The Temple of Heaven was first built in the 18th year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty (1420). Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties offered sacrifices to heaven, prayed for a good harvest and prayed for rain here. The legend of the Temple of Heaven was born and developed because of the Temple of Heaven architecture and the emperor's ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven. The integration of the cosmology of "harmony between man and nature" has given the Temple of Heaven complex a sacred and unique meaning, becoming an important driving factor for the occurrence and prosperity of related legends. The legend of the Temple of Heaven is widely circulated among Beijing citizens, especially in the areas around the Temple of Heaven, such as the Goldfish Pond, Fata Temple, Four Jades, and Tianqiao, which are particularly popular and are a unique branch of Beijing's local culture. The legend of the Temple of Heaven generally includes five parts: the legend of the establishment of the Temple of Heaven, the legend of the scenery, the legend of folk customs, the legend of the altar, and the legend of related figures. The legend of the Temple of Heaven is passed down in social groups in a unique way of oral folk literature. For hundreds of years, it has been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. In the 1980s, the Chongwen District Cultural Center (now the Second Cultural Center of Dongcheng District) and the Temple of Heaven Park Management Office collected and edited "Chongwen Folk Literature Selection" and "Temple of Heaven Scenery Legends". Since the national intangible cultural heritage survey in 2005, the Chongwen District Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center (now the Dongcheng District Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center) has organized forces to collect and record a number of new Temple of Heaven legends. The Temple of Heaven legends have profound historical, cultural and literary value. First, it embodies a series of Chinese cosmological views such as "the sky is yang, the earth is yin", "the sky is round and the earth is square", "the unity of heaven and man", and "the resonance between heaven and man". Second, whether it is related to the architecture and function of the Temple of Heaven, or the philosophical concept of the harmony of yin and yang, or the legends related to the emperor's appearance and customs, they are all interpretations and interpretations from the perspective of ordinary people. Third, the Temple of Heaven legends are spread in various ways, and they are extensive and extensible in the process of dissemination.