Four Universities in China

● Bailudong Academy

Bailudong Academy is located at the southern foot of Wulaofeng in Lushan Mountain, Jiangxi Province. The academy is built on the mountain, and clusters of pavilions and gardens are hidden among the towering old trees. Bailudong was originally a place where Li Bo and his brothers lived in seclusion and studied in Zhenyuan in the Tang Dynasty.

It is said that Rip lived in seclusion at this time and once raised a white deer to amuse himself. Therefore, people call Li Bo "Mr. Bailuyuan", and because of this, it really feels like entering the hole several miles away from the foothills, so it is called Bailu Cave. During the first year of Southern Tang Dynasty, Bailudong was officially turned into a library, also known as Bailudong Academy, also known as "Lushan National Studies". Li Shandao is the owner of the cave, in charge of professors, setting up fields to gather disciples and becoming a place to give lectures and collect books. "The people of the Quartet have returned from their careers, achieved something in the world, achieved fame and fortune, and the list is endless." Song Taizong Taiping rejuvenating the country two years out of nine classics. In the fifth year of Song Renzong, Sun Chen built ten schools in the former site, called "Bailudong School", which together with Yuelu, Yingtianfu and Songyang became the "four academies" at that time.

Although Bailudong Academy was built in the early Song Dynasty, it was soon abandoned. It was not until the famous Neo-Confucianism Zhu rebuilt the Academy that Bailudong Academy became famous in China. In the sixth year of Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu learned about Nankang Army. When Zhu Peng arrived, Bailudong Academy had been destroyed by soldiers, the building had fallen, the forest garden was deserted, and dusty books and porches were everywhere. After repeated requests from Zhu, he finally agreed to rebuild Bailudong Academy. After the transformation, Bailudong Academy, with the temple as the center, formed a huge building complex with patchwork and complement each other. There are more than 360 halls and bookstores in the Academy, including Imperial Bookstore, Minglun Hall, Zongru Temple, Pantheon and Loyalty Festival Hall. The shrine is a temple where students pay homage to Confucius. On the two plaques above the door, the words "learning to be excellent is to be an official" and "a model for generations to come" are written. In the lecture hall, there is a book written by Zhu, "deer and swimming, where things are different;" Couplets of "peaks and springs intersect, knowing benevolence is the only respect" Zhu not only rebuilt Bailudong Academy, but also formulated strict rules and regulations of the Academy.

The Rules of Bailudong Academy not only embodies Zhu's educational thought of "respecting things, knowing and doing, being sincere, being upright, cultivating family, governing the country and calming the world" based on a set of Confucian classics, but also becomes the school-running style of China feudal society for 700 years after the Southern Song Dynasty and one of the earliest educational rules and regulations in the history of education.

Zhu also invited famous domestic scholars to give lectures at Bailudong Academy, and the academic atmosphere was quite active. In the second year of Song Dynasty, Zhu Peng and Lu Jiuyuan launched a fierce academic debate in Ehu, Yanshan County, Jiangxi Province. However, Zhu didn't hold a portal view because of this, and invited Lu Jiuyuan to give a lecture at Bailudong Academy. Lu Jiuyuan talked about a chapter in The Analects of Confucius, which was praised by teachers and students of Bailudong College. Some students were even moved to tears by Lu Jiuyuan's exquisite and incisive speech. Therefore, Zhu Peng specially carved the contents of Liu Jiuyuan at the gate of the courtyard. This is not only the first "lecturing" system in the academy, but also sets an example for different schools to give lectures in the same academy, and is passed down as a fable in the history of Confucianism in China. Since Zhu, Bailudong Academy, like Yuelu Academy, became an important base for spreading Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty.

At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Bailudong Academy was destroyed by war, and it was not restored until the first year of Ming Dynasty, and then expanded.

● Yuelu Academy

Yuelu Academy is one of the four ancient academies in China, and its predecessor can be traced back to the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties (about 958). In the ninth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty (976), Zhu Dong, the secretariat of Tanzhou, formally established Yuelu Academy on the basis of running schools by monks. After the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was changed to Hunan Higher Education School in the 29th year of Guangxu in the late Qing Dynasty (1903), and later to Hunan Higher Normal School and Hunan Industrial College. 1926 was officially named Hunan University. After thousands of years, it has always been called the "Millennium University".

