The Imperial Ancestral Temple, or Taimiao () of Beijing, is a historic site in the Imperial City, just outside the Forbidden City, where during both the Ming and

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

Dynasties, sacrificial ceremonies were held on the most important festival occasions in honor of the imperial family's ancestors.The Imperial Ancestral Temple
/ref> The temple, which resembles the Forbidden City's ground plan, is a cluster of buildings in three large courtyards separated by walls. The main hall inside the temple is the Hall for Worship of Ancestors, which is one of only four buildings in Beijing to stand on a three-tiered platform, a hint that it was the most sacred site in imperial Beijing. It contains seats and beds for the tablets of emperors and empresses, as well as incense burners and offerings. On the occasion of large-scale ceremonies for worship of ancestors, the emperors would come here to participate. Flanking the courtyard in front of this hall are two long, narrow buildings. These were worship halls for various princes and courtiers. The Western Wing housed the spirit tablets of meritorious courtiers, while the Eastern Wing enshrined various princes of the Ming or Qing dynasty. Behind the Hall for Worship of Ancestors are two other main halls. The first was built in 1420 and used to store imperial spirit tablets. By the 1920s, the Imperial Ancestral Temple and its surrounding spaces had become a public park, and that public park today has been expanded from its original size and is now also known as the Working People's Cultural Palace ( 劳动人民文化宫; pinyin: Láodòng Rénmín Wénhuà Gōng). This park was extended based on the Imperial Ancestral Hall site, and the park is located east of Tiananmen, while the Zhongshan Park lies to the west. These two parks along with

Beihai Park Beihai Park () is a public park and former imperial garden located in the northwestern part of the Imperial City, Beijing. First built in the 11th century, it is among the largest of all Chinese gardens and contains numerous historicall ...

and Jingshan and several other parks have a deep historic tie with the Forbidden City.

Images

File:The Halberd Gate at the Imperial Ancestral Temple.JPG, The Halberd Gate File:Ancestral Shrine at the Imperial Ancestral Temple.JPG, The Ancestral Shrine (a.k.a. Back Hall) File:Name plaque at the Imperial Ancestral Temple.JPG, Name plaque. The left column is in Chinese, the right column in

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

References

External links

Official siteEncyclopædia Britannica
Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Beijing Religious buildings and structures in Beijing Ancestral shrines in China Jongmyo shrines {{Old Beijing

Images

See also

References

External links