Temple of Agriculture () or Altar of Agriculture is a historic site in Xuanwu District of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, and located near the

Temple of Heaven The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for a ...

History

The Temple of Agriculture was built in the 15th century. It was used by

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han pe ...

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-speak ...

emperors to perform sacrifices to Xiannong ( 先农), the mythical Emperor Yandi (c. 2900 BC-2800 BC), who is said to have invented the plow, discovered the medicinal uses of plants, and created the first marketplaces. The temple's Jufu Hall was included in the

1998 World Monuments Watch The World Monuments Watch is a flagship advocacy program of the New York-based private non-profit organization World Monuments Fund (WMF) and American Express to call to action and challenge government authorities responsible for important cultura ...

by the

World Monuments Fund World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and trainin ...

(WMF) when it was in danger of collapse, and again in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

along with the rest of the temple. In 1998, American Express provided funding through WMF for the restoration of the structure.Elaine Louie, New York Times, "Saving Endangered Art and Architecture," June 25, 1998.
/ref> Other structures on the site were subsequently restored, and the work included stabilization, wood treatment, repair and conservation of the tiles, and consolidation and preservation of the painted decoration. Today, the site has the status of Major Site Protected at the National Level of China.

In artwork

References

External links

Erling Ho, ICON Magazine, "Rites of Spring: Beijing’s Xiannontang, an imperial altar complex honoring the gods of agriculture, gets a long-overdue facelift," Spring 2004, p. 28-33.Altar of Agriculture (Xiannong tan)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple Of Agriculture Religious buildings and structures in Beijing Tourist attractions in Beijing Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Beijing