Page:Peking the Beautiful.pdf/66

 The Temple of Heaven

the remotest ages religion has supplied the dominant motive in all that is sublime and beautiful in architecture, China has proved herself no exception to this rule, for in the magnificent temple dedicated to the worship of Heaven we find one of the most inspiringly beautiful sanctuaries to be found anywhere in the world OBUOL Notu to-day-a most fitting shrine wherein the Son of Heaven might worship his Sovereign Lord, the Ruler of the Universe. It was the mighty Yung Lê, the second of the Mings--one of the greatest builders the world has ever known-who conceived and erected the three wonderful structures known as the Temple of Heaven la the year 1420 the walls of these sacred buildings, second only to the Imperial palaces in splendor, went up by order of the emperor. It is true that for thousands of years the Chinese monarchs had built their shrines and erected altars to the Invisible One, and even the plan of a temple of Heaven had been handed down from time immemorial; yet to Yung là we owe in a large measure the grand conception and wonderful execution of these shrines dedicated to the Supreme Lord of Sublime Heaven. "He did not let the ancient tradition suffer any loss of sincerity, any weakening of its pristine vigor. On the contrary, his powerful personality added to them a certain massive strength of his own," A. E. Grantham, in his work on this interesting subject says: "The general plan on which a temple of Heaven should be built, had been fixed hundreds of years before by canons, and was not only too venerable to be departed from, but too carefully thought out from the first to need any alteration ... The hidden energies of the Universe entered into its planning. Thus blue had to be the prevailing color, round the dominating shape, because of their correspondence with the visible sky. The location had to be in the eastern portion of the southern suburb, because from the East light originates, and creation and the South was associated with warmth and the rich growth of summer, all representing the heavenly principle 'Yang.' In such matters precedents set at the very beginning of the Chou dynasty (1125-22 B.C.) if no earlier, had to be followed." The chief glory of the Temple of Heaven, however, lies not in the size of its buildings, nor in the richness of its ornamentation. No architectural problems are attempted or solved. It is the vastness of its lines, the spaciousness of its courts, that captivates the imagination and holds the soul uplifted before the throne of Him who, "duelling in the measureless realms of the eternal," looks down in mercy upon His earthly children, Our photograph shows the lofty shrine known as the" Temple of the Happy Year" surmounting its three-tiered marble terrace. This is the most conspicuous of the thres great shrines to Heaven. For further descriptions, see paqes 72, 78, 88, 110, 120, and 246.