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The Circular Mound Altar (圜丘坛 yuán qiū tán) is an outdoor empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones, located in Beijing. It is part of the Temple of Heaven. It was constructed in 1530, during the 9th year of Emperor Jiajing's reign of the Ming Dynasty, and enlarged in 1749 (the 14th year of the Emperor Qianlong's reign of the Qing Dynasty). The round terrace was first covered with deep blue glazed slabs surrounded with a white marble balustrade when it was expanded. It has a circular perimeter of 534m and a height of 5.2m This altar was also built for religious purposes, especially for ceremonies to pray for rain by the emperor in times of drought. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368–1911 AD), the emperors would offer sacrifices to Heaven on the day of the Winter Solstice every year. Sacrificial animals and other offerings were burned here to ensure good harvests. A common animal slaughtered here was the bull, which the people would set on fire as a sacrifice of prosperity. This ceremony was to thank Heaven and pray that everything would be good in the future. ==Special features== Each wall represents something different. The round inner wall represents heaven while the square outer wall represents earth, according to Chinese beliefs and traditions. The three round white marble terraces that make up the altar represents communication with heaven. The Circular Mound Altar is special in the sense that the architecture of the place circulates around the number 9. To understand why the people of China back then chose the number 9, we must look at the concept Yin-Yang. In Yin-Yang, Yin represents the even numbers and Yang represents the odd numbers. 9, being the largest 1-digit odd number, is considered “extremely yang”. This number represents the Chinese Dragon, and the dragon represents the emperor. 9 is also said to symbolize, the “9 circles of heaven”. The number of pillars in each section is a multiple of 9. When we multiply this number by 4 to get the number of pillars for the whole circle, it would still be a multiple of 9. Also, the number of stone slates each wall is made of in the first terrace is 9. Each terrace has 9 slates. The top layer has 72 slates, the middle layer has 108 slates, and the bottom layer has 180 slates. All together there are 360 slates. This is similar to 360o, which is a circle and thus represents the circumference of heaven. In the centre of the upper terrace is the Heaven's Heart Stone which is surrounded by concentrically arranged flag-stones. There are 9 stones in the first circle, 18 in the second, 27 in the third. It continues in this manner up to the ninth circle, which has 81 stones. The middle and bottom terraces also have 9 circles each. The total number of the marble flagstones on the surface is 3,402. Each terrace has four entrances and a flight of nine steps leading down in every direction. These nine steps represent the nine layers of heaven and emphasize heaven’s extreme importance. The diameter of the altar is a total of 450 ft. This is linked to 九五之尊 as 45 = 9x5. The arrangement of putting number nine and five together is used exclusively in China by the ancient emperors as they represent imperial authority. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Circular Mound Altar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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