On The Sacrificial Altar Building Of Kaifeng In The Northern Song Dynasty

From establishing its capital in Kaifeng to its end, the Northern Song Dynasty had ruled its empire for more than one hundred and sixty years with etiquette policy as an important measure, hence, builded many types of etiquette buildings such as the Altar, the Ancestor Temple, the Mingtang, the Jinglinggong, the Confucius Temple, the Wuchangwang Temple and so on, to meet the needs of worshippers .the Sacrificial altar buildings were the main object of the author's research in the thesis. The thesis is made up of four parts: Part one: Ancient etiquette policy and the etiquette building. Through sketching the origin, function and content of ancient etiquette as well as the etiquette system of China, the author pointed out etiquette buildings, one of whose main classifications were sacrificial altar buildings, were key components of the etiquette system in ancient China. Part two: The history of the sacrificial altar building. The author introduced several development stages of the altar building, embryonic stage in prehistory, founding stage from Xia Dynasty to Spring and Autumn period, beginning to take shape and further developing stage from the warring states to Southern and Northern Dynasties, prospering stage from Sui Dynasty to Southern Song Dynasty, completing stage from Yuan Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, considered the altar building of Kaifeng of the Northern Song Dynasty as a historic status in the history of the altar of ancient China. Part three: Probe into the sacrificial altar building of Kaifeng .In the part, the author probed into many types of altars such as the Yuanqiu Altar, the Fangqiu Altar, the Sheji Altar, the Jiugongguishen Altar, and so forth, in its several aspets including the urban design plan, the structure and form of the building, the art of the space, maintenance and management. According to the author research, the overall arrangement of these altars was in accord with the systerm of Left Zu and Right She,which was recorded in Kaogongji. In addition, the external form and image of these altars were generally terraced, of single-layer or multi-layer, enclosed by a low wall or multi-low-wall with doors on its four sides, hence, the central area of the altar building was emphasized to produce a kind of mysterious space effect in oder to worship God, gods and ancestors. Furthermore, these altars had generally the cluster palace, whose master plan was axial symmetry, to serve worshippers. Part four: The designing thought of the sacrificial altar building and its influencing subsequently. Against the background of the traditional culture and ideology of China, especially, Neo-confucianism thought in Northern Song Dynasty, the author described the designing thought of these altars, which was deeply affected by the traditional culture and philosophy of China, in particular, Neo-confucianism thought with Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism absorbed into, and was defined as the symbolizing thought, namely concrete symbol, numerical symbol, position symbol and so on. Its design thought had an subsequent effect on Yuan, Min and Qing Dynasty.