The Temple of Heaven is an altar built by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty. The main building is the Fourth Hall, which is today's Hall of Prayer for the New Year. The Temple of Heaven has an outer altar wall and an inner altar wall, which are round in the north and round in the south, implying a round place. During the Qianlong period, the Great Sacrifice Hall was changed to the current Hall for Praying for the New Year, and the roof tiles were replaced with blue glazed tiles, forming the largest architectural complex for worshipping heaven in the world that we see today.
This holy land was looted by British and French allied forces in 1860 and ravaged by Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900. After the founding of New China, it has become a famous tourist attraction. Besides tourists, there are also many people who exercise.
Now let's start our tour along the route of the emperor to the altar.
Now we are marching south along the central axis of the Temple of Heaven, and we will see the ball altar where the ancient emperor sacrificed to heaven. The dome has two retaining walls, the outer side is round and the inner side is round, which accords with the view that the sky is round. Each wall has four groups of doors. You can notice that the doors are different in size, because the middle door is dedicated to God, so it is very high. The emperor can only enter through the door on the left; Other officials can only go through the smallest door on the right.
When we get to the bottom of the altar, we will soon start climbing the altar, but please count how many steps there are on each floor. At the highest time, you will find that all the steps on the altar are nine levels or multiples of nine. Are these all coincidences? Of course not, because the ancients thought nine was a very positive number, so craftsmen used this number to give the altar of Oahu a "noble" meaning.
After talking about the wonders of the altar, let's introduce the grand ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven.
Every winter solstice, the emperor would sacrifice to heaven here. At this ceremony, it should be specially mentioned that the place where the emperor stood and read the imperial edict was this Tianxin stone. It is one of the three major acoustic phenomena in the Temple of Heaven. When reading aloud here, the sound is particularly loud. Visitors may wish to experience it and tell their best wishes to heaven like the emperor of that year.
Now we continue to walk along the central axis. The building in front of us is called Tianku, and its main hall is the Imperial Palace. The word imperial vault also represents the meaning of "supreme", "heaven" and "universe" respectively, which shows its sacredness and supremacy. This group of buildings is not only very beautiful, but also has echo walls and three-tone stones, which are called the three major acoustic phenomena of the Temple of Heaven together with the "Tianxin Stone" we just mentioned.
The echo wall is the outer wall of the imperial vault. The wall is very smooth and can transmit sound, and the sound loss is very small during the transmission. As long as you talk to the wall, you can clearly hear each other's voice even if you don't meet each other 40 or 50 meters apart.
Sanyin stone is three stones in front of the main hall of the palace. Standing on the first stone can hear an echo, standing on the second stone can hear two, standing on the third stone can hear three, so it is called Sanyin stone.
After visiting the ball altar and the Imperial Dome, we are about to enter the valley prayer altar. The main building of Valley Altar is the Hall of Praying for the New Year, which is a unique building in China.
The round pointed roof is covered with blue glazed tiles, symbolizing the sky. Just like the annual worship to heaven, this is a place to pray for the valley. On the day of the sacrifice, there was a band playing on the platform outside the temple. The emperor entered the temple devoutly in his sacrificial clothes, made a big gift to the memorial tablet, prayed to God, and then sent the offerings to the door praying for the New Year to be burned and sent to the Heavenly Palace.
Now out of the east gate of the altar for praying for the valley, you can see a long corridor, which is the passage for transporting sacrifices during the sacrifice.
Today's sightseeing is coming to an end. I hope this time in the Temple of Heaven will be an eternal memory in your trip to Beijing. At the same time, please bring the blessings of the Temple of Heaven to your family and friends.