Temple of Heaven

It is generally believed that Christianity spread from the West to the East, and many Christian historians dated the arrival of the Nestorian (景教) monks of the Assyrian Church to China during the Tang dynasty (唐朝) in 635 AD as the beginning of Christianity in China. But there are evidences that many Biblical concepts may be found in ancient Chinese history. This paper examines the ancient ceremony called Border Sacrifice (郊祀) performed every year by emperors, as early as 2250 BC in the Shang (商) dynasty, and also the written characters of ancient China. It explores the conceptual similarities between these two ancient civilizations, Hebrew and Chinese, and the likelihood that these similarities are the results a shared common heritage that dates back to the patriarch of Genesis.

The best way to begin is at the Temple of Heaven (天壇) in Beijing. The present-day “horseshoe shape” Temple of Heaven Park covers some 2.73 km², three times larger than Forbidden City. The 3-storey iconic building in Figure 1 is called the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest (祈年殿). There are 3 important structures in Temple of Heaven, shown in the map (Figure 2). Opposite the Hall of Prayer is the Circular Mound Altar (圜丘坛) in the south (Figure 3), and the Imperial Vault of Heaven (皇穹宇) (Figure 8 ) is in between them. The Vault is surrounded by a circular Echo Wall (回声墙).

The Temple of Heaven was built in 1420 and had undergone many modifications. The Border Sacrifice ceremony begins at the 3-tier Circular Mound Altar using either a calf or a lamb. Then proceeds north to Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, where the emperor offers prayers to Heaven.

Though complete description of the Border Sacrifice was not formalized until 1366 AD in the Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty (大明会典), there are ample ancient Chinese references to emperors performing the Border Sacrifice. The earliest account was in Shu Jing (書经) compiled by Confucius himself. It was recorded that Emperor Shun (舜帝 2255 BC) “offered sacrifice to ShangDi” (上帝, Ruler Above) at Mount Tai (泰山) in Shandong Province (山東). Thus it is generally accepted that Border Sacrifices were performed well before the birth of Moses (1500 BC). Confucius considered the sacrifice so important that he said, “He who understands the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth…would find the government of a kingdom as easy as look into his palm”. The Border Sacrifice was moved from Mount Tai to Beijing in about 15th Century AD. The ceremony was officially terminated in 1911 when the Nationalist Chinese Republic overthrew the Qing imperial government. But tourists may still enjoy viewing a re-enactment ceremony each January or February around the time of the Chinese New Year in Beijing. Figures 5 and 6 show a re-enactment of the Border Sacrifice ceremony.

Figure 7 shows part of the actual text in Chinese of the ceremonial prayer offered by the emperor, during the Border Sacrifice ceremony. The text is taken from the Collected Statutes of The Ming Dynasty. This image is reproduced with permission from a book by Nelson, Broadbery & Zhou (2010). The writings on the right of the tableau is the original text in classical wenyen (文言), while the writings on the left is the transliteration into today’s Chinese writing style known as paihui (白话), which is easily understood by most people.

A close examination of the actual text of the prayer offered during the Border Sacrifice with Biblical accounts of the creation story, particularly in the Book of Genesis, shows remarkable similarities.

The Table below compares side by side, the English translation of the prayer and related Biblical texts. It is hard not to notice the similarity between them.