Taihao Temple太昊陵.doc

Taihao Temple is located on the bank of Gucai River, the North part of Huaiyang city. It is a mausoleum in memory of Taihao Fu Xi, the most important of the three Ancient Gods.The temple covers an area of 875 acres with magnificent buildings, towering palaces and tall ancient cypress trees reach towards the sky. Therefore, it is called the first temple under heaven, and also is the national key Fu Xi was born in ChengJi. From west to east, he leaded his tribe to ranch along the riverside, and eventually they settled in Huanghuai Plain and chose Qiu Wan as their capital. During the transition of human society from maternal to paternal and from barbarism to civilization, Fuxi,with his wisdom,made great achievements for the improvements and developments of human society. His contribution lies on his support in fishing and hunting, keeping livestocks, and he also began to make musical instruments, build houses and so on. In the Huanghuai Plain, centred by Gu Chen, Fuxi unveiled the prelude of Huzxia civilizaion. It is said that Fuxi reigned 114 years and was buried in Chen after his death. In memory of the merits and virtues of their ancestor, people built tomb and temple in Wanqiu long ago. According to the historical records, the tomb was first built from Chunqiu and an ancestral temple was built in front of it in Han Dynasty and the following empires kept on expanding it. At last , the Taihao Temple became an important place for empires to memorize and worship their ancestors. In Qing Dynasty, after several times of repairing, the building of the magnificent Taihao was finished eventually. The whole temple is divided into two parts, the inner and outer city. The inner city is called the Forbidden city and the outer one is called the Imperial city. All the buildings in the temple implies the basic principles of Fuxis “Eight diagrams”. The Tongtian temple displays the meaning of “” means that Taiwu Fuxi unified the world and gained supreme position. Tongtian Temple is usually called the “big temple”, which is the most important building along the axle wire of the temple. The middle inscribed tablet writes “”, which was written by Qianlong, the famous Empire in Qing Dynasty. In the shrine, a statue of Fuxi was molded: he has tow horns in his head, clothed tiger skin in his waist and leaves on his shoulders, bared in feet and belly. In his hand, theres a Taiji tray of eight diagram. There are the statues of Zhuxiang and Wuying in the left and right side of Fuxi. In front of the palace, theres a platform of seven-stair high which can hold more than 1000 people to knelt down and worship. With the east and west bungalows, bell-tower and drum-tower in the two sides of the platform, the whole place becomes a solemn quad thatcovers more than 5000 square meter. It is the central place for each generation to hold the ceremony to worship ancestors.Out of the Taishi Gate and pass the Bafeng tai and Linghuan men, we come to the tomb of Fuxi. The tomb is 20 meters high and 182 meters wide. It is round in the top and has a square bottom which symbolizes “round heaven, square land”. The whole tomb is magnificent and outstanding. In front of the tomb, there is a green-stone stele of Song Dynasty which is 3 chi wide and 15 chi high, and it writes seven bigh chinese characters of ”The Tomb of Tai Hao Fu Xi”. It is believed that Su xiaomei wrote them with silk scarves as a pen. The JianZhi Park: Dear friends, now we come to the Jianzhi Park, that is the Taihao park. Whenever you walk into the Taihao park in Huaiyang city, you would be deeply attracted by the verdant styles of the cypress. There are birds and animals of all postures while nei