Fertile Rites: Xiannongtan's Dual Role in Beijing's History

Editor's Note: We're celebrating tbj's ten-year anniversary all month by looking back at some of our favorite articles from the past decade. Forgotten City, which ran in the magazine from 2004-2008, was written by sinologist and history buff Ed Lanfranco, a California native who lived in Beijing from 1989-2009 and now resides back in his home state where he is researching Chinese food safety and security issues.

This August marks one year until the Olympic Games, and to celebrate the occasion, we honor Xiannongtan as a piece of the forgotten city that made a critical contribution on the road to China hosting the world’s premiere sporting event.

The connection between modern athletics and an altar for agricultural and other spirits may seem tenuous, but in the early 1950s Xiannongtan Stadium, in Xuanwu District, became the country’s first sports venue equipped with floodlights, enabling spectators to enjoy nighttime competition.

The arena, situated in the southeast corner of the ancient complex, was originally built in 1936. In 1952 it was expanded to accommodate 24,000 fans. Until the Workers’ Stadium was completed eight years later, it served as the capital’s top outdoor setting for soccer plus track and field. Teams from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe that played in Xiannongtan represent part of China’s history as a host of international sports.

Xiannongtan, Altar to the First Farmer (also referred to as the Temple of Agriculture), is one of the capital’s secret treasures. It was one of the city’s first public parks, having opened in 1915, but has always been overshadowed by its more famous twin, the Temple of Heaven. Many Beijingers don’t even know it exists, and even fewer tourists peruse the once sacred precincts. Yet a glimpse into imperial rites performed for nearly 600 years during the Ming and Qing dynasties awaits you, just ten minutes walk from Tiantan’s west gate on Nanwei Lu (then turning left on Dongjing Lu).

Chinese potentates performed an array of quasi-religious rituals on behalf of their subjects, symbolizing their demigod status as mediator between the physical and spiritual worlds. The architecture and city planning that went into capitals conveyed not only political, military and economic prowess, but also conformed to traditional precepts interpreting the cosmic order based on the Yijing (Book of Changes) and Liji (Book of Rites). Every structure had a specific form, function, and location within an urban microcosm for the universe.

The pattern for altars and rituals in Beijing duplicated ones set down in Nanjing, the original Ming seat of power established by the dynasty’s founder, Emperor Hongwu (1368-1398). Nanjing copied the design of Chang’an (now Xi’an), the oldest known model capital dating from the Tang and earlier Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD).

Another tradition, primogeniture, didn’t sit well with Hongwu’s fourth son. Zhu Di decided to rebel when he was passed over for the throne in favor of the son of his eldest brother. Victorious in the ensuing civil war, he reigned as the Yongle emperor (1403-1424). Fearing fatal court intrigue in Nanjing, he moved the capital to the garrison town of Beiping, which was rechristened Beijing.

Reestablishing his father’s forms of worship helped legitimize Yongle’s usurpation and the city’s new status. Beijing’s altars were completed in 1420 and formal transfer was finalized the next year. Ceremonies at Tiantan reinforced the emperor as Heaven’s Son while sacrifices at Shanchuantan (Altar to Mountains and Rivers), kept him attuned to forces of nature within all corners of his domain. The latter altar complex also housed Xiannongtan.

Xian Nong refers to the mythical Emperor Yandi who circa 2900-2800 BC developed three major elements of agriculture: inventing the plow, discovering the medicinal use of plants, and creating the first marketplaces. In China’s predominantly agrarian society, farmers ranked second among four hierarchical groups: below scholars, but ahead of merchants and artisans.

The most important ceremony associated with Xiannongtan occurred in early spring when the emperor, accompanied by music, got behind a team of golden oxen to plow the season’s first three furrows. After the emperor finished, he’d retire to a raised platform (colored tile and a marble railing was added in 1754 by Emperor Qianlong) and watch as senior officials did five, seven or nine rows. This tilling field is now basketball courts.

Structures surviving from Yongle include a brazier where produce and farm animal flesh went up in flames to feed spirits; the Courtyard of the Holy Kitchen for meals and Xian Nong spirit tablet storage; the plain platform outside the kitchen’s entrance is the eponymous altar; and inside the courtyard is a locked door to the Pavilion of Butchering.
A controversy over customs involving succession and imperial worship resurfaced when Zhu Houcong, the Jiajing emperor (1522-1567) was in power. He was the first Ming monarch not of direct descent, and when the Board of Rites refused to allow him to bestow the posthumous title of emperor on his biological father, Jiajing embarked on a campaign to revamp the entire ritual system of where, when, how and to what emperors prayed. He mistakenly thought his reinterpretation, including an orgy of construction in 1532 redesigning altars and erecting new ones, would sway officials to see things his way.

His legacy endures in the Taisuidian, or Hall of the Great Year Star, dedicated to the planet Jupiter, worshipped for its 12-year cycle of crossing the heavens that forms the basis of the Chinese calendar. In 1900-01 it was headquarters for US occupation forces quelling the Boxer Uprising; in the 1920s it was a shrine to Guomindang martyrs. Now it’s the Museum of Ancient Chinese Architecture.

Jiajing did away with Shanchuantan and divided worship between the Gods of Heavens and the Gods of Earth. Relics of heaven’s spirits are gone, but the conical white stone niches containing tablets for earth’s spirits such as mountains, hills, seas, rivers, canals and towns are still there. His other buildings, the Dressing Hall by the ornate viewing platform and Divine Granary are not open to the public. The remaining inner complex gates and walls are his too, and if you like to explore, try finding the southern opening to Xiannongtan and other relics by heading west of the stadium’s main entrance.