In 1914, the Temple of Heaven was north of the New Year's Hall and the west side of the Emperor's Palace
The Temple of Heaven in Beijing is the most well-known historical relics and monuments in the world in addition to the Forbidden City, and the appearance of the Hall of Prayer has also become the cultural and creative prototype of Beijing's image.
The Temple of Heaven was formerly known as the Temple of Heaven and Earth, for the heaven and earth to worship, in the eighteenth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1420), Ming Chengzu Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, and built the Beijing Temple of Heaven and Earth in accordance with the regulations of the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing, including the Great Worship Hall (the predecessor of the Prayer Palace), the Great Worship Gate, the Huanggan Hall and other buildings, which are the places to worship the heavens and the earth. In the ninth year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1530), Zhu Houxi of Ming Shizong decided to restore the old system of dividing heaven and earth into worship, built a mound in the south of the Great Shrine Hall, and held a ceremony to worship the heavens on the winter solstice. In the same year, the Temple of Heaven and Earth was renamed the Temple of Heaven, and the Temple of Earth was built in the northern suburbs. In the seventeenth year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1538), the edict of Ming Shizong ordered the demolition of the main shrine. In the nineteenth year of Jiajing (1540), the Great Enjoyment Hall was built on the original site of the Great Worship Palace, and in August of the twenty-fourth year of Jiajing (1545), the Great Enjoyment Hall was completed. In the sixteenth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1751), Emperor Qianlong decreed to change the Great Enjoyment Hall to the New Year's Palace, and the Great Enjoyment Gate to the New Year's Prayer Gate. In the seventeenth year of Qianlong (1752), the mound and the imperial dome were repaired. The original upper layer of the triple eaves of the prayer hall is covered with green tiles, the middle layer of yellow tiles, and the lower layer of green tiles, and the green tiles of the prayer door, the two houses (east and west with the hall), and the Huangqian Hall (including the three gates of the north of the prayer hall) are all changed to cyan (blue) glazed tiles, and the others are still made of green glazed tiles. It can be seen that the east, west and south of the prayer valley altar are now the three beamless three-coupon cave doors of the mountain, as well as the Chengzhen Gate, the Zhaoxiang Gate, the Taiyuan Gate, the Guangli Gate and the existing inner and outer altar doors are all topped with green glazed tiles.
In the fifteenth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1889), the prayer hall was destroyed by thunder and fire. In the sixteenth year of Guangxu (1890), the imperial court decided to rebuild the prayer hall, and the restoration was completed in the twenty-second year of Guangxu (1896).
In 1914, the Temple of Heaven was enthroned
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Heaven Park was a place where the emperor sacrificed to the emperor and prayed for a bumper harvest. In the more than 500 years of history of the Temple of Heaven, a total of 22 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties held 654 sacrifices to heaven here.
In February 1912, Emperor Xuantong announced his abdication, the Qing Dynasty collapsed, and the Republic of China was established. Without the emperor of the divine authority of the monarch, the ritual of worshiping the heavens authorized by the heavens to the emperor has become the old yellow calendar. In July of the first year of the Republic of China (1912), the Temple of Heaven, which had lost its divinity, was changed into an "Agronomic Experiment Institute" by the newly established government of the Republic of China, and it was to be used to grow crops.
Only a year later, on the winter solstice of 1914, in the first year of entering the democratic republic, Yuan Shikai, the former president of the Republic of China in the Temple of Heaven, held the only ceremony in the history of the Republic of China and the last in Chinese history in the abandoned Temple of Heaven.
In 1914, the west side of the Temple of Heaven Prayer Hall, the west gate of the prayer altar (the three-arch coupon door of the green glazed tile of the mountain type)
In 1914, the Temple of Heaven prayed for the east seventy-two corridors
In 1914, the Temple of Heaven Zhai Palace Hanging Flower Gate
In 1914, the Temple of Heaven had no beam hall
In 1914, the fasting bronze pavilion on the Danqi of the beamless hall of the Temple of Heaven can be seen at the north gate of the inner courtyard, the bell tower outside the wall of the second courtyard and the top of the prayer hall
In 1914, the two palace gates (east gate) in front of the beamless hall of the Temple of Heaven
In 1914, Guangli Gate, West Road of the Temple of Heaven (Xieshan-style green glazed tile three-arch coupon gate)
On December 23, 1914, on the winter solstice, Yuan Shikai wore a crown to attend the worship of heaven, which was the last time that the Temple of Heaven officially held a sacrifice to heaven in the official name (Yuan Shikai was the president of the Republic of China at the time)
In order to worship the heavens, at the beginning of December 1914, the preparatory project for repairing the facilities inside and outside the altar was started; on the 19th, Yuan Shikai and other officials of various ministries began a three-day fast, including two days of fasting and one day of fasting; on the 21st, Yuan Shikai issued a decree to sacrifice to the heavens.
December 23, 1914 (the third year of the Republic of China), the winter solstice, the seventh day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar, Wednesday.
"The suburbs ceremonies are more and more Zhou, supervising the production of the twelve jade crowns; the loess Shen Shen paves the road, and the pedestrians cover the four archways. These four lines of poetry were written by Liu Chengyu, a member of the Senate in the early years of the Republic of China, from the "Hongxian Chronicle Poem", which is about the scene of Yuan Shikai's winter solstice sacrifice in 1914.
On December 23, 1914, the Temple of Heaven was mound, and the sacrificial items were arranged
At that time, an American photographer left a set of precious photos for posterity, which have now become classic images of the history of this scene. The photographer was John D. Zumbrum, who opened a photo studio in Beijing from 1913 to 1920 and is said to have been the imperial photographer of the last emperor, Puyi, who may have had the opportunity to take pictures at the scene of the festival in a special capacity.
On December 23, 1914, the Temple of Heaven mound, a teenager participating in the ceremony of worshipping the heavens
On December 23, 1914, the Temple of Heaven was a sacrifice to Yuan Shikai on the winter solstice
On December 23, 1914, the Temple of Heaven was completed, and Yuan Shikai and other officials of the Beiyang Government of the Republic of China stepped down from the altar
On December 23, 1914, the Temple of Heaven was worshipped, and the drums of the Kagura Department were played
While the ceremony is held, the students of the Kagura Department perform the "Folk Movement" in the name of "harmony" that embodies the idea of "republican".
On December 23, 1914, during the Temple of Heaven ceremony, Zhu Qichuan (then Minister of Internal Affairs of the Beiyang Government of the Republic of China) wore a gown to participate in the ceremony
On December 23, 1914, during the Temple of Heaven ceremony, Yang Du (then a member of the Senate of the Beiyang Government of the Republic of China) wore a gown to participate in the ceremony. Yang Du was a constitutional monarchist in the early days, and later supported Yuan Shikai as emperor. He joined the Kuomintang, secretly joined the CCP in 1929, and died of illness in 1931