Temple of HeavenA ~ Z

Introducing the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan)

The Temple of Heaven is situated in the south of Beijing, about 2.5 km away from Tiananmen Square, the center of Beijing. It was first built in 1420 during the time when the Forbidden City and some other important imperial structures were constructed. As a Taoist temple, the Temple of Heaven is not only the largest group of temple buildings in China, but also the largest heaven worshipping architecture in the world. It covers an area of 273 hectares, 1,700 meters from east to west and 1,600 meters from south to north, which is three times larger than the Forbidden City. The reason that it is much larger than the Forbidden City is because the Chinese Emperor used to regard himself as “Son of Heaven”. So they dared not to build their own house “Forbidden City” larger than the dwelling for the “God of Heaven”. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Heaven was the place where the emperor came to worship the God of Heaven and pray for a good harvest each year. Normally they went there twice a year. On the 15th day of the first lunar month and on Winter Solstice to pray for a good harvest and worship the God of Heaven respectively. If there happened to be a drought, he would also go to the Temple of Heaven to pray for rain on Summer Solstice.

History

When Emperor Zhudi decided to move the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, the construction of the Forbidden City was started in 1406. At the same time, he chose to build a heaven worshipping altar in this area, which is about 2.5 km to the southeast of the Front Gate in Tiananmen Square. Originally, the Temple of Heaven was called Temple of Heaven and Earth, because it was built according to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing, the former Ming Capital at that time, so heaven and earth were both worshipped here. In 1530, after the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing, then Heaven and Earth were worshipped separately. Since only Heaven was worshipped here, it was renamed as the Temple of Heaven. From 1421 to 1530, there were altogether nine Ming emperors who held the worshipping ceremony of both heaven and earth for over a hundred times. The worshipping ceremony was mainly for the God of Heaven, secondarily for ancestors of the emperor, as well as for the Gods of the Sun, the Moon, the stars, wind, thunder and lightning.

The Temple of Heaven was a sacred place in the minds of ancient Chinese. People believed that it was the place to convey their wishes to the God of Heaven. In ancient China, the traditional belief was that, everything, no matter good fortune or bad fortune, happiness or disaster, stability or troubled times, was all related to and controlled by the God of Heaven. All the Chinese Emperors paid strong veneration to the God of Heaven, for they believed that he could dominate and dictate everything in the human world. In order to convince people that their imperial divine power was conferred on them by the God of Heaven, they showed great concern over the rituals of the Heavenly worshipping. At that time, the emperor was regarded as the “Son of Heaven”. Any natural disasters, bad harvests or instability in society were signs that the emperor had lost favor with the God of Heaven or being punished by him. Hence, ceremonies for sacrifices to Heaven were extremely important to the imperial rulers.

According to historical records, the worship of Heaven first took place in the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century-770BC) and became a routine during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). During the Tang Dynasty (608-907), the ceremony was held on an even larger scale. In 1911, the Heaven Worshipping convention was abolished. The last event of worshipping Heaven was held in 1915 by Yuan Shikai, the interim president of the Republic of China, as part of an effort to have himself declared Emperor of China. In 1918, the Temple of Heaven was turned into a park and opened to the public for the first time. Being a sacred place for whipping the God of Heaven, the Temple of Heaven had been seriously damaged by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860, and again by the invading troops of the Eight Powers in 1900. At that time, the invaders occupied the Temple of Heaven and had their headquarters set up in the Palace of Abstinence. The invaders’ artillery was even placed on the Circular Mount Altar facing the Forbidden City.

As a site for worshipping Heaven, the Temple of Heaven is different from any other imperial structure. Architecturally speaking, the Temple of Heaven has two themes: heaven and earth. The surrounding walls of the Temple of Heaven are 6 meters high with a semicircular wall in the north and square shaped wall in the south. This layout represents an ancient belief that the Heaven is round while the Earth is square. The north wall is higher than the south which indicates that Heaven is high and Earth is low. The main buildings in the Temple of Heaven are circular shaped but each building has a round and a square wall around it.

Featured Spots

Long Corridor

The Long Corridor connects the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and the Divine Kitchen with 72 sections of rooms. It was the place to transport the sacrificial offerings during the worshipping ceremonies, because the Long Corridor could keep them from being stained by rain, snow, wind and dust. According to the ancient stipulation of rites, the place for slaughtering the sacrificial animals should be more than 200 steps away from the sacrificial altar, so a winding long corridor was built with the Divine Kitchen in the middle and the Butcher House at the end. After being slaughtered, the sacrificial animals would be carried to the Divine Kitchen through the Long Corridor and then to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Now the Long Corridor has become a popular place for the local senior to play cards and Chinese Chess, to sing and dance.

