The Imperial Ancestral Temple, known as Taimiao, is not just another palace complex. This is the place where for almost five centuries Chinese emperors of two great dynasties — the Ming and the Qing — performed rituals of worship to their ancestors. If the Forbidden City was the home of living emperors, then Taimiao was the home of deceased emperors. Here their souls, their memory, and their connection with heaven were kept.
Today it is one of the few surviving imperial ancestral temples in the world of such scale and level of preservation. At the same time, it is surprisingly calm — the crowds of tourists filling the neighboring attractions almost never reach here.
How the Temple Arose
Taimiao was founded in 1420, simultaneously with the completion of the construction of the Forbidden City. Emperor Yongle, who moved the capital to Beijing, ordered the ancestral temple to be built according to the strict ancient rule "ancestors on the left, the Altar of Earth and Grain on the right." Thus Taimiao took its place to the east of the imperial palace, and the Altar of Earth and Grain — to the west. Together they formed a sacred axis of power: the living emperor ruled from the center, but his legitimacy relied on ancestors and on the earth.
In 1541, the temple was seriously damaged by a lightning strike — eight of the nine separate pavilions built under Emperor Jiajing burned down. This was perceived as a sign from above: the ancestors did not wish to be separated. The temple was restored in 1545, returning to a single hall where all imperial tablets stood together.
Under the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the temple was not destroyed but, on the contrary, carefully renovated.
Emperor Qianlong in the late 18th century expanded the main hall from nine to eleven bays, added auxiliary buildings, and gave the complex the appearance we see today. After the fall of the empire, in 1924, Taimiao ceased to be a place of rituals and became first a park, and in 1950 — the "Palace of Culture of the Working People."
Dimensions and Layout of the Imperial Ancestral Temple
The complex occupies almost 20 hectares — it is 475 meters long and 294 meters wide. Three concentric walls of red brick with yellow tiles separate the holy of holies from the outside world. The main gates, bridges, three majestic halls — everything is built along a single axis, strictly from north to south.
The center of the complex is the Hall of Sacrifices (Xiangdian). It was here that emperors conducted the main rituals. And this hall is the main reason why it is worth coming here.
Hall of Sacrifices: Wood, Gold, and Stone
The Hall of Sacrifices is the heart of the Imperial Ancestral Temple (Taimiao) and possibly the most impressive wooden structure in all of Beijing. Its dimensions are comparable to the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, but here there is something that exists nowhere else.
Sixty-eight columns of golden nanmu. Nanmu is the rarest type of wood, called "gold among timber." Because of its characteristic golden sheen and delicate aroma, it was used for centuries only for imperial buildings. In the main hall of Taimiao, columns installed back in the Ming era have been preserved — their age is about 600 years. The tallest reaches 13.32 meters, and the diameter of the largest is 1.2 meters. This is the largest hall in China built from solid nanmu, and possibly one of the last places where you can see such an amount of this wood in a single interior.
Ceilings covered with gold. In the central bays of the hall, the "xuanzi" painting has been preserved — a complex ornament executed in the technique of "casting gold over relief." Each detail was first covered with a convex layer of primer, and then the thinnest sheets of gold leaf were applied to it. In Ancient China, the higher the status of a building, the more gold in the decor. Here there is so much of it that the ceiling seems to glow.
Floor of "golden brick." The floor of the hall is laid with the so-called "golden brick" — a special ceramic material that was fired for a year and a half and went through 29 stages of processing. It does not contain gold, but in quality and cost it is comparable to a precious metal.
Under the columns are massive stone bases of dark gray stone extracted in the mountains to the south of Beijing. Some of them weigh up to 25 tons. Their surface is decorated with fine carving depicting lotuses and clouds. Such bases can be seen in only two or three other imperial buildings in China.
What Else to See
Hall of Rest (Qindian). Behind the main hall stands the second most important — the Hall of Rest. Here tablets with the names of empresses were kept. Unlike the main hall, where the emperor entered only on days of great rituals, he could enter here more often — on the eve of ceremonies, to "awaken" the ancestors and transfer their tablets to the main hall.
Hall of Distant Ancestors (Taomiao). The northernmost of the three halls. Here were placed tablets of emperors whose descendants no longer ruled — those who had moved a sufficient number of generations away from the current dynasty. This was a kind of "honorable retirement" for ancestors.
Stone bridges and the Gate with Halberds. In front of the main hall, seven marble bridges are thrown across a small canal. The central bridge was intended only for the emperor, the side ones — for courtiers of various ranks. Behind the bridges stand gates that once guarded not only the walls but also 120 gilded and silvered halberds — fifteen on each of the eight stands. Today the halberds are gone, but the name "Gate with Halberds" remains.
Park and Ancient Cypresses
Around the temples spreads a park with more than 700 cypresses. Many of them were planted back at the founding of the temple in 1420 — their age exceeds 500 years. The oldest and most notable trees are marked with red plaques.
Among them is the legendary "Sacred Tree" — a cypress that, according to legend, was planted by Emperor Yongle himself. They say that emperors, arriving for ceremonies, got out of their palanquin at this tree and walked further on foot.
There is also the "Cypress on a Cypress" — an amazing tree on whose branches a second cypress grew. This is a natural graft: a seed of another tree got into a hollow or onto a branch, sprouted, and took root. There are about twenty such "trees on trees" in Beijing, but this is the most famous.
And there is the "Cypress Planted by Emperor Yongle" — a giant 13.5 meters high with a trunk circumference of 5.5 meters, recognized as the largest tree of the complex.
A walk along the alleys of the park is a separate pleasure. It is quiet here, cool even in the heat, and soft light breaks through the crowns of century-old trees. This is a place where you can simply sit on a bench and feel that time here flows differently.
Taimiao is a rare opportunity to see imperial architecture of the highest level without crowds. The hall with columns of golden wood, ceilings covered with real gold, floors of "golden brick" — all of this is accessible for viewing, and from a close distance. There are no queues here, no rush, and no feeling that you are "passing by" history.
