It is a temple with very high architectural artistic value. Generally round, there is a round Sumitomo with a height of 2.85 meters at the bottom. It is made of blue and white stones, with three directions, namely steps. In the southeast, there are two dragons playing with pearls in the south. Above it is a blue tile with a single eaves and a gold-plated roof. There are also eight eaves columns and eight gold columns in the hall. The main hall is not supported by beams, but is supported by various kinds of bucket arches, which shrink step by step to form a beautiful dome. It also makes use of the lever principle in physics. This group of buildings is not only very beautiful, but also has echo walls and three-tone stones, which, together with the Tianxin stone we just mentioned, are called the three major acoustic phenomena of the Temple of Heaven. The echo wall is the outer wall of the imperial vault. The grinding brick built by the fence is very smooth and is a good sound carrier, which can transmit sound. There is almost no loss of sound in the transmission process. As long as you talk to the wall, you can clearly hear each other 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 and clapping your hands, you can hear one echo, the second stone can hear two echoes, and the third stone can hear three echoes, so it is called Sanyin stone. Later, some people called it the stone of three talents, which means three talents in heaven and earth.
Perhaps you have just noticed that there are many cypress trees in the Temple of Heaven. Yes, it's like the natural oxygen bar in Beijing. Among these numerous ancient cypresses, there is an ancient cypress that is more than 500 years old, that is, the Kowloon cypress outside the western wall of the Echo Wall. Its trunk texture is very strange, full of gullies, winding, like nine dragons winding and playing, it is not an exaggeration to call it Jiulong White.
After visiting the ball altar and the Imperial Dome, we are about to enter the Valley of Prayer. Now the single bridge connecting the two altars under our feet, also known as Haiyuan Avenue, is the only way for the emperor to climb the valley to pray. The total length is 360 meters, and the bridge deck is divided into three roads, with Shinto in the middle, Imperial Road in the east and King Road in the west. And why is it called a bridge as a passage? There are two ways to say this. One is that the road surface is low in the south and high in the north, rising step by step, like a bridge connected with the sky; The other is that there is an entrance gate under the road, which is similar to an overpass, so it is called a bridge. Speaking of entering the sacrifice gate, before the sacrifice, cattle and sheep have to go through a ticket gate under the bridge to the sacrifice pavilion 500 meters away to be slaughtered and made into sacrifices, so this passage is also called the gate of hell, because once they enter, there will be death and no life.
Ok, back to the topic, what is presented to you now is the complete prayer altar complex. The stone platform in front of it is a service platform. Every year before Meng Chungu's sacrifice, the emperor would come here to build a toilet and change clothes as usual, so it was also called Xiaojindian.
At this time, the main building of the valley prayer altar-the hall of prayer for the New Year appeared in front of us. The pedestal under the Hall of Prayer for the Year is a three-story circular stone platform, and the steps of the three-story stone platform on the front are decorated with huge relief, which is called single stone carving in front of the hall. From bottom to top: Ruiyun Mountain Sea, Shuangfeng Mountain Sea and Shuanglong Mountain Sea. The pattern of each layer of drainage holes also corresponds to the content of the relief. There are nine affiliated halls on the east and west sides, which used to be places to put memorial tablets, but they were moved to Xiannongtan during Jiajing period, so there is no practical use here now. The Hall of Prayer for the New Year itself is a unique building in China. The circular triple-eave pointed roof shrinks upward layer by layer, and covered with blue glazed tiles symbolizes the sky. At the top is a gold-plated treasure top. Looking up, there is a dragon and phoenix algae well with a pattern of dragons and phoenixes in the center.
The roof of the huge three-story hall is supported by 28 landing columns in the hall. The four columns in the middle are named Longjing Column, and the southeast and northwest directions represent spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively. 12 bays divided by 12 red lacquered gold columns on the periphery of Longjing column respectively represent 12 months of a year; The 24 bays of the outer two rings represent 24 solar terms in a year; At the same time, these 28 pillars also represent 28 stars in the sky. It is said that this Hall of Prayer for the New Year is designed and built after the ancient Ming Hall. While lamenting the buildings in the temple, let us gradually turn our attention to the furnishings in the temple. The furnishings here were restored according to the original state during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty. On the front, the carved dragon throne is dedicated to the version of the God of Man and Han, and the stone platforms on the left and right sides are dedicated to the tablets of the first eight emperors of the Qing Dynasty.
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 sacrificial clothes, made a big gift to the memorial tablet, prayed to God, and then sent the offerings to the wood-burning stove and the burning stove in the east outside the door of praying for the Year, and sent them to the Heavenly Palace. The etiquette of praying for the valley is similar to offering sacrifices to heaven.
At this time, the Hall of Prayer for the New Year was almost completed, and it also had an annex, similar to the imperial vault, which was also a place to pay homage to the altar of the Valley, that is, the Huanggan Hall on the north side of the Hall of Prayer for the New Year.
Now when we come out of the east gate of the altar for praying for the valley, we can see a long corridor with eaves and ridges. There are seventy-two rooms, commonly known as seventy-two rooms. It is not only used to connect the kitchen and the library, but also used as a channel to transport sacrifices during the sacrifice. At the eastern end of the corridor, there is a slaughter pavilion, which is the livestock artery that passes through the gate of hell and is waiting to be slaughtered. In the southeast of the promenade, there are eight huge bluestones, called Seven-Star Stones, all of which are Feng Shui Zhen Shi. But there are eight stones here. Why is it called seven stars? It turns out that seven stones were put here in the Ming Dynasty, and the smallest one was added in the Qing Dynasty. The statement about the Seven-Star Stone varies from dynasty to dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, a Taoist priest and emperor said that the orientation of the New Year Hall was not good for the country, so seven stones symbolizing the Big Dipper were placed here. In the Qing Dynasty, in order to find the theoretical basis for Manchu people to love Xinjue Roche, Emperor Kangxi sent people to patrol the mountain and found that Mount Tai was the remnant vein of Changbai Mountain, so he placed a small piece of bluestone in the northeast of the original Seven Stones, symbolizing Changbai Mountain in the northeast. In that case, Bashi should be called Qifeng Dongyue.
Whatever their verdict is. 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.