(UTINKSK ARCHTTECTUUl';. 683 



G miles long, 30 luiles distant from Pokiiiii; to the north, and the 

 imperial tombs are in separate walled inclosures, dotting the slopes 

 of the wooded hills which skirt the valley. 



The avenue, with its row of colossal stone figures, has l^een noticed 

 in the last chapter. At the end of the avenue one comes to a, triple 

 gateway leading to a court with a smaller hall, and passes through 

 to reach the main courtyard with tlie large sacrificing hall, where, by 

 order of the Manchn Emperors, offerings are still i)resented to the 

 long-deceased ruler of a fallen dynasty by one of his lineal descend- 

 ants selected for the pnrpose. The hall is mounted upon a terrace, 

 Avith three balustrades of carved marble extending all around, as- 

 cended by three flights of 18 steps in front and behind, leading to three 

 portals with folding doors of tracery. It is TO yards long by ;)0 deep, 

 with a massive tiled roof supported by eight rows of four pillars 

 each. The columns, of Persea nanmu wood, are 12 feet aroimd at the 

 ])ase and over 00 feet high to the true roof, under which there is a 

 lower ceiling, al>out 35 feet from the floor, made of wood in sunken 

 scjuare panels painted in bright colors. The ancestral tablet is kept 

 in a yellow roofed shrine mounted upon a dais, with a large carved 

 screen in the background, and in front stands a sacrificial table with 

 an mcense urn, a pair of pricket candlesticks, and a pair of flower 

 vases ranged in line upon it. Leaving this magnificent hall and pass- 

 ing through another court, planted like those preceding, with pines, 

 arbor-vita? trees, and oaks, one comes to the actual tomb. A subter- 

 lanean passage 40 j^ards long leads to the tumulus, the door of which 

 is closed by masonrv, but flights of steps east and west lead to the 

 top of the grave terrace. Here, in front of the mound and immedi- 

 ately above the coffin i)assage, is the tombstone, an immense upright 

 slab, mounted upon a tortoise, inscribed with the posthumous title, 

 '• Tomb of the Emi)eror Ch'eng Tsu Wen." The tumulus is more 

 than half a mile in circuit, and, though artificial, looks like a natural 

 hill, being planted with trees to the top, among which the large- 

 leafed oak {Quercus biin(/c(Uia), on which wild silkworms are fed, 

 is conspicuous. 



The usual paraphernalia of the shrine of an ancestral temple are 

 seen in plate vi, which is a A'iew of the interioi- of the Confucian 

 temple in the Kuo Tzfi Chien, the old national uni\ersity of Peking. 

 The ancestral tablet is seen dimly in the center of the picture en- 

 shrined in an alcove* Ix'tween two })illars. The tablet, 2 feet 5 inches 

 high and inches broad, mounted upon a pedestal -2 feet high, is in- 

 scril)ed in gold letters ui)on a lacquered vermilion groiuid in Manchu 

 and (!!hinese, "The tablet of the spirit of the most holy ancestral 

 teacher, Confucius." 'I'lie pillars are hung with laudatory couplets, 

 and the beams with dedicatory inscrijjtions, one of which is penciled by 

 each succeeding Emperor in token of his venei'ation for the sage. The 



