Ming - Traveling Thru History

Temple of Heaven: Circular Mound Altar

Erin — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 14:00:29 +0000

After we finished up at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests we decided to wander around the grounds as the sun went down. We hadn’t done a ton of research as our trip to China wasn’t planned far enough in advance to do more than list places that looked interesting, so we didn’t really know what all was on the grounds on the Temple of Heaven. We saw people heading through a gate opposite from where we had entered the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests area and decided to see where they were going. We had no idea what was there and were excited about being ‘surprised’. The first thing we saw when we came upon the Circular Mound site was a beautiful and elaborate wall with a set of intricately decorated gates. Thankfully, there was a description of the site, but we didn’t read it until later. The sun was going down and we wanted to get a few decent shots before it got down too far. Troy isn’t a fan of me stopping to read all the info cards at all the the places we go (some have TONS), so we compromised and I take photos to read later. As the sign says, the Circular Mound Altar was first built in 1530 during the Ming Dynasty. The original purpose was to offer sacrifices during the Winter Solstice to both thank Heaven for the bounty of the current year and to ensure good harvests in the coming year. The other ceremony held here was a rain prayer ceremony during times of drought. The Emperor would come to the Circular Mound and pray to Heaven during an elaborate ceremony for the drought to end and rain to return. Since we didn’t read the sign and hadn’t looked into the site before we got there, we didn’t know what was going on, what it was, or why people were interested in it, but we decided to follow along and check it out with them. There where were way too many people at this gate, though, so we walked around the side to an identical set of gates so we could get better pictures. Before I get into any of the interesting things about the layout of the site, I’ll mention that the exterior has significant meaning. The Circular Mound grounds are enclosed by a square wall and the next wall, the one with the gates, is round. This design symbolizes the world. To the Chinese, the square outer wall represents earth while the round inner wall represents heaven. The three levels of the altar represent communication with heaven. To give you an idea of how large the Circular Mound site is, I was all the way back in the far corner of the square wall, leaning back as far as I could, but I still couldn’t get the entire site with my wide angle lens. The gates of the altar site are called Lingxing Gate of the Circular Mound Altar. There are 24 of them total, three on each side of the square exterior wall and three on each of the four sides of the circular inner wall. The three doorways are said to be of differing heights, the center being the tallest for Heaven, the one on the left is the second tallest and is for the Emperor while the door on the right is the smallest for all the others in attendance for the ceremony. One thing I learned while researching this site is the importance of the number 9 in Chinese culture. The Chinese see odd numbers as positive while the even numbers are negative, so with 9 being the largest single-digit positive number, it is associated with the dragon, which is a symbol of power and is in turn associated with the Emperor. Since 9 is such an important number in Chinese culture, the entire Circular Mound Altar is made using derivatives of 9. There are three levels and each of the stairways between the levels is composed of nine steps. The pillars on each level are in multiples of nine and the stone slats on the walls of each layer are also in multiples of nine. Once you get up to the top, that’s where the fun starts. At the center of the altar is a stone called the Heaven Heart Stone. People stand on this stone to make wishes to heaven. But during the Ming Dynasty, this stone was where an orator would stand during the sacrifice ceremonies and where the Emperor would pray during the rain prayer ceremonies. Due to the acoustical setup of the site, the person who is standing on the stone’s voice will be amplified. It’s actually really cool to see. If you look closely (i know, it’s a terrible picture. i had my focal point way too small), you can see that there are nine pieces of marble surrounding the stone. Outside of that is a layer of 18 stones. Past that, 27. It goes all the way up to 81 stones. It really is a masterpiece of symmetry and numerical composition. As we stood watching people take pictures of each other on the stone, we eventually decided that we should do it, too. People were quite nice when we got on the stone and our friend took a picture of us. Several Chinese people giggled a bit and took pictures of us standing on the stone. They probably knew we had no idea what we were doing, and they were right. lol Have you ever gone somewhere and when you were done found something you weren’t expecting?

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Temple of Heaven: The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

Erin — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 14:00:56 +0000

If you ever go to Beijing, one of the places you’ll want to visit is the Temple of Heaven. It’s a 15-minute drive south of the Forbidden City and close to several other areas of interest. We did a circuit where we visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and then the Temple of Heaven in one day and felt like we were able to enjoy ourselves at each one without feeling rushed. The Temple of Heaven began construction in 1406 and was completed in 1420, just 4 years before the Yongle Emperor died. The complex is made up of two sections, the inner section and the outer section, covering 660 acres. The outer section is a lovely series of garden paths while the inner section is broken up into several smaller sections: the Abstinence Palace, the Echo Wall, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and the Circular Mound Alter. Today’s post is going to be about the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. There are several ways to get into the Temple of Heaven complex. We went in the entrance by the North Heavenly Gate and after a short walk down a tree-lined path and through a beautifully ornate gate we came to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a triple-gabled circular building, 118 feet in diameter and 125 feet tall. It stands on a three level marble base and is where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. One of the interesting features of this building is that it was built entirely out of wood, but used no nails. The original building was burned down after being struck by lightning in 1889 and the current building was re-built several years later using the same design. This is the building where the Emperor would come to offer prayers of thanks for the bounty of the current year’s harvest and to pray for a good harvest during the upcoming season. The symbolism of the building is very profound. In Chinese culture, the circle represents heaven and the square represents earth. If you look at the building, both are represented in the design and ornamentation. The interior of the building has four inner, twelve middle and twelve outer pillars, representing the four seasons, twelve months and twelve traditional Chinese hours respectively. Combined together, the twelve middle and twelve outer pillars represent the traditional solar term. The outside, well, the outside is just magnificent. One of the things I really loved about this building was the roof. Various aspects of Chinese culture are represented in the artwork carved into the panels. Doesn’t it look amazing? The blue tiles of the roof are representative of Heaven. The dragon is the ultimate symbol of power in Chinese culture and is thus associated with Heaven and the Emperor. While I was wandering around, I noticed these little girls across the courtyard having so much fun. It was hilarious to sit there and watch them run up the stairs, slide down and then run up again. They were pretty cute. While it may look like the steps leading up to the top platform are a lot, they’re really not that many. The three-level marble terrace of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests has four sets of double stairways of which there are 9 steps per leve. The stairways facing north and south are decorated with stone bas-reliefs symbolizing dragons and phoenixes presenting prophetic tokens. The balustrade pillars and water spouts on each tier are similarly decorated. There was also a neat little exhibition hall on the grounds that says the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the largest round wooden ancient building in China and explains how the numeric logic of the design is identical to the time concept of the Chinese lunar calendar. It’s really neat to see how exquisitely the craftsmanship is in sync with the religious ideology of the Chinese culture. And then there were the scale-model replicas of different buildings around the complex. Aren’t these neat! We were all so fascinated by the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests that we spent almost an hour at this section alone. All the marble carvings and decorative woodwork of the tiered roofs were just magnificent. Before we left and moved on to the next section of the complex, we stopped in the Imperial Hall of Heaven, which was where the tablets of the Emperor’s ancestors were housed. The Emperor would come here the day before the prayer ceremony to burn incense and perform rituals before the tablets were moved to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. And, of course, our trip wouldn’t have been complete without having a photo of us in front of the Hall. Check back on Sunday for more about our trip around the Temple of Heaven!

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