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One of the grandest and most interesting sights of Peking is the Temple of Heaven, which is within the southern city, surrounded by stately cypress trees in the midst of a walled park over three miles in circumference. Heaven is not worshipped alone; the ancestral tablets of four of the imperial forefathers are always associated with the tablet of Shang Ti, the supreme deity, followed by those of the sun, moon, planets, and starry constellations, while the spirits of the atmosphere, winds, clouds, rain and thunder are arranged in subordinate rank below. Heaven is distinguished by the offering of blue jade pi, a foot in diameter, round and with a square hole in the middle, like the ancient mace-head symbols of sovereignty, and by sacrificing a whole bullock as a burnt offering.

The jade and silk are also burnt: twelve rolls of plain white silk and hempen cloth are sacrificed for Heaven, one for each of the other spirits, and the banquet piled on the altar in dishes of blue porcelain is proportionately lavish.

The Great Temple of Heaven, T’ien T’an, is the most sacred of all Chinese religious structures. It consists of three circular terraces with marble balustrades and triple staircases at the four cardinal points to ascend to the upper terrace, which is 30 m wide, the base being 80 m across. The platform is laid with marble stones in nine concentric circles and everything is arranged in multiples of the number nine. The emperor, prostrate before heaven on the altar, surrounded first by the circles of the terraces and their railings, and then by the horizon, seems to be in the centre of the universe, as he acknowledges himself inferior to heaven, and to heaven alone. Around him on the pavement are figured the nine circles of as many heavens, widening in successive multiples until the square of nine, the favourite number of numerical philosophy, is reached in the outer circle of eighty-one stones. The great annual sacrifice on the altar is at dawn on the winter solstice, the emperor having proceeded in state in a carriage drawn by an elephant the day before, and spent the night in the hall of fasting called Chai Kung, after first inspecting the offerings. The sacred tablets are kept, during the remainder of the year, in the building with a round roof of blue-enamelled tiles behind the altar which is seen on the right of the picture. The furnace for the whole burnt offering stands on the southeast of the altar, at the distance of an arrow flight; it is faced with green tiles, and is 2.75 m high, ascended by three flights of green steps. The bullock is placed inside upon an iron grating, under which the fire is kindled. The rolls of silk are burned in eight open-work urns, stretching from the furnace eastward; an urn is added when an emperor dies. The prayers written upon silk are also burned in these urns after they have been formally presented in worship before the tablets.

To the north of the great altar, which is open to the sky, there is a second three-tiered marble altar conceived in similar lines, but somewhat smaller, called the Ch’i Ku T’an, or “altar of prayer for grain.” This is dominated by the imposing triple-roofed temple which is covered with tiles of deep cobalt blue shining in the sunlight so as to make it the most conspicuous object in the city. The name of this edifice, as set forth on the framed plaque fixed under the eaves of the upper roof, in Manchu and Chinese script, is Ch’i Nien Tien, “temple of prayer for the year.”

The emperor goes there early each year in spring to make offerings for a propitious year. It is thirty meters high, the upper roof supported by four stately pillars, the lower roofs by two circles of twelve pillars, all straight trunks of nanmu trees brought up from the south-west.

Imperial Vault of Heaven (Huang Qiong Yu) Here the tablets of the Emperor’s ancestors were kept, 1530. Peking.

The Putuozongcheng Miao, Chengde, c. 1771. Chengde (Rehe), China.

Originally founded by the emperor Ch’ien Lung, it was rebuilt in every detail after the old plan. During the ceremonies inside everything is blue; the sacrificial utensils are of blue porcelain, the worshippers are robed in blue brocades, even the atmosphere is blue. Venetians made of thin rods of blue glass, strung together by cords, being hung down over the tracery of the doors and windows. Colour symbolism is an important feature of Chinese rites. At the temple of earth, all is yellow; at the temple of the sun, red; at the temple of the moon, white, or rather the pale greyish blue which is known as yueh pai, or moonlight white, pure white being reserved for mourning.

