The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a round hall of timber alone with a pointed roof, without main beams or iron nails. The layout of its columns matches the seasons and hours, and shows the joining of ancient timber craft with a view of the cosmos.
In the eighteenth year of Yongle of the Ming (1420) the Temple of Heaven was completed at the same time as the Forbidden City, at first as the Temple of Heaven and Earth, where heaven and earth were worshipped together.
In the fifteenth year of Guangxu of the Qing (1889) the hall was destroyed by lightning fire, and was then rebuilt to its original form, again entirely of timber.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the class in the chapter on Architecture on the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. The hall is a round building of timber alone with a pointed roof, without main beams or iron nails, and its columns are laid out to match the seasons and hours, joining timber craft with a view of heaven and earth.
