The Altar of Land and Grain is located on the west side of Tiananmen Gate, West Chang'an Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing. It covers an area of more than 360 mu, and was built in the eighteenth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1420) for emperors to perform the national soil and grain ceremonies.

The Altar of Land and Grain is opposite the Imperial Ancestral Temple, and they are located on the left and the right of Tiananmen Gate respectively, reflecting the imperial capital design principle of " Left for Ancestry and Right for Land and Grain ". Main buildings are Altar of Land and Grain, Bai Dian (Worship Hall), and subsidiary buildings including Ji Men, Sacrificial Storehouse, Sacrificial Kitchen, Slaughter Pavilion, etc. The Altar of Land and Grains were set up separately in the early days, called Taishe altar or Taiji altar. They were dedicated to the gods of the Land and Grain, and then gradually merged into one and worshipped together.

Altar of Land and Grain

The outside of the altar is square, representing Heaven and Earth. It is a three-story platform built with white marble, 0.96m high, with a circumference of 15.95m for the upper layer, 16.9m for the middle layer, and 17.85m for the lower layer. There are four steps on each of the four sides. The upper layer of the altar is laid with five different colors of soil, namely blue, red, white, black, and yellow, according to the bearing areas of east, south, west, north, and middle of China, commonly known as "five-color soil". The soil is transported from various state capitals, which means “all lands under the heaven are belonged to the king”, which symbolizes territorial integrity, national unity, and the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and soil as the foundation of all things. There is a square stone pillar in the center of the altar, which is called "Shezhu Shi", also known as "Jiangshan Shi", which means the country is stable and never dies. There are three walls around the altar, and the inner wall is low, which was initially built with bricks, and then painted with four colors of blue, red, white, and black, and later changed to four-color glazed bricks, answering to the altar.

Worship Hall (Zhongshan Hall)

The worship hall is the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties took shelter from the wind and rain on the way to sacrifice, hence the name. Originally built in the Ming Dynasty, it is 5-room-wide and 3-room-deep, with the yellow glazed tiles and stepping arches on the top. The exteriors are decorated with seal color paintings, and the inner ones are the golden color paintings of dragons, which are also changed after the function has been changed. The inside of the hall was built in the Ming Dynasty, without corridor steps. The Xieshan hornbeams intersect with the Caibu Jin and Xia Jin purlins on the vertical pillars, which is the typical decoration of Ming dynasty. The doors and windows are no longer the original ones, and now there are three partition doors in the middle and sill windows between. The Jimen and Worship Hall are connected with steps, with both standing on a white stone platform at a height of about 1 m, with six steps.

In 1988, Sheji Tan was listed as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Address: West of Tiananmen Square, Dongcheng District , Beijing