China Travel Guide

The Imperial Ancestral Temple, Ancestral Hall, Working People's Cultural Palace or Taimiao (Chinese: 太庙) of Beijing, is a historic site in the heart of city, just outside the Forbidden City, where during both the Ming and Qing Dynasties, sacrificial ceremonies were held on the most important festival occasions in honor of the imperial family's ancestors.

The compound is laid out parallel to north-south axis of the Forbidden City. Its principle buildings consist of three main halls, two gates, two subsidiary shrines, and various accompanying buildings.

A visitor to the site first enters through the Glazed Gate at the south, then finds himself in a narrow courtyard with ponds covered by arched bridges. The next gate is called the Halberd gate and is an original Ming dynasty construction from 1420. In the courtyard beyond the gate is the two-tiered Hall for Worship of Ancestors. It was also built in 1420 but was frequently repaired. It contains seats and beds for the tablets of emperors and empresses, as well as incense burners and offerings. On the occasion of large-scale ceremonies for worship of ancestors, such as the "Shi Xiang" (held in the first months of the four seasons), the "Xia Ji" (end-of-year ceremony) and "Gao Ji" (national events ceremonies) the Qing emperor would come here to participate.

Flanking the courtyard in front of this hall are two long, narrow buildings. These were worship halls for various princes and courtiers. The Western Wing housed the memorial tablets of meritorious courtiers, while the Eastern Wing enshrined various princes of Manchu origin in the Qing dynasty.

Behind the two-tiered hall are two other main halls. The first, the middle hall (Qin Dian), was built in 1420 and used to store imperial ancestral tablets. So that their souls might rest in peace, the tablets were placed on mattresses in individual rooms complete with furniture, pillows, and an incense burner tables.

The rear hall, or Tiao Miao, was the place where the memorial tablets of remote imperial ancestors were kept. It was built in 1491 and was furnished in the same manner as the middle hall.