682 CHINESE ARCIIITECTUKE. 



rolls of silk arc burned in eight openwork iron urns, stretching from 

 the furnaee round to the eastward; an urn is added when an Em- 

 peror dies. The praj^ers written upon silk are also burned in these 

 urns after they have been formally presented in worship before the 

 tablets. 



To the north of the great altar, which is oi^en to the sky, there is a 

 second three-tiered marble altar conceived in similar lines, but some- 

 what smaller, called tlie " Ch'i Ku T'an," or " altar of prayer for 

 grain." This is dominated by the imposing triple-roofed temple 

 presented in plate v, which is covered with tiles of deep cobalt blue 

 shining in the sunlight so as to nudve it the most conspicuous object 

 in the city. The name of this edifice, as set forth on the framed 

 plaque fixed under the eaves of the upper roof, in Manchu and Chi- 

 nese script, is Ch'i Nien Tien (temple of prayer for the year). The 

 Emperor goes there early each j^ear in spring to make offerings for 

 a propitious year. It is 99 feet high, the upper roof supported by 

 four stately j^illars, the lower roofs by two circles of 12 pillars, all 

 straight trunks of nam-mu trees recently brought up from the south- 

 west, when the temple had to be rebuilt after its destruction by fire. 

 Originally founded by the Emperor Ch'ien Lung, it was rebuilt dur- 

 ing the present reign in every detail after the old plan. During the 

 ceremonies inside everything is blue; the sacrificial utensils are of 

 blue porcelain, the worshippers are robed in blue brocades, even the 

 atmosphere is blue, Venetians made of thin rods of blue glass, strung- 

 together by cords, being hung down over the tracery of the doors and 

 windows. Color symbolism is an important feature of Chinese 

 rites; at the temple of earth all is yellow; at the temple of the sun, 

 red; at the temple of the moon, white, or rather the pale grayish 

 blue which is known as " yueh pai," or moonlight white, pure white 

 being reserved for mourning. The altar of the earth, Ti T'an, is on 

 the north of the city, outside the city wall, and is square in form; 

 the oiferings are buried in the ground instead of being burned. The 

 temples of the sun and moon are on the east and west and ai-e also 

 outside the city wall of Peking; the princes of the l)lood are usually 

 dejiuted by the Emperor to officiate at these. 



A good illustration of the t'ing, which is so characteristic of Chinese 

 architecture, has Ixhmi given in plate i, from a photograph of the large 

 sacrificial hall of the Emperor Yung Lo. The tombs of the Ming 

 dynasty, called colloquially " 8hih-san Ling," ''Tombs of the Thir- 

 teen (Emi)erors)," are. as the name indicates, the last resting i)laces 

 of thirteen of the Ming P'.mperors. The first was buried at Nanking, 

 his capital : Ihc last near a Buddhist temple on a hill west of Peking, 

 by command of the Manchu rulers when they obtained the Empire. 

 The Emperor Yung Lo (U0;'>-1424), who made Peking his cajiital, 

 choose this beautiful valley foi- (he mausoleum of his houses It is 



