The Temple of Heaven, find in the first half of the 15th
century, is a stately compound of fine cult buildings set in gardens and nearby
historic pine woods. In its overall design and that of its individual
buildings, it represent the connection between earth and heaven – the human
world and God's world – which stands at the heart of Chinese cosmogony, and
also the major role played by the emperors within that connection.
Brief synthesis
The Temple of Heaven is a main presentation of Circular Mound
Altar to the south open to the sky with the conically roofed Imperial Vault of
Heaven is instantly to its north. This is linked by a raised sacred way to the
round, three-tiered, conically roofed Hall of Prayer for Good reap additional
to the north. Here at these places the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties
as interlocutors between mankind and the heavenly
kingdom offered sacrifice to
heaven and prayed for bumper harvests. To the west is the Hall of sobriety
where the emperor fasted after making sacrifice. The whole is surrounded by a
double-walled, pine-treed compound. Between the inner and outer walls to the
west are the Divine Music Administration hall and the building that was the
Stables for votive Animals. Within the complex there are a total of 92 ancient
buildings with 600 rooms. It is the most total
existing imperial sacrificial building complex in China and the
world's largest existing building compound for contribution oblation to heaven.
Located south of the Forbidden City on the east side of
Yongnei Dajie, the main Altar of Heaven and Earth was veritable together with
the Forbidden City in 1420, the eighteenth year of the reign of the Ming
Emperor Yongle. In the 9 year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing (1530) the
decision was taken to provide division oblation to heaven and earth, and so the
Circular Mound Altar was built to the south of the main hall for sacrifices
especially to heaven. The Altar of Heaven and Earth was thereby renamed the Temple
of Heaven in the 13 year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing (1534). The recent
arrangement of the Temple of Heaven complex covering 273ha was formed by 1749
after rebuild by the Qing emperors Qianlong and Guangxu.
The sitting, planning, and architectural outline of the
Temple of Heaven as well as the votive pomp and associated music were form on
ancient principle relating numbers and spatial layout to summary about heaven
and its relationship to people on earth, arbitrate by the emperor as the ‘Son
of Heaven’. Other dynasties built altars for the worship of heaven but the
Temple of Heaven in Beijing is a magnum of ancient Chinese culture and is the
most representative work of countless votive buildings in China.
Criterion (i):
The Temple of Heaven is a magnum of
architecture and landscape design which easy and graphically clarify a
cosmogony of big importance for the evolution of one of the world’s great
advancement.
Criterion (ii):
The representative layout and design
of the Temple of Heaven had a profound effect on architecture and planning in
the Far East over many centuries.
Criterion (iii):
For more than two thousand years China was
control by a succession of feudal dynasties, the legitimacy of which is
represent by the design and outline of the Temple of Heaven.
