Ancient Beijing

Overview of Beijing

Today, we will look at the capital of China, Beijing, the city where this year’s Olympic Games was held.

The Ancient Capital of Beijing City was built mainly based on the Early Heaven 8 Gua (Pre-Heaven Trigram, 先天八卦）Theory that has been in existence since the early days of Ancient China.

Early Heaven 8 Gua (Pre-Heaven Trigram 先天八卦) consists of four Cardinal points namely North (Kun Trigram 坤卦），South（Qian Trigram 乾卦 ）East (Li Trigram 离卦) and West (Kan Trigram 坎卦). The ancient Beijing Town Planning fully utilized this Pre-Heaven Concept as the core principle to guide them.

Di Tan (地坛), Temple of Earth was built and located at the North, as the North represents Kun Trigram 坤卦 and Mother Earth. Tian Tan (天坛), Temple of Heaven, was constructed and located at South, as the South symbolizes Qian Trigram 乾卦 and The Heaven.

The Temple of Heaven (Tian Tian)

Besides, you also can see the Ri Tan (日坛), Temple of the Sun, is at the East, as the East characterizes Li Trigram 离卦 and The Sun. Yue Tan (月坛 ) is located at West, as the West portrays Kan Trigram (坎卦) and The Moon. These four main points represents a gateway into Beijing.

We will start with The Temple of Heaven as this structure represents a very important part in China’s history. 500 years of history to be exact. The Temple of Heaven is China’s existing largest and most complete structure of an ancient royal worship of heaven building, located in Beijing, outside the City, the South of Beijing. The Temple of Heaven was frequently visited by the Emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasty to worship and to pray to Heaven for festival of rain as China was very much an agriculture based country during the olden days. The main reason why the shape of the Temple of Heaven (天坛) is round is because round shape represents Qian Trigram and Heaven.

Temple of Earth (Di Tan) in a Stamp

Di Tan (地坛), The Temple of Earth which represents Earth, was built in the year of 1530, to the north outside of   Beijing. It is a place for Ming and Qing Dynasty Emperors to worship the Earth God. Di Tan’s 地坛 building structure is square which represents Kun Trigram 坤卦.

Temple of Earth (Di Tan) from the Top

Tian Tan 天坛，The Temple of Heaven (representing Qian Trigram) covers an area of 273 hectares and Di Tan (representing Kun Trigram 坤卦) covers an area of 37 hectares. The size of Tian Tan 天坛, The Temple of Heaven is eight times bigger than Ditan 地坛  and it was built based on the “Book of Changes” and it says that (Yijing 易经), that Qien represents yang, sky, big or heaven which characteristics of hegemony and supremacy. Kun Trigram represents, yin, earth and small which carries the attribute of submission and obedience.

The Temple of Sun (Re Tan)

It must be noted that in Chinese culture, Heaven is always larger, mightier and more powerful than Earth.

If we look at both buildings properly, every staircase, every bricks and stones are built according to the “Book of Changes” (Yijing) thus rendering it a very unique piece of structure due to its precision.

《周易·系辞》曰：“天一、地二、天三、地四、天五、地六、天七、地八天九、地十。天数五、地数五，王位相得而各有合。天数二十有五，地数三十，凡天地之数五十有五。”按照这一论述，一、三、五、七、九为奇数为阳数，二、四、六、八、十为偶数为阴数，阳数中最大的数为9，阴数中最大的数为10其次为8。

In the “Book of Changes, Yijing” said: “Heaven One, Earth two, Heaven three, Earth four, Heaven five, Earth six, Heaven seven, Earth Eight, Heaven nine, Earth Ten. The total quantity for Heaven’s number total is 25, and total quantity for Earth’s number is 30. The Grand Total of Both is 55.” According to this exposition of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 for the odd-number, 2, 4, 6. 8, 10 is even number.

Temple of Moon (Yue Tan)

The largest number of Odd is 9, Yin in the largest number is 10 theoretically. However, As Yin energy is considered as reversed energy, so, number 10 is NOT included in Human Being Realm unless you want to engaged in super power realm’s energy like black magic. (This will be elaborated in other topic). Therefore, the highest Yin energy in Human Being Level is 6 (by reversing the skill, the full explanation will be in other article which involve super natural power).

This again shows that Heaven (9) in Chinese culture is much more powerful than Earth. Chinese culture has long believed that any events that occurred will have to coincide with Heaven as Heaven controls all beings and materials on Earth.

The Temple of Heaven 天坛 and Re Tan 日坛 was built according to the law of YiJing Number, which is Yang number or so called odd number where Di Tan (地坛,Temple of Earth) and Yue Tan (月坛, Temple of the Moon) were built according to the Yin number which is even number.

Beijing Watercube 1

Re Tan (日坛、Temple fo Sun) and Yue Tan (月坛 temple of the Moon) was also built in the year of 1530. Re Tan 日坛 was built at the East of Ancient Beijing City, meaning Temple of the Sun. This place is known to be the place of worship for God of Sun for the emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasty. In the principles of Early Heaven 8 Gua (Pre-heaven Trigram) Theory, it represents Li Trigram (Early Heaven) at the east of the city.

Yue Tan 月坛, Temple of the Moon was built within the ancient city of Beijing in the West. The Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors useef this place for worship of God of Night or “Yueshen” 月神 Yue Tan represents Kan Gua of Early Heaven (Pre-Heaven).

Beijing Watercube 2

The uniqueness of this is that Beijing was built entirely based on numbers found in the “Book of Changes” (Yijing). Every thinking and analysis that was done is to simply ensure that all laws and rules of Chinese culture would be adhered to. It is just amazing that even till today “Book of Changes” is also used in the building of structures like The Bird Nest and The Water Cube.

Beijing Watercube 3

The recent Olympic’s Bird’s Nest & Water Cube were built on principles of 天圆地方, Round Heaven and Square Earth Concept too. When we look at both structures, Birds Nest is oval shape (egg shape) and Water Cube is Square shape.

Share on Facebook