The Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven
The Forbidden City served as the home of emperors and the center of Chinese government for nearly 500 years. Today, it houses the Palace Museum, with an extensive collection of art and artifacts from the Ming and Qing dynasties of 1420 to 1912. The Forbidden City was also home to the massive Temple of Heaven. Built by the Ming Dynasty in the early 15th century, this structure was built for one reason — to offer an annual sacrifice to God.
According to ancient records, the ceremony was a continuation of the Chinese “Border Sacrifice,” which goes back at least twenty-two hundred years before Jesus Christ. In the 5th century BC, Confucius described the Border Sacrifice as an annual offering of an “unblemished bull” or “beautiful sheep” to ShangDi. ShangDi was the High God of the ancient Chinese. Also known as Tien (or “Heaven”) he was worshiped as the Creator God for thousands of years.
The Border Sacrifice was moved to Beijing in the 15th century. It was here at the Temple of Heaven that the ruling Chinese emperor would reverently enter the “Imperial Vault” once a year and sacrifice a bull or sheep on the huge, white marble, “Altar of Heaven” inside.
As part of the ceremony, the emperor would recite the following:
Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The five elements had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and moon to shine. You, O Spiritual Sovereign, ShangDi, first divided the grosser parts from the purer. You made heaven. You made earth. You made man. All things with their reproducing power got their being.*
*Chinese emperor recitation from the ancient “Border Sacrifice,” translated by James Legge, The Notions of the Chinese Concerning God and Spirits, Hong Kong Register Office, 1852, p. 28.
The Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven
Randall acts as the lead writer for ColdWater’s Drive Thru History® TV series and Drive Thru History® “Adventures” curriculum.
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