The Research Of North Square Altar

The Square altar is the site of ancient ancestral that sacrifices the DeZhi god and is the materializationof worship to god’s thought in reflection. As the ceremonial buildings in ancient China, its construction andrenovation of historical lasted for nearly one thousand years. Therefore, the Square altar and the otherceremonial buildings are all have very high historical and scientific value, and its cultural connotation isvery rich.The source of construction for Square altar is starts with the people for the worship of the earth, andthe earth is the growth of all things. The worship of the earth is one of the distinctive features of Chinaancient society. As a sacrificial architecture, Square altar is the product of human for the worship of theland. The deduction of its shape is not very same in every dynasty. From the original period of naturalmounds to the artificial ramming square mounds, then to the artificial masonry platform and then to thelayers of the base station, the development in shapes of each dynasty is the inheritance and continuation ofthe last dynasty.Due to the worship of the mother land during the original ancient period, people began to sacrifice theearth, thus to derive the concept of "altar". In Xia，Shang and Zhou periods, sacrifice had inevitably becamean important social activity and the Heavens and the Earth had been taken a sacrificial object at the sametime. From then on, the ritual of sacrifice had been settled initially. From the Spring and Autumn period tothe Qin Shihuang reunification of China, which began to carry out a series of large-scale religious activities.Although the worship of nature, mountains and rivers had a scale, there were no specific constructions andrituals for that. And the worship of heaven and earth activities always performed at the same time; however,the former was more important than the latter.The Han Dynasty basically followed the previous dynasty system of sacrifice. One an importantmeasure was the Emperor Wudi of Han Dynasty who set up the Houtu Temple of Fen Yin, and began tosacrifice separately with a fixed place. This can also be called the predecessor of the altar. In Western HanDynasty, people established the position of the sacrifice to earth in the northern suburbs of the capital. InEastern Han Dynasty, the capital was established in Luo Yang, and the Square altar was also built on thenorth with the shape identified as "square altar with four steps". There were dispute on how to perform the sacrifice, but the essence of paying attention to the earth did not change. During Northern and SouthernDynasties, it was the Square altar’s steady development stage, which basically followed the previousdynasty system and had rarely changed. From the Sui and Tang Dynasties to Song Dynasty, it was theprosperity phase development of Square altar. Especially in the Northern Song Dynasty, people not onlyrevised the etiquette system, but also changed the previous system scale. And the Square altar was alsochanged somehow in scale and shape during the two Song periods, and the restructured one had beenfollowed by the later. To the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was the improvement stage of the Squarealtar and its shape was better than before. At the same time a series of ritual activities had becomeregulation. During Ming Jiajing period, the name of Square alter were changed to DiTan(Temple of earth),which are still in use today. The Qing Dynasty, which was the most prosperous development stage ofSquare altar. This period can be regarded as the determined in shape and the restoration stage. The DiTanwe now see today, although renovated for several times and its changed on shape, materials, practices at thesame time, the basic feature of the open architecture for sacrifice has never altered.This article embarks from the reason of sacrificing the earth and the emergence of the concept of god,for the sacrificial altar buildings as the object of study and with the change of dynasties. Many contentshave been discussed in this paper, such as the building idea of Square altar and its background, structureshape and evolution process, the sacrifice of time and location, and the relationship between the ritualactivities and space. In addition, some relevant illustrations are added in the paper. The purpose is toprovide reference for the study of sacrificial buildings, also makes the Square altar’s high-quality value ofancient China reflected more deeply.