Huangqian Hall

The Huangqian Hall is a hall specifically dedicated to the regular enshrinement of the spirit plaques of the "Heavenly God" and the successive emperors of the imperial lineage.

Exiting the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, on the north side of the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests, stands a large five-bay hall called the Huangqian Hall. Constructed during the Yongle era, it was known as the Tianku (Heaven Treasury) during the Temple of Heaven and Earth period and was specifically used to store the spirit plaques for the worship of heaven and earth. The plaque hanging under the eaves inscribed with “Huangqian Hall” was personally written by Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty.

　　The Huangqian Hall, also called the Sleeping Palace of the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests, is located north of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and is the place where the spirit tablet of the Heavenly God is stored. It was built in the 18th year of the Ming Yongle reign (1420), originally named Tianku, and was initially a six-bay hall with yellow glazed tile roofing; later, only the Huangqian Hall and the Imperial Vault of Heaven enshrined the spirit tablets of the first eight Qing emperors. After the Daoguang Emperor, due to his perceived incompetence, his tablet was no longer included.

　　In the 24th year of the Jiajing reign (1545), it was rebuilt into a five-bay structure and renamed Huangqian Hall. During the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, the roof tiles were changed to blue. It currently has five bays and sits on a platform surrounded by a Han white marble balustrade.

　　Another important structure of the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests is the Huangqian Hall, which is situated within a rectangular courtyard enclosed by the Prayer Wall, connected by a glazed gate. It is a hip-and-gable roofed hall covered with blue glazed tiles, resting on a platform with Han white marble railings. It is specially used for the regular enshrinement of the spirit plaques of the "Heavenly God" and the successive emperors of the imperial lineage. The spirit plaques are placed in shrine-like housings resembling small houses. On the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month, the relevant ritual management office dispatches personnel to clean the area and offer incense. One day before the sacrificial ceremony, the emperor comes here to offer incense and perform rituals. Then, the Minister of Rites offers incense and performs the three kneelings and nine kowtows. The Minister of Rites then has the spirit plaques respectfully transferred into a dragon pavilion and placed at their corresponding positions inside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests to be worshipped.

　　To the east of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, outside the eastern inner wall gate, there is a 72-bay corridor, which is an auxiliary structure of the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests. It is a single-roofed, connected warm room with north-facing brick walls and large windows on the south side, commonly referred to as the "Seventy-two Connected Rooms." Near the middle-north part of the long corridor, there are five “Spirit Warehouses” that store ritual items. West of the Spirit Warehouses is the “Divine Kitchen,” where offerings and pastries are prepared during the heaven worship ceremonies.

　　During the Ming and Qing dynasties, heaven worship ceremonies were conducted before sunrise. Therefore, the offerings had to be transported at night. Inside the Seventy-two Connected Rooms, there were ancient-style wooden floor lamps about 1.5 meters high, with hexagonal lotus-shaped wooden trays holding red candles covered with yellow paper lampshades, known as “piercing lamps.” The flickering lights created a dim and eerie atmosphere, giving a spooky impression. To align with the claim that the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests has thirty-six celestial stems, Taoist priests claimed that these seventy-two rooms were the gathering place of the seventy-two earthly branches.

　　The Temple of Heaven has two sets of walls, forming an inner and outer enclosure, both of which are round in the north and square in the south. Originally, this design was intended to represent the concept of “the round heaven and the square earth.” The outer enclosure wall had no gates on the southeast and north sides but had two gates on the west side facing Yongdingmen Inner Street: the northern gate is the original Ming Dynasty “Gate of the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests,” and the southern gate was added in the 17th year of the Qianlong reign (1752), called the “Gate of the Circular Mound Altar.” Both gates are three-bay arched structures with green glazed tile hip-and-gable roofs. The current north and east gates of the outer enclosure were added after 1975. There is also an east-west partition wall in the center of the inner enclosure, considered the northern wall of the Circular Mound Altar. This section of the wall bulges northward in an arc at the central axis, bypassing the outer wall of the Imperial Vault of Heaven and connecting with the east-west inner enclosure walls, thereby dividing the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests and the Circular Mound Altar into two distinct areas.

　　The Circular Mound Altar is located to the south of the inner enclosure, and the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests to the north, both lying along the central north-south axis. They are connected as a whole by a 360-meter-long and 30-meter-wide Sacred Way (Danbi Bridge). Major structures within the Circular Mound Altar include the Circular Mound Platform (Heaven Worship Platform), the Imperial Vault of Heaven (Spirit Shrine), the Spirit Warehouses, the Divine Kitchen, and the Animal Slaughtering Pavilion. Major structures within the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests include the Gate of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Great Sacrificial Hall (Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests), the east and west side halls, the Huangqian Hall, the corridor (with the Seven-Star Stones), the Spirit Warehouses, the Divine Kitchen, and the Animal Slaughtering Pavilion.