Originally, the Temple of Heaven was called Temple of Heaven and Earth, because it was built according to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing, the early Ming capital at that time, so both heaven and earth were worshiped here. In 1530, another structure, the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing and then Heaven and Earth were worshipped separately. Since only Heaven was worshipped here, it was renamed the Temple of Heaven. Since 1421-1530, over a hundred years or so, there were altogether 9 emperors of the Ming Dynasty who held the worshipping ceremony of both heaven and earth for over a hundred times. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Heaven was the place where the emperors came to worship the God of Heaven and prayed for a good harvest.

In 1368, after the first emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, established the Ming Dynasty, he made Nanjing as his capital. But after the third emperor, Zhu Di, came to the throne in 1402, he decided to move the capital from NanJing to Beying. Upon the decision of moving the capital, a large-scale construction of the Forbidden City started in 1406. The Forbidden City was built based on the model of the Imperial Palace in Nanjing but was more splendid and larger. The construction took 14 years and was completed in 1420. In the following year, 1421, the capital of the Ming dynasty was moved trom Nanjing to Beijing. The Forbidden City is best preserved imperial palace in China and the largest ancient palatial structure in the world.