Temple of Heaven: Circular Mound Altar

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?