Show BO davi bawls the magic of moonlight shining S on the altar of heaven tell sphere are people who will tell you that thai the most beautiful object in neiping Pei ping a city cl ity so filled with beauty that it may well avell be classified as a serial dream I 1 is s the gem studded buddha to be seen in tuan cheng near the entrance of pei hai others who declare that the purple forbidden palace occupying the center of the imperial city ci ty is is the culminating triumph of earthly creations that the marble pagoda at the jade fountain is the only monument in in stone that exclaims its own magnificence you will be told that the tombs of the 13 ming emperors reposing in a lonely valley out of town are the most stately grouping in the known world that the nine dragon screen in pei hai park is the most exquisite masterpiece left intact in pei ping you will be escorted to the temple of heaven standing on a platform of white marble its triple roofs supported by red columns and tiled in blue the whole crowned with a golden ball beyond this southward in the form of a circular construction one comes upon the altar of heaven by far the most beautiful memorial of its kind in the world the final salutation to religion as expressed by the chinese and in the opinion of many authorities the most sublime architectural gesture ever conceived for the ceremonial recognition of invisible powers responsible for the earths fecundity it is at this spot that chinas cainas emperors for five hundred years have made annual sacrifices to the only superior they recognized heaven every detail blends memorable the night when nelson trusler johnson american ambassador bas to china called me on the phone at 11 little more than the shank of the evening neiping time and asked what claims I 1 had it if any on the so called artistic temperament all the traffic will stand I 1 responded spon ded well in that case jump into a about midnight and meet me at the embassy alone bring your camera can do I 1 replied in the chinese vernacular and did with all possible haste arriving at the rendezvous to find the ambassador awaiting me in an automobile but the camera I 1 queried to the chauffeur the ambassador who is a proficient oriental scholar gave a short command in chinese and we were off at 60 kilometers an hour under a full moon riding in a starlit sky shrine set in park five miles to the north arriving at a massive gate that swung open at our approach we entered a park containing long lines of ancient cedar trees set in formal array through which for a matter of two miles aniles we moved slowly coming at last to an open space A circular construction composed of white marble sitting low upon the landscape built in three terraces and flat upon the crown filled my eyes with its immaculate magic mute I 1 gazed at its pale splendor which increased in richness as I 1 became accustomed to its pearly silhouette against the trees breaking the horizon between this the altar of heaven and the luminous sky over pei ping under the north star lias has ago balustrades mounted on the rim of the furnace where the cow the goat and the pig have been roasted for the annual ceremonials attended by the emperors during the last five centuries we trained our lenses on the altar of heaven built in three terraces of marble the first feet wide the second the third 80 the number of balustrades on the first is the second the third 72 totaling the number of days in the chinese lunar year the upper terrace is reached by three flights of nine steps each the chinese divide the heavens into nine sections there are nine points to the compass known as the nine mansions there are nine divisions of mathematics nine degrees of official rank and nine of family relationship in the center of the topmost platform is a circular marble disk surrounded by nine marble sections and so on to the perimeter of eighty one whilst the light from heaven was etching the altar into our films the ambassador and I 1 sauntered lei surely among the carven white pillars but never long enough in any one spot to leave our impress upon lupon the sensitive celluloid and gave ourselves up to the contemplation of its majesty higher and higher floated the summer moon until the whole silvered landscape rapp appeared eared as a setting for the trinity of marble circles like moon stones in rings of white jade the mass becoming more luminous as the moon ascending to perpendicular brushed all aside save the ghostly altar under the cold flood filtering g steadily through space copyright service |