The altar of the earth, Ti T’an, is on the north of the city outside the city wall, and is square in form; the offerings are buried in the ground instead of being burned. The temples of the sun and moon are on the east and west and are also outside the city wall of Peking; the princes of the blood are usually deputed by the emperor to officiate at these.

The Yonghe Temple also known as the “Lama Temple” is a temple and monastery of Tibetan Buddhism located in Peking. It is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and artworks of the temple combine Han Chinese and Tibetan styles. Building work on the Yonghe Temple started in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty. After Yongzheng’s ascension to the throne in 1722, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism. The other half remained an imperial palace. After Yongzheng’s death in 1735, it was donated for use as a lamasery. As a result of the ancient architecture, every element of the temple is entirely symmetrical, with main halls on a north-south axis and wing halls on both sides. Along the axis, there are five main halls which are separated by courtyards: one of them is the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses (Wanfuge).

Altar of Heaven (Yuan Qiutan), Temple of Heaven, 1530.

Temple of Heaven, Peking.

Hall of Prayers for an Abundant Harvest. (Qi Nian Dian), 1420. Peking.

Lama Temple (Yonghe Lamaserie), 1694. Peking.

The general plan of a Buddhist temple resembles that of a secular residence, consisting of a series of rectangular courts, proceeding from south to north, with the principal edifice in the centre and the lesser buildings at the sides. A pair of carved stone lions guard the entrance, flanked by lofty twin columns of wood which are mounted with banners and lanterns on high days and holidays. The gateway is large and roofed to form a vestibule, in which are ranged, on either side, gigantic figures of the four great kings of the devas, Ssu ta t’ien wang, guarding the four quarters. In the middle are generally enshrined small effigies of Maitreya, the Buddhist Messiah, conceived as an obese Chinaman with protuberant belly and smiling features, and of Kuan Ti, the State god of war, a deified warrior, represented as a mailed figure in the costume of the Han period, seated in a chair.

Passing through the vestibule one sees on either side of the first court a pair of square pavilions containing a bronze bell and a huge wooden drum, and in front the main hall of the temple, called Ta hsiung pao tien, the Jewelled Palace of the Great Hero, that is to say, of Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha. He is always the central figure of an imposing triad enthroned upon lotus pedestals inside; the two others are usually Ananda and Kasyapa, his two favourite disciples. Along the side walls are ranged life-size figures of the eighteen Arhats (Lohan) with their varied attributes, disciples who have attained the stage of emancipation from rebirth.

Behind the principal court there is often another secluded courtyard sacred to Kuan Yin, the “goddess of mercy,” where Chinese ladies throng to offer petitions and make votive offerings. Avalokitesvara (Kuan Yin) is installed here in the central hall, often supported by two other Bodhisattvas, Manjusri (Wên-chu), the “god of wisdom,” and Samantabhadra (Pu-hsien), the “all-good.” The surrounding walls are usually studded with innumerable small figures of celestial bodhisats, tier upon tier, moulded in gilded bronze or clay and posed in niches. The wing buildings in this court are devoted to the deceased inmates of the monastery and contain portraits and relics of bygone abbots and monks. The side cloisters are two-storied in the large temples, the treasures of the monastery being stored above, as well as libraries, blocks for printing books, and the like.

An outer wall encircles the whole, also inclosing besides a stretch of the hill slope, which affords ample space for the separate accommodation of the higher dignitaries of the establishment, for kitchens and stables, store-houses of fruit and grain, open pavilions for sipping tea and enjoying the view, and secluded quarters in terraced villas for the residence of occasional visitors.

Bronze temple. Summer Palace, 17th c. – 18th c. Summer Palace, Peking.

