Sacrifice to Heaven

A festival performed at the Temple of Heaven
Sacrifice to Heaven
Chinese name
Chinese祭天
Traditional Chinese祭天
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinJitian
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetTế Thiên
Lễ tế Nam Giao
Chữ Hán祭天
禮祭南郊
Korean name
Hangul제천
Hanja祭天
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationJecheon
Japanese name
Kanji祭天
Hiraganaさいてん
Transcriptions
RomanizationSaiten

Sacrifice to Heaven (Chinese: 祭天; pinyin: Jìtiān) is an Asian religious practice originating in the worship of Shangdi in China. In Ancient Chinese society, nobles of all levels constructed altars for Heaven. At first, only nobles could worship Shangdi[1][2] but later beliefs changed and everyone could worship Shangdi.

Modern Confucian churches make this practice available to all believers and it continues in China without a monarch.

It has been influential on areas outside of China including Japan, Vietnam, and Korea.

The () in the Chinese name is the same Je as in Jesa.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference mw-2022a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference 雷晓鹏-2014a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).