This ceremony is altogether the most imposing and most peculiar of Chinese
religious rites. The most imposing because the head of the empire, who is
the chief priest of its religion, does homage in the name of countless
millions. He typifies his people and his race, and as their representative
offers sacrifices.
It is the most peculiar because there is no idolatry of images here, no
wooden or earthen gods. The deity is Shangti, the Supreme Ruler. He is the
Lord of Heaven, the arbiter of nations. He is imperceptible to the senses.
He is not clothed in human form like the Zeus of the Greeks. The conception
of him is more ideal than that of the Jehovah of the Jews. This ideal has
never been incarnate like the Christ. While Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism
have millions of adherents, and their followers have created an endless
pantheon of divinities, Shangti stands alone in his supremacy above all the
waves of corruption.
[Page 288]
There glow
around him the rays of a primeval faith, and he symbolizes the Spirit of the
Universe.
The Temple of Heaven is located in the Chinese City, a short distance from
the Chién Mên, the chief gate of the Tartar City. It is a single tower
covered with azure tiles, representing heaven. It contacts no image.
The solemn rites are performed on a marble altar outside of the temple. On
this altar, once a year, a bullock is offerred as a burnt offerring.
Notices of this ceremonial, as of all others in which the emperor
participates, are regularly sent to the ministers, wherein they are
requested to notify their countrymen not to appear on any of the streets to
be traversed on these occasions. As Chinese are equally excluded the
ministers have raised no question over this request.
[Inclosure in No. 617.]
the emperqrin the temple of heaven.
On the 9th day of the first month (20th of February) the Emperor of China
went in person to the Temple of Heaven at Peking to pray for the harvest
this year with the usual ceremonies.
The day before His Majesty passed in the Hall of Abstinence in prayer,
fasting, and meditation.
On the 19th of February, at the fifth drum (the fifth watch before
daylight), the T’ai Ch’ang Sze (a high bureau intrusted with the
arrangement of such ceremonials) placed a yellow table (the imperial
color) in the Hall of Great Harmony, the T’ai hwo Tien. South of the
Emperor’s seat was placed an incense burner shaped like a small
pavilion, and in another similar erection, east of the left hand
pillars, stood a scroll on which a sentence of prayer was painted in the
choicest calligraphy. To the west of the right hand pillars of the
building, stood yet another pavilion to contain the mounted rolls of
silk which were painted with similar inscriptions. The Tsan Li Lang and
the Tub Cheeh Kwan (whom we might call “the Masters of Rites and Readers
of Prayers”) stood respectfully waiting outside the gate of the Hall of
Great Harmony, holding in front of them the silken scrolls baskets and
the incense in bronze censers.
The chief of the T’ai Ch’ang, the ceremonial bureau already mentioned,
called by Mr. Mayers the court of sacrificial worship, accompanied by
other officers of the bureau, were waiting inside the hall, and when the
time arrived he proceeded with the imperial astronomer to the gate of
pure heaven (a palace gate called the K’ien T’sing Mun), to announce to
the Emperor that it was two-quarters of the hour of the hare (i. e., 6.30 a.m.), and his majesty issued from
the above-named gate riding in a sedan chair, passed through the back
left gate, and thus to the hall of great harmony, where his sedan chair
was deposited at the northern steps and he entered the building and
stood in front of the left pillars, facing the west.
Four officials of the Han Lin Yüan (or Imperial Academy of Literature)
were standing outside the right-hand door of the building, facing east.
The readers of prayers now issued from the inner cabinet, holding in
front of them, respectfully elevated, prayers written on scrolls of
paper, and entered the middle gate of the hall of great harmony, and the
silken scrolls and incense were borne after them into the hall. In front
of them were borne a pair of incense-burners. The masters of rites, ten
in number, conducted them, preceding them, and mounted the central steps
as far as to the vermilion dais. The readers of prayers, those who bore
the prayer-scrolls, and the bearers of silken scrolls and incense having
entered the central gate of the hall, reverently laid down their burdens
one by one on the yellow table, and retired after three kowtows
(knocking head on ground, prostrations).
The chief of the court of sacrifice (T’ai Ch’ang) opened a prayer-scroll,
and the masters of rites spread a cushion on the ground. The Emperor
advanced in front of the yellow table and reverentially inspected the
objects lying on it, after which he performed the genuflection called
“once kneel and thrice kowtow and then took up his position again,
standing as before. The chief of the court of sacrifice rolled up the
prayer-scroll again and the cushion on which the Emperor had just knelt
was removed.
