题二：天坛圜丘坛建筑群(圜丘坛建筑规制及特点;圜丘坛周围设施及用途;圜丘坛附属建筑;圜丘坛祭天) 　　The circular mound altar was built in 1530. Every year at the time of the winter solstice, the emperor would come here in person to offer a sacrifice on the altar to worship heaven. If there happened to be a drought that year the emperor would come here to pray for a rain on the day of the summer solstice. 　　In the old days, people believed the heaven emperor lived in the ninth-tier step, which symbolized the supremacy power. The number nine was considered the most powerful and auspicious number; therefore, the circular mound altar shows nine or multiples of nine everywhere. 　　The three-tiered marble altar is 5 meters high with 4 entrances, and each entrance has 9step in 4 directions. The topmost layer of the circular mound altar is 30 meters in diameter, the middle layer is 50 meters, and the bottom one is 70meters.......详细信息

　　题二：天坛圜丘坛建筑群(圜丘坛建筑规制及特点;圜丘坛周围设施及用途;圜丘坛附属建筑;圜丘坛祭天)

　　The circular mound altar was built in 1530. Every year at the time of the winter solstice, the emperor would come here in person to offer a sacrifice on the altar to worship heaven. If there happened to be a drought that year the emperor would come here to pray for a rain on the day of the summer solstice.

　　In the old days, people believed the heaven emperor lived in the ninth-tier step, which symbolized the supremacy power. The number nine was considered the most powerful and auspicious number; therefore, the circular mound altar shows nine or multiples of nine everywhere.

　　The three-tiered marble altar is 5 meters high with 4 entrances, and each entrance has 9step in 4 directions. The topmost layer of the circular mound altar is 30 meters in diameter, the middle layer is 50 meters, and the bottom one is 70meters.

　　On the upper terrace in the center, there is a piece of round stone slab called heavenly heart stone; it is surrounded by nine concentric circles of fan-shaped stone slaps. The first ring surround the heavenly heart stone consists of 9 blocks of stone slabs, the second ring has 18, and the 3rd ring has 27, and then there are multiples of the number 9until the 9th ring. The second terrace shows s another 9 circles. It starts from the 10th ring to the 18th ring. The bottom terrace begins from the 19th to the 27th ring. In all, the marble slabs are used on the pavement of three terraces amount to 378 nines with 3402 pieces of stones slabs.

　　In the center of the upper terrace, is the heavenly heart stone. This is the central point of the circular mount altar. If you stand on the heavenly heart stone and speak in low voice, you can hear your voice much louder to yourself than to others standing by.

　　There is firewood stove located in the southeast centre of the circular mound altar. It was the place for burning the sacrificial offerings to the god of the heaven.

　　The burial pit is to the east of the firewood stove. It was used for burning the sacrificial animals’ hair and blood.

　　There are altogether 12 bowl shaped burners placed in three different placed around the circular mount altar. In the old days, each burner was used for burning the sacrificial offerings after the worshipping ceremony.

　　The dressing platform of the circular mount altar is located southeast of the circular mount altar. Its foundation is the same as the function of dressing platform of the alter of prayer for rain.

　　Now we are going to visit the imperial vault of heaven. The imperial vault of heaven is a small structure in the southern part of the temple of heaven. It was the place where the tablet of the god of heaven and the tablets of emperor’s ancestors were kept called the bed chamber. In the center to the north of the imperial vault of heaven, there is a tablet engraved an inscription in Manchu and han languages of the god of heaven. There are 8stone platforms, 4 on each side, on which are placed the tablets of the emperor’s ancestors . One day before the heaven worshiping ceremony. The emperor would come here to read prayers of blessing and burn incense in font of the tablets. In this way, he was inviting all the divine tablets to the heaven worshiping altar before the official ceremony began. When the ceremony was over, the tablets were returned to the original shrine.

　　There are 3 marvelous echo effects in the temple of heaven. They are the echo effects of the wall, the heavenly heart stone on the circular mound alter. The echo wall is a circular wall surrounding the imperial vault of heaven. If one person speaks in his or her normal voice, or even whispers at any point chose to the wall, the wall will send the sound traveling along the wall, and another person will be able to hear the voice clearly at the other end.

　　In front of the imperial vault of heaven, there are 3 stones called triple-sound stone. If you stand on the first stone and clap your hands, the echo can be heard once, a handclap on the second stone can produce the echoes twice, and if you do the same thing on the third stone, the echoes can be heard three times.

　　Each year of the day of winter solstice, the emperor came to the temple of heaven to make a sacrifice to the god of heaven. As a rule, the emperor would come to the hall of abstinence 3 days before the heaven worshipping ceremony. Later another hall of the abstinence was built inside the Forbidden City, so the qing emperor would have their first two days fasting in the forbidden city, then they would come here on the last day.

　　On the day of the ceremony, the emperor would leave the hall of abstinence to go to the altar in the early morning. On the way to the circular mount altar, the emperor would enter the tent first on the dressing platform to wash hands and change into his ceremonial garment and boots. When the ceremonial worshipping ceremonial began at 7 quarters before sunrise in the morning, the emperor came out of the tent , led his civil and military officials to the altar and then took his worshipping position on the altar. While the ceremonial official was chanting aloud the prayer to heaven, fire would be lit in the ovens to get ready for the sacrificial calf and other animals.

　　On the top terrace of the altar, the divine tablet of the god of heaven was surrounded by a big round tent placed on the north side of the heaven heart stone facing south. The memorial tablets of the emperors’ ancestors were enclosed with a square tent placed on both sides of the tablet of the god of heaven. The tablets of the secondary deities were placed on the second terrace. the emperor’s worshipping position was on the second tier of the altar due south.