去。八国联军甚至还把司令部设在这里，並在圜丘坛上架设大炮，攻击正阳门和紫禁城。中华民国成立后，除袁世凯登基外，天坛不再进行任何祭祀活动。1918年起闢为公园，正式对民众开放。目前园内古柏葱鬱，是北京城南的一座大型园林。
天坛佔地约273万平方米，是故宫面积的四倍。作为中国规模最大、伦理等级最高的古代祭祀建筑群，它的布局严谨，建筑结构独特，装饰瑰丽，巧妙地运用了力学、声学和几何学等原理，具有较高的历史、科学和文化价值，在中国建筑史上占有重要的地位。
布局
天坛被两重坛墙分隔成内坛和外坛，形似“回”字。两重坛墙的南侧转角皆为直角，北侧转角皆为圆弧形，象征着“天圆地方”，俗称“天地墙”。外坛墙周长6553米，原本只在西墙上开辟祈穀坛门和圜丘坛门，1949年后又陆续新建了东门和北门，并把内坛南面的昭亨门改为南门。
天坛的内坛墙周长4152米，闢有六门：祈穀坛有东、北、西三座天门，圜丘坛的南面有泰元、昭亨和广利门。主要建筑都集中在内坛，南有圜丘坛和皇穹宇，北有祈年殿和皇乾殿，两部分之间有隔墙相隔，并用一座长360米、宽28米、高2.5米的“丹陛桥”（砖砌甬道）连接圜丘坛和祈穀坛，构成了内坛的南北轴线。
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