Great Falls tribune., 1889-10-12
pEktN'S GREAT TEMPLE.
BEAUTY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
TEMPLE RECENTLY BURNED.
China Has Two Great Branches of the
HIongOlinn Race and Several ReligioDs,
bnt Is Striving for Homogcneity and
Tnleration-Descripti of Pekin.

s5N4H If31l lkY1|eli n a destroyed Dy lire,
.4l .sH ttI|1l t1t4Hl M MI liz ~ and under cir
3tIs9EB I 80 u m 8 a n C ces
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'''''--~ -" nese seem omi-
nous. Ever since the Europeans COM
PEELED an entrance into China varl-
Gus calamities have tended to break
down Chinese pride and destroy Chinese
exclusiveness, and now the old temple, in
which successive emperors on each 22d
Of December offered the annual prayers,
and where they held special services on
occasions Of food, famine and pestilence,
has been destroyed soon after the religl-
GUS services relating to the late flood.
This was the great popular temple of
Pekin. 1t stood outside of the imperial
reserve, known as the forbidden City,"
and in it prayers were offered for the
people US whole, for health, good har-
vest ana prosperity, while other temples
were to some extent limited to races,
classes or special objects. The "Femple
Of Heaven" with its attached buildings,
occupied SO large an extent Of ground
that it's dimensions cannot be stated with
exactness, but the place Of interest was
the great court in which was an altar
with triple circular marble terrace, 21O
feet wide at the base, 150 in the middle
and 80 at the top. On the level summit
the marble pavement was laid in nine
concentric circles inclosing a central cir
cular stone highly polished. Onthis the
emperor knelt to offer prayers for the
people and the general ceremonies were
most solemn and affecting.
In another section of the vast temple
stood the altar of prayers for good har-
vests; around it was splendidly finished
circular wall, and ninety feet above be-
gan the celebrated roof, which extended
up and over the room; above it was a
smaller room and roof, and above that a
smaller still. The intervals between were
well arranged for lighting the great
room, and the tiles forming the roof
were of most exquisitely glazed blue
porcelain, the effect being to give an air
of depth, distance and intensity, SO to
speak. The light thus freely admitted
and reflected back from the blue glazed
dome shone upon a shrine Of delicate fin
ish and splendid materials shrine OF
Sang.ti, the "deity Of beneficence."
To understand the significance Of these
facts to the Chinese mind, it must be re-
nembered that city and adjacent coun
try contain two tolerably distinct races,
which are but slowly fusing into one ma
ton, and that there are practically three
religions Tor two religions and philoso-
phy), slowly giving way, as far as west
ern travellers can see, to sort of uni
versal religion. But this matter is still
SO obscure that one traveller says the
Chinese are all becoming skeptics, and
another says they are adopting re-
formed or exalted Buddhism, while a
third is positive they are struggling
towards a broad religion Of humanity.
Similarly the city of Pekin, which has
about 100000 inhabitants, is divided
into Kin-C Ching, or the prohibited city,
Ching, or Imperial city," Nui-
Ching, the Tartar section, and Wal
Ching, the purely Chinese city. The last
two are respectively twelve and fifteen
square miles in area.