Divine Kitchen and Storehouse

The Divine Kitchen and Storehouse are located nearby the eastern end of the Long Corridor. The Divine Kitchen was the place for making offerings for sacrificial ceremonies. After the offerings were made, they would be stored in the Divine Storehouse. One day before the ceremony, the emperor would come to check the offerings which were placed on a special table for inspection.

Seven Star Stones

The Seven Star Stones are located to the southeast of the Long Corridor. It is said that they are Big Dippers which fell down the Earth to suggest the emperor where the place for the heaven worshipping altar should be constructed. After the Manchu established the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), a smaller stone was put in the northeast corner of the Seven Star Stones by Emperor Qianlong to commemorate his ancestors who came from the northeast part of China. So actually, there are 8 stones.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is one of Beijing’s iconic buildings, also the symbol of Beijing Tourism. It was first built in 1420, but was rebuilt several times. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests was the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties came on the 15th day of the first lunar month each year to pray for a good harvest. It is a cone-shaped wooden structure with triple eaves and a gilded ball on the top, which symbolizes the supreme power of the emperor. The roof of the building is covered with dark blue glazed tiles, which represents the sky. It stands on a 6 meter high triple-tired circular stone terrace with carved while marble balusters on each tier, 32 meters high, 30 meters in diameter and covers an area of 5,900 square meters. It was originally built after the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing, so it was once rectangular in shape and named the Hall of Great Sacrifice. In 1530, after the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing, only Heaven was worshipped here. In 1539, the Hall of Great Sacrifice was demolished and rebuilt into a circular hall with triple eaves. It was renamed the Hall of Great Enjoyment where the emperor would come to pray for a good harvest. At that time the three-layered eaves were in three different colors, representing three different ranks. The top layer was in blue, symbolizing Heaven; the middle layer was in yellow, representing the emperor, and the bottom was in green signifying the common people. Later in 1751, during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736 - 1795), the Hall was rebuilt and all three layers of the roof were changed to dark blue glazed tiles just to symbolize the color of the sky. And then the hall was given the present name, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. In 1889, the hall was burnt down by lightning. In 1890, it was rebuilt according to the original design, and that is the building people see now. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is completely made of wood without any use of steel, cement or even the use of a single nail. The entire building is supported by 28 massive wooden pillars made of fir tree imported from Oregon, United States. They are arranged in three rings, 4 pillars in the center are the thickest and the space between each of them symbolizes the four seasons of a year. There are 12 pillars in the inner ring; each space between them represents 12 months of a year. Also there are 12 pillars in the outer ring, and each space between them symbolizes the 12 time divisions of a day. Chinese people used to use Geng to mark time. One Geng equals two hours, so there are 12 Gengs in one day. Altogether, the 28 pillars represent the 28 constellations in the sky. The floor is paved with nine rounds of green marble flagstones. In the center of the floor there is a big round marble stone with natural grain and ink patterns resembling a dragon and phoenix. It is known as the Dragon and Phoenix Stone, because the ink patterns on it are similar to the dragon and phoenix. During the worshipping ceremony, the emperor would stand on this stone and kneel down to pray for a good harvest. To the north of the Dragon and Phoenix Stone, in the center of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the tablet of the God of Heaven was placed on a white marble pedestal. The tablets of the emperor’s ancestors were placed on either side. In front of each table, there was a sacrificial table on which sacrificial vessels are displayed for holding offerings.

Hall of Imperial Zenith

The building behind the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the Hall of Imperial Zenith. The place where the tablets of God of Heaven and the deceased emperors were kept, so it was also called “Heavenly Warehouse” in the old days. According to the custom, the emperor would come here to burn incense and prostrate himself in front of the tablets one day before the sacrificial ceremony. And then the tablets would be placed in the Dragon Pavilion. The emperor’s retinue used it to take the memorial tablets of the God of Heaven and the emperor’s ancestors to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The tablet of the God of Heaven would be placed to the north of the Dragon and Phoenix Stone in the center of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and kept in a shrine, while other tablets would be placed on the stone platforms on either side. After that, the emperor would go to the Divine Kitchen and the Storehouse to see whether the sacrificial offerings were perfectly prepared or not. Then he would return to the Palace of Abstinence.

Danbi Bridge

Danbi Bridge is actually the main road in the Temple of Heaven and connects the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest with the Imperial Vault of Heaven. It's 360 meters long, 30 meters wide and ascends from one meter high in the south to three meters high at the northern end. The increasing height of the bridge has two meanings: first it represents the course of the emperor “stepping upward towards heaven”; and it also shows that the road from earth to heaven is long. There are three passage ways on the Danbi Bridge. The central one is called “Divine Road” which was used exclusively for the God of Heaven, even the emperor dared not to touch it. He used to take the eastern way “Imperial Road”, while the western way was used by the ministers and royal family members.

