Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. IV.pdf/54

 There are other altars devoted to the worship of Shanti, the Supreme Lord of Heaven and Earth. To one of these, which I visited in Foo-chow-foo, the local representatives of the Emperor annually repair to pray for rain. The altar in this instance conveys to my mind the most correct impression of what the Altar of Heaven really was in its most primitive form. Le Comte tells us of a certain Emperor who offered sacrifice to God on the summit of a mountain; and here in Foochow we find a simple stone altar on the top of a hill in the city. This will explain the meaning of Nan-tan, or Southern Mount, the old Chinese name by which the southern altar of Peking is known. It is, indeed, nothing more than an artificial mound raised above the level plain upon which the city stands. A theory has been advanced that this altar may have been originally a burial mound, but I believe I am right in saying that there is no classical evidence to support the hypothesis. These old Chinese altars were in early times erected on mounds or mountains, just as Servius tells us the ancients set up altars intended for the celestial and superior divinities on substructures or mounds, and, as in the patriarchal times, altars were consecrated to God on mountain tops.