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Think of six hundred and forty acres of valuable city property
being set aside for the grounds of a single temple, as compared
with the way our own great churches are crowded into small city
lots of scarcely as many square feet, and over-shadowed by great
business blocks costing a hundred times as much, and we can get
some conception of the magnificence of the scale on which this
temple is laid out. A large part of the grounds is covered with
cedars, many of which are not less than five hundred years old,
while other parts are used to pasture a flock of black cattle
from which they select the sacrifice for a burnt offering. The
grounds are not well kept like those of our own parks and
churches, but the original conception of a temple on such a large
scale is worthy of a great people.
The worship at this temple is the most important of all the
religious observances of the empire, and constitutes a most
interesting remnant of the ancient monotheistic cultus which
prevailed in China before the rationalism of Confucius and the
polytheistic superstition of Buddhism predominated among the
people. While the ceremonies of the sacrifices are very
complicated, they are kept with the strictest severity. The chief
of these is at the winter solstice. On December 21st the Emperor
goes in a sedan chair, covered with yellow silk, and carried by
thirty-two men, preceded by a band of musicians, and followed by
an immense retinue of princes and officials on horseback
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