Dressing Platform

The square platform with white marble balustrades in the middle of the Danbi Bridge is called Dressing Platform. Before the worshipping ceremony, a temporary tent was set up for the emperor to change clothes. The emperor would come from the Palace of Abstinence and change his imperial yellow robe into the blue sacrificial garment. After the ceremony, he would return to the platform to change his clothes back. There used to be two dressing platforms in the Temple of Heaven, one for praying for a good harvest and the other one for worshipping the God of Heaven, but only one remains.

Palace of Abstinence

The Palace of Abstinence is located in the southwest of the Temple of Heaven. It was first built in 1420 and was rebuilt several times later. It was the place where the emperor fasted and bathed before performing ritual ceremonies. The Palace of Abstinence is rectangular in shape and covers an area of 4 hectares. It is surrounded by two walls with a moat outside. The main structures inside the palace are the main halls, bedrooms, bell tower and more than 60 well arranged and uniquely shaped rooms for various purposes. So it was also known as a “mini imperial palace”. The Bell Tower is located in the northeast of the Palace of Abstinence. On the day of the grand worshipping ceremony, the emperor would leave the Hall of Abstinence in the early morning and the chiming bell would continue until he reached the Altar. After the ceremony was finished, the Bell would chime again. The main hall of the Palace of Abstinence is called “Beamless Hall”, because the roof of the inner hall is vault-shaped without using any beams. The buildings in the Palace of Abstinence are different from those in the Forbidden City in color and direction they face. The buildings in the Forbidden City have yellow roofs and face south, while those in the Palace of Abstinence are covered with green roofs and face east. Because the Temple of Heaven was considered by the emperor as the residence for his father “God of Heaven”, so he had to use green color which was used by the prince only. As a rule, according to the regulation in the old days, three days before the worship of Heaven, the emperor was supposed to go to the Palace of Abstinence for three days of fasting. In these three days, he had to abstain from wine, meat, entertainment as well as his concubines, and also from handling criminal cases to show his respect to the God of Heaven. There are two stone pavilions placed in front of the main hall. On the right is the Time Table Pavilion. The sacrificial ceremony was held at about 4:15 in the early morning. Before the ceremony began, the official of the Department of Astronomy would put a timetable in the stone pavilion. According to the fixed timetable, the emperor would leave to the Sacrificial Altar with an ease and calm mood. During the three days fast, if some state affairs should be reported to the emperor, the reports would be placed inside this pavilion, so it was also called the “Reporting Pavilion”. The stone pavilion on the left is also known as the Fasting Bronze Figure Stone Pavilion. During the three days fast, a small square table would be placed inside the pavilion on which stood a bronze figure holding a “fasting board” in hand. The figure was called the “Bronze Figure of Abstinence”. It was designed to remind the emperor that he was there for abstinence.

Divine Music Administration

The Divine Music Administration is located to the west of the Palace of Abstinence. It is one of the five major architectural complexes in the Temple of Heaven. The Divine Music Administration was responsible for the divine music performances in the heaven worshipping ceremonies. All the officials, musicians and dancers were Taoists. While they are not regular Taoists who devote all their time to studying the sutra, they are the experts on Chinese classical and folk music. Apart from preparing the twice-yearly performances, the Taoists developed two other interests: gardening and pharmacy. Gradually, the Divine Music Administration became one of the busiest temple fairs in Beijing until the beginning of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The Divine Music Administration’s most famous medicine was the herb motherwort (Yi Mu Cao). The soil around the Temple of Heaven is very suitable for growing motherwort. Many medicine shops were built and the practitioners became wealthy. With the improvement of processing skills, the Taoists began to export motherwort and it became one of China’s earliest export commodities. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Shikai dismissed the Taoists and closed their shops, allowing motherwort to be collected only in autumn which led to the decline of the motherwort trade and the Divine Music Administration.

Imperial Vault of Heaven

The Imperial Vault of Heaven is located to the south end of the Danbi Bridge and resembles the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, but smaller in size. It is a single-gabled building built on a single level of marble stone base. The Imperial Vault of Heaven was the place where the tablets of the God of Heaven and emperor’s ancestors were kept. In the center and to the north of it, the tablet of God of Heaven is placed in the shrine, with inscriptions engraved in Manchurian and Mandarin. There are also eight stone platforms, four on each side, on which the tablets of deceased emperors were placed. One day before the ceremony, the emperor would come here to read prayers of blessing and burn incense in front of these tablets. The side halls, on each side of the Imperial Vault of Heaven, were used to keep the tablets of secondary deities, such as the Gods of the Sun, the Moon, the stars and the Gods of cloud, rain, wind, thunder and Lighting.