[Page 289]
The readers of prayers now advanced to the yellow table and made three
kowtows. They respectfully take from the table and bear aloft the
prayer-scrolls, the silken scrolls, and the incense, which they deposit
one by one in the graceful pavillion-like stands meant to receive them.
With three more kowtows they retire.
The mandarin in charge of the incense how carries a box full of incense
to the incense-stand, places it gently there, and withdraws.
The bearers of the prayer-scrolls now leave the edifice by the central
door, the stand containing the incense precedes them, and that which
contains the silken scrolls follows behind. The chief of the court of
sacrifice, kneeling, informs the Emperor that this part of the solemn
rite is over.
His Majesty mounts his sedan chair again and returns to the palace.
The clock strikes 9 a.m., and the Emperor, in dragon robe and cap of
ermine surrounded by a knob of crimson velvet, issues from the palace
gate, called the pure heaven gate, seated in a “summer chair” borne by
eight men. Passing successively through the back left gate, the center
left gate, and the gate of great harmony, he arrives at the mid-day
gate, where he descends from his sedan chair and ascends his great jade
palanquin, borne on the shoulders of thirty-two men. As he mounts, the
equerries in waiting hold a vermilion ladder or flight of steps leading
up to the palanquin to assist him in getting in. All the bearers are
dressed in outer robes of red silk and inner robes of ash-colored linen.
On their feet were fast-walking boots of the same gray material, with
thin soles, the upper part round the ankles being of black fur. They
wore caps of leopard skins, dappled as if with coins of gold, with red
velvet plumes, kept in position by gold filigree plates, from which
floated yellow feathers down their backs. The palanquin is 8 feet high
and weighs 3,000 catties (about 1 ton 16 hundred-weight), but the
bearers walked swiftly, under its weight, like lightning flashes or the
shooting stars rush across the sky, and at every étepe of one mu and three-tenths they
were relieved by a fresh set of thirty-two men.
When the Emperor ascended the great jade palanquin, the sedan with its
eight bearers still followed him. Beside the palanquin walked two of the
chief equerries to support it.
Ahead of this stately procession rolled the five gigantic cars ordinarily
drawn by elephants, which animals were this year absent from the fete by the permission of the Emperor, to whom
the danger of their suddenly getting ungovernable was pointed out.
Looking now behind the imperial palauquin, we see marching the ten men
armed with spears hung with leopard’s tails, the ten men with swords,
and the dozen men carrying bows and arrows, all representatives of the
Tartar corps of the paitanga bodyguard.
Just behind came, walking, about a hundred of the highest Manchu
nobility, princes, bei-lehs (emirs), bei-tszes (sons of bei-lehs),
dukes, marquises, and earls, assistant chamberlains (who command in turn
the palace guard), general officers of the brigade of imperial guards,
the comptroller of the household, and the prince of the imperial blood,
who, as president of the clan court, preserves the genealogical record
or family roll of the Ta Tsing dynasty, all armed either with bows and
arrows or with large swords. As soon as this noble company arrive
outside of the middle gate, they all mount their charges, before that
having been obliged to walk on foot. The rear is brought up by two
assistant chamberlains, with their suite, bearing two immense yellow
dragon standards.
Outside the mid-day gate are kneeling a great number of civil and
military mandarins in court dresses, who may not accompany the
procession, being not of sufficiently high rank, and so pay their
respects to it thus as it defiles past.
The stone road to the temple of heaven, which is about 8 li long (2½ to 3 miles), although not yet mended
with stones, as intended, looked neat with all its inequalities hidden
in a uniform covering of yellow soil. At the mouth of every road or
street, whether within the wall of Peking or outside of if, which ran
into the route of the procession at right angles to its course, were mat
sheds, draped outside with blue cloth, serving as tents for Chinese
infantry (“green standard”), who mounted guard at each corner, armed
with whips to keep order and silence amongst the people in these
streets. At every five paces of the road along which the procession
passed stood a guardsman of the van-guard, in full uniform, sword by his
side and whip in hand. The gates and doors of every house and shop were
closed, and red silk decorations hung in festoons in front of them; all
along the route and in front of every sentry station were displayed bows
and arrows, swords and spears, arranged in symmetrical order, with
decorative lanterns and satin hangings. The Emperor, having arrived at
the left gate of the brick wall of the temple, exchanged his great jade
palanquin for a sedan chair with eight bearers only, and on entering the
west side of the sacred path inside the left gate of prayers for the
year descended, and on foot walked up to the chamber of imperial heaven
and held a stick of incense burning in his hand in the prescribed
manner, after which he inspected the victims (oxen, etc) laid out
[Page 290]
there, the sacrificial vessels
of bamboo and wood, and, returning to the west side of the sacred road,
got into his sedan chair again, went out at the gate of prayers for the
year, and repaired to the hall of abstinence, to the immeasurable
chamber, to pass a season in holy contemplation.