The difference between Lamaism and the ordinary form of Chinese Buddhism is shown most strongly by their discordant conceptions of Maitreya, the coming Buddha. His Chinese statuette, under the name of Milo Fo, is placed in the vestibule of a temple, and he is also worshipped in many private houses and shops, so he is almost as popular a divinity among men as Kuan Yin, the so-called “goddess of mercy,” is among Chinese women. In Japan, Hotei, the merry monk with a hempen bag, is claimed by some to be an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, and is there endowed with traits in the spirit of playful reverence which characterises the Japanese artist.

The Lama conception of Maitreya, on the contrary, is that of a dignified and colossal figure robed as a prince with the jewelled coronet of a bodhisattva, in a ring above the other crests of the roofs of a lamasery, or occasionally carved on the face of a cliff. There is a gigantic image of Maitreya in the Temple of Yonghe, at Peking, made of wood, over twenty-six meters high, the body of which passes through several successive storeys of the lofty building in which it is installed. The devout votary must climb a number of winding staircases to circumambulate the sacred effigy in the orthodox way, until he finally reaches the immense head. Yung Ho Kung was the residence of the Emperor Yung Cheng before he came to the throne, and it was dedicated to the Lama church, in accordance with the usual custom, when he succeeded in 1722. When the Emperor visits the temple a lamp is lit over the head of Maitreya, and a huge praying wheel on the left, which reaches upwards as high as the image, is set in motion on the occasion. The resident lamas, mostly Mongols, number some 1,500, under the rule of a Gegen, or living Buddha, of Tibetan birth, who rejoices in the title of Changcha-Hutuktu Lalitavajra.

Lamaism may be said to rank as the State church of the reigning Manchu dynasty. No other Buddhist temples are permitted to be built inside the walls of the imperial city, and bands of Lama priests are admitted into the palace on various occasions, when evil spirits have to be exorcised, or when music is required at imperial funerals.

The Lama temple was built by the Emperor K’ang Hsi, in the vicinity of the summer residence at Jehol, outside the Great Wall of China.

The temple is built in the style of the famous palace-temple of Potala at Lhasa, the residence of the Dalai Lama. Built in 1771 Putuo Zongcheng Temple in Chengde, imitating the style of the Potala Palace, the temple is also named Little Potala Palace. This temple was built for celebrating the emperor Qianlong’s birthday. But the resemblance is only superficial; deceptive as it may be when seen at a distance from one of the pavilions in the imperial park, on closer inspection the apparently storied walls prove to be a mere shell, with doors and windows all unperforated. The temple buildings erected upon the hill behind, the double roofs of which appear above the walls in the picture, are really planned in the conventional lines of the t’ing and finished after the ordinary canons of Chinese architecture.

The Flower Pagoda at the Liu Rong (‘Six Banyan Trees’), 1097.

Guangzhou, Guangdong (Kwangtung).

The Temple of the Six Banyan Trees is an ancient Buddhist temple built in Guangzhou in 537. It was originally called the Baozhuangyan Temple, but today it carries the name given by the great writer Su Dongpo in the Sung Dynasty (960–1279). It is said that he visited the temple while returning to the north. During his visit, he found six particularly striking banyan trees there. The temple burned down and was rebuilt in the Northern Sung Dynasty. Flower Pagoda, the main structure of the temple, was built in 1097 and named for its colorful exterior. It was rebuilt again 1373 A. D. after another fire and restored in 1900.

A bronze temple stands on the southern slope of the hill of Wan Shou Shan, standing 7.55 meters tall and weighing more than 200,000 kilograms. Every adornement was executed with the lost wax method. Inside is a list of the craftsmen who took part in its construction. Every detail of the temple is executed in bronze, the pillars, beams, tiles, tracery of doors and windows, and all ornamental appendages having been previously moulded in metal. This is one of the few buildings which defied the fire in 1860. It stands on a marble foundation with carved railings and steps. The miniature stupa, or dagaba, which crowns the crest of the roof, is an attribute of a Buddhist building, and this one, in fact, is intended to be a shrine for the historical Buddha, as it contains a gilded image of Sakyamuni enthroned on a lotus calyx, with the usual set of utensils for burning incense.