Echo Wall

There are three places with marvelous echo effects in the Temple of Heaven. They are the Echo Wall, the Triple-Sound Stone and the Heavenly Heart Stone in the center of the Circular Mound Altar. These acoustic phenomena were discovered by people in recent years and they were not built on purpose by the emperor. The Echo Wall is a circular wall surrounding the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The wall is 3.7 meters high, 90 centimeters thick and 193 meters long with three gates to the south. If one person speaks in normal voice, or even whispers at any point close to the wall, the sound will travel along the wall and could be heard clearly by another person at the other end. The best place to verify the sound effect is behind each of the two annex halls.

Triple Sound Stone

In front of the Imperial Vault of Heaven, there are three stones known as the Triple Sound Stone. If you stand on the first stone and clap, one echo would be heard, while a hand clap on the second stone can produce two echoes. If you do the same thing on the third stone, the echoes can be heard three times. This is because the three flagstones are at different distances from the Echo Wall and the sound waves are reflected by the wall and bounced back to the center at different times. This sound-echoing phenomenon was enveloped in mystery in the old days. It was believed that “A whisper on Earth sounds like a thunder in Heaven”, which means that every word and behavior in the human world could be clearly perceived by the God of Heaven.

Circular Mound Altar

The Circular Mound Altar, also known as the Heaven Worshipping Altar, is located in the south of the Temple of Heaven. It was built in 1530 and rebuilt in 1740. The emperor used to come here on every Winter Solstice to worship the God of Heaven. The emperor would report to Heaven the year’s good harvest and the country’s prosperity and also pray for the coming year’s prosperity and peacefulness. If there happened to be a drought that year, he would also come here to pray for rain on Summer Solstice. The Circular Mound Altar is an empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones, each decorated by lavishly carved dragons. The numbers of various elements of the Altar, including its balusters, steps and flagstones, are either the sacred number nine or its multiples. In the old days, Chinese people believed that the Heavenly Emperor lived in the ninth-tier sky, which symbolized the supremacy of Heaven. The number nine is the largest single odd number which is considered to be the most powerful and auspicious number.

Heavenly Heart Stone

The Heavenly Heart Stone lies in the center of the Circular Mound Altar, where the emperor paid his homage to the God of Heaven or prayed for favorable weather. It was also considered by the Chinese people as the center of the whole universe in the old days. In the past, when emperors delivered ceremonial speeches here, something magical would happen. Even if the emperor spoke quietly, his voice sounded so powerful that it could be heard clearly by the whole audience. The emperor interpreted this phenomenon as evidence that they were TianZi (son of God of Heaven), and proclaimed this mysterious phenomenon meant everyone must obey them or run the risk of being the enemy of God of Heaven. Of course, there is a scientific reason behind this phenomenon. Sounds from the Heavenly Heat Stone are rapidly echoed by the surrounding stone walls, and the loud voice heard by emperors and officials is actually a mixture of the original voice and echoes. But because the distance between the Heavenly Heart Stone and the stone walls is short, the original sound can hardly be distinguished from the echo, so people would hear a louder voice.

Lantern Pole

The Lantern Pole (Wangdenggan) is located to the southwest of the Circular Mound Altar. It was first set up in 1530 in the Ming Dynasty. Later, two more lantern poles were added. But in 1904, two of them were demolished by Yuan Shikai when he came to worship the God of Heaven. So, only one lantern pole and two lantern daises are left now. Each dais has a pole to hang lanterns for early morning ceremonies. The lanterns were used only by the emperor and were made according to specific measurements. In traditional Chinese culture, the number nine means noble and powerful and could only be used by emperors. So the length of the Wangdenggan is 9 zhang 9 chi 9 cun (one zhang is 3.3 m, one chi is 33 cm and one cun is 3.3 cm). The lanterns hanging on the Wangdenggan are much bigger than ordinary ones. They are about 2 meters wide and 2.5 meters high, almost as big as a small room. The lanterns’ frames are made of wire with yellow cotton fabric pasted over. The candles used were made of yellow wax given as tribute by Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and processed by the Imperial Household Department. The candles were 1.3 meters high and up to 33 centimetres wide with a long imperial dragon representing luck and fortune carved into them. These extremely expensive candles could burn for 12 hours without needing to be trimmed.