(The guards inside and outside the temple are here described. The duty of
patrolling the temple of heaven, etc., devolves upon the princes of the
blood on these occasions.)
The Emperor, in the immeasurable chamber of his hall of abstinence, at 4
o’clock in the morning commanded supper, which was duly served by the
gentlemen in waiting, and then the bronze statue bearing on its head the
inscription “Abstinence” was set up fronting his majesty as he sat.
The K’eh-k’in prince (one of those descended from grandsons of T’ai Tsu
and T’ai Tsung, chiefs of the Manchu dynasty before their conquest of
China), accompanied by the Emperor’s aide-de-camp, the chief of the
eunuchs, and other officers, kept patrol outside the apartment.
The chief of the court of sacrifice already mentioned had arranged a
prayer mat on the ground outside the chambers of prayers for the year,
and had set up the tablet of Shang Ti (the supreme god) in the interior
of the chamber, facing south, with on its right and left the tablets of
the Emperor’s ancestors facing east and west respectively. A great
curtain had been hung up outside the door of the chamber.
The Emperor, in his sacrificial vestments embroidered with the golden
dragon, a court barrette of white ermine on his
head, surmounted with an immense pearl set in a gold ornament
representing nine dragons, and a necklace of one hundred and eight
precious pearls round his neck, issued from the hall of abstinence at
the appointed hour, riding in a summer sedan chair borne by eight men,
entered the temple, and reached the left gate of prayers for the year
through the west gate of the brick wall of the temple. Here, alighting,
he walked into the chamber of prayers for the year, and adored Shang Ti
of imperial heaven and his own august ancestors. The animal victims and
the sacrificial vessels of various sorts were here already laid out in
the prescribed order.
The reader of prayers knelt in front of His Majesty, holding up the
prayer scroll in both hands, and reverentially recited the prayer. As it
was still dark inside the building, another official of the court of
sacrifice knelt beside him, with a candle to throw a clear light on the
written words of the prayer. When the prayer had been read the Emperor
made three kneelings and nine kowtows, and rose again to his feet. The
incense-bearer brought the incense, the wine-cup bearer brought the cup,
the silk-bearer the silk; and the official with the cushion spread it
out on the floor. The master of ceremonies ushered His Majesty to his
place. The Emperor knelt thrice and kowtowed nine times, and when he
rose again the musicians played three antique airs.
The paper sycee and the offerings of food from the carcasses of the
animal victims were held up and presented as prescribed by ancient
forms. Officers of the board of ceremonies (Li Pu), of the court of
sacrificial worship, and of the court of imperial entertainments (or
banqueting court), holding respectfully in both hands the paper scroll,
the silken prayer scrolls, and the incense case, advanced to the great
incense-burner and solemnly burned all these objects to ashes. The chief
of the court of sacrificial worship knelt and announced to the Emperor
that the ceremony was finished.
His Majesty, ascending the summer sedan chair, returned to his chamber in
the hall of abstinence, to change his attire and have some repose. Then
getting into his palanquin again he was carried through the inner and
outer gates of the temple, the State musicians performing an ancient
melody. The cortege, in the same order as before, passed through the
Cheng Yang gate, and the Emperor burned incense in the Buddhist temple
and the temple of Kwan Ti, the god of war. Taoist priests in full attire
knelt to receive him at the left of the entrance. When this ceremony was
finished the Emperor passed through the Ta Tsing gate, the music ceasing
as the bell tolled out from over the Mid-day gate. Passing through the
T’ien Ngan gate, the Tuan gate, the Mid-day gate and the T’ai Hwo gates,
and the K’ien T’sing gate, he returned to his palace in Peking and the
procession dispersed.
The Emperor entered the palace, paid his respects to the aged Empress,
and went to his cabinet.
The knowledge that our Emperor thus worships the gods and reveres his
ancestors so devoutly, and prays for the people so that they may be fed
and clothed, well protected, and happy all over the land, must surely
fill us with loyalty and admiration of his august person.
(Abridged from the Shên Pao.)
