Where are we today? Almost to Ho Chi Min City, but catching up on Bejing. Temple of Heaven
This is Dave, As Elizabeth already blogged about the Forbidden City in Beijing, I (Dave) wanted to comment about the "Temple of Heaven”. The temple complex was built at the same time as the Forbidden City, which means it dates from the early 1400s. The only person recognized in historic China as greater than the emperor was the god of Heaven. The emperor and the royal family would go to the Temple only once per year to offer sacrifices of Cow, Sheep and Pig, specifically for that years harvest. Also, if there was some kind of calamity or natural disaster that affected the people the emperor was expected to write a letter to the God of Heaven asking for forgiveness for sins he may have committed to bring on the disaster. Some identify the god of Heaven as the supreme God in the pantheistic view of the Taoist religion, however heaven worship and the building the temple predates Taoism. Below is the furnace where the animals were sacrificed. The trip to the temple require...