Firewood Stove

There is a Firewood Stove located to the southeast of the Circular Mound Altar (there is also firewood stove to the southeast of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests). It is a round shaped stove built with green glazed bricks. There are nine steps leading to the top of the stove on the east, west and south. The Firewood Stove was the place for burning the sacrificial offerings to the God of Heaven. The ancient Chinese people believed that the God of Heaven lived in the Heaven and he could receive the sacrificial offerings by burning them in the stove. When the sacrificial rites began, a calf would be burnt in the stove to welcome the God of Heaven.

Double-Ring Longevity Pavilion

The Double-Ring Longevity Pavilion was originally built by Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) in Zhongnanhai (Chinese WhiteHouse) to celebrate his mother's 50th birthday. It was moved to the Temple of Heaven in 1977. The Double-Ring Longevity Pavilion is the most beautiful pavilion in Beijing.

Additional Information

Procedure of Heaven Worshipping Ceremony

On the day of Winter Solstice each year, the emperor would come to the Temple of Heaven to make a solemn sacrifice to the God of Heaven. As a rule, the emperor would come to the Palace of Abstinence three days before the heaven worshipping ceremony. But, starting from Qing Emperor Yongzheng, another Palace of Abstinence was built inside the Forbidden City in 1731, so the Qing emperors would have their first two days fasting in the Forbidden City, and then they would come to the Temple of Heaven only for the last day of abstinence, which was one day before the worshipping ceremony. The day before the ceremony, the emperor would come to the Imperial Vault of Heaven to inspect the tablets one by one, and then he would place incense in front of these tablets, respectfully inviting all the divine tablets to the heaven worshipping altar. The emperor would also check the sacrificial articles both in the Divine Kitchen and Divine Storehouse of the Gods, to see whether the sacrificial offerings were perfectly prepared or not. The emperor would also go to the Circular Mound Altar for inspection, and then return to the Palace of Abstinence. On the day of the ceremony, the emperor would leave the Palace of Abstinence to go to the Altar in the early morning with the chiming of the Bell. On the way to the Circular Mound Altar, the emperor would enter the tent first, which was set up temporarily on the Dressing Platform at the southeast corner of the Altar to wash his hands and change into his ceremonial garment and boots. While waiting for all the divine tablets to be placed in the proper position on the Altar, the emperor would have a short rest. When the heaven worshipping ceremony began at seven quarters before sunrise, about 4:15-4:30 in the early morning, the emperor came out of the tent, led his civil and military officials to the altar and then took his worshipping position on the Altar to begin the ceremony and offer the sacrifice. While the ceremonial official was chanting loud the prayer to Heaven, fire would be lit in the ovens to get ready for the sacrificial calf and other animals. Incense, twigs of pine and cypress trees would be burnt to create smoke to permeate all over the Altar. The emperor’s worshipping position was on the south of the second tier of the Altar. He would usher in the God from Heaven and offer sacrifices. The whole process of the grand heaven worshipping ceremony consisted of the following three procedures: Ushering in the God of Heaven: At the time when the fire was lit in the ovens to get ready for the sacrificial calf and other animals, the incense, twigs of pine and cypress trees were burnt to cause the smoke to permeate all over the Altar. Accompanied by the drums and dances, the emperor would burn incense and kowtow to greet the coming of the God of Heaven. Presenting Offerings: The emperor would offer jade and silk items in boxes, present sacrificial animals, wine and dishes to the God of Heaven. The emperor laid offerings of wine three times, with a courtier reading the prayer to the God of Heaven. Seeing the Deities Off: The sacrificial offerings would be moved to the iron ovens outside. Each kind of offering was burnt in the iron oven. The emperor, standing on the viewing-and grilling platform, followed by some other officials and officers, would all watch the burning of the offerings with their heads up and eyes looking up to Heaven to see the God of Heaven departing, followed by music and dance.

Opening Hours

Entrance:

06:00 - 20:00 (Apr. - Oct.)

06:30 - 20:00 (Nov. - Mar.)

Price

Entrance Fee:

¥ 15 (Apr. - Oct.)

¥ 10 (Nov. - Mar.)

Through Ticket:

¥ 34 (Apr. - Oct.)

¥ 28 (Nov. - Mar.)

Address

No.7 Neidongli Tiantan Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing

(北京市东城区天坛内东里7号)

Distance

Downtown

Getting There

Subway:

Line 5 Tiantan Dongmen Station Exit A

Taxi:

请带我到天坛东门

(Please take me to the East Gate of the Temple of Heaven)

Travel Tips

Better to visit in the morning to see local senior exercising

Last Updated

2018-05-04 12:40:49

© 2015 WikiBeijing. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced without our written permission.

Loading