(UITNKSE AMCIiriKCrUUE. ()S.H 



6 miles long, 30 miles distant from Pokiiii;; to the uortli, and the 

 imperial tonihs are in se])arate walled inclosiiri's. dotting tin; slojx-s 

 of the wooded liills wliich skirl the valley. 



The avenue, with its row of colossal stone figures, has been noticed 

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

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

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

 order of the Manchn Emperors, offerings are still presented to the 

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

 ants selected for the purpose. The hall is momited upon a terrace, 

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

 cended bv three fliglits of 18 steps in front and behind, leading to three 

 portals with folding doors of tracery. It is TO 3^ards long by 30 deep, 

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

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

 base and over 00 feet high to the true roof, under which there is a 

 lower ceiling, about 35 feet from the floor, made of wood in sunken 

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

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

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

 an incense 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 joreceding, with pines, 

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

 ranean passage 40 yards long leads to the tumulus, the door of which 

 is closed by masonry, but flights of steps east and Avest lead to the 

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

 ately above the coffin passage, is the tombstone, an immense upright 

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

 '• Tomb of the Emperor Ch'eng Tsu AVen."' The tumulus is more 

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

 hill, Ixung planted Avith trees to the top, among which the large- 

 leafed oak {Qiu'.rciiH hiDtf/eana), on which wild silkworms are fed, 

 is conspicuous. 



The usiml ])araphernalia of the shrine of an ancestral temple are 

 seen in plate vr, Avhich is a view of the interior of the Confucian 

 temple in the Kuo Tzu Chien, the old national university of Peking. 

 'J'he ancestral tablet is seen dimly in the center of the picture en- 

 shrined in an alcove between two pillars. The tablet, 2 feet o inches 

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

 scribed in gold letters ui)on a huHjuerfd vermilion ground in Manchu 

 and ('hinese, "The tablet of the spirit of the nu)st holy ancestral 

 teacher, Confucius." 'J'he pillars are hung with laudatory couplets, 

 r.nd the beams with dedicatoi-y inscrii)tions,one of which is penciled by 

 each succeeding Emperor in token of his veneration for the sage. The 