Since its establishment, Yuelu Academy has been famous for running schools and spreading academic culture. The emperor of North Song Zhenzong summoned Zhou Shi, the leader of the mountain, and awarded him a book. The name of the academy began to spread all over the world, and it was known as "Xiaoxiang Bamboo Silk". Bishop Zhu of the Southern Song Dynasty gave lectures twice. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty gave "respect for truth", Wang Yangming's school of mind and Lindong school spread and exchanged ideas here, and Wang Fuzhi, a famous patriotic thinker in Ming and Qing Dynasties, studied here. In Qing Dynasty, Kangxi and Qianlong awarded the titles of "Learning from Nature" and "Learning from the South" respectively.

Yuelu Academy covers an area of 2 1 1,000 square meters. Most of the existing buildings are relics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The main buildings are the first gate, the second gate, the lecture hall, the semi-self-study hall, the teaching hall, Baiquanxuan, the Imperial Bookstore and the Confucian Temple. It is divided into lecture hall, book collection and memorial service. All the parts are interconnected and integrated, which completely shows the magnificent momentum of ancient architecture in China.

In addition to architectural relics, Yuelu Academy is also famous for preserving a large number of monuments, such as "Lushan Temple Monument" carved in Tang Dynasty, "Yuelu Academy Monument Workshop" carved by Song Zhenzong in Ming Dynasty, "Cheng Zi Si Yan Monument" carved in Qing Dynasty, "Learning Heaven", "Daonan Zhengmai" carved in Qing Dynasty, "Zhong Xiao Monument" carved by Ouyang Zhenghuan and so on.

● Songyang Academy

Songyang Academy is located at the southern foot of Songshan Mountain, about three kilometers north of Dengfeng County. Founded in the eighth year of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 484), it is called Songyang Temple. In the Tang Dynasty, it was changed to Songyang Temple, which was a place for Taoist practice. Songyang Academy was once a place of Buddhism and Taoism in history, and was later monopolized by Confucianism. During the Five Dynasties, the Zhou Dynasty changed to Taishi Academy. Songyang Academy flourished in the Northern Song Dynasty, with hundreds of students. Song Ting has a school official here, giving nine classics history. Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, founders of Neo-Confucianism "Luo Xue" in Song Dynasty, both gave lectures at Songyang Academy, and scholars from all over the world came here in succession. Since then, Songyang Academy has continued to educate students with Neo-Confucianism, becoming one of the birthplaces of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Academy was destroyed by soldiers, and was rebuilt by Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. Songyang Academy has been supplemented and repaired many times from generation to generation, and its scale has gradually formed and its layout has become increasingly strict. The organizational system of the academy is simple, elegant and generous. Songyang Academy, Henan Suiyang Academy (also known as Yingtian Academy), Hunan Yuelu Academy and Jiangxi Bailudong Academy are also called the four major academies in China, and they also occupy an important position in China.

Songyang Academy is surrounded by mountains on both sides, with Xiaoyao Valley streams flowing slowly south and Song Yue Temple streams flowing west. Two clear streams flow into Shuangxi River in front of Songyang Academy, and then meander southeast into Yingying. To the south of the college is an open fertile field. Standing at the entrance of Songyang Academy, you can look up at the peaks of Song Yue and overlook the panoramic view of Dengfeng City. The environment is beautiful, and it is worthy of being a reading resort. The architectural layout of the academy maintains the style before the Qing Dynasty, with more than 500 halls and galleries, consisting of five courtyards. First, the ancestral temple is dedicated to the sages related to the academy, then the lecture hall, then the Taoist temple, and finally the library. The houses on both sides were originally "Zhu Cheng Temple", a bookstore and a study. The wall of the gallery in the hospital is inlaid with inscriptions and messages from literati of past dynasties, and its content and calligraphy have their own characteristics. The west campus has some buildings in the teaching examination room of Songyang Academy in Qing Dynasty. Songyang College has a research field of past dynasties to pay for the college fees.

In addition to the long history of the Academy, the tourist attractions of Songyang Academy include the "General cypress" in the Western Han Dynasty and the "Datang Monument" in the Tang Dynasty. According to legend, more than 2,000 years ago, Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, visited Songshan Mountain and went to Songyang Temple at the southern foot of Songshan Mountain. As soon as I entered the door, I saw a Cooper, grotesque in shape, with dense branches and leaves, as cool as a gentleman. Emperor Wu is a soldier and has longed for a good soldier for many years. He looked forward to it for a long time, praised it and immediately named it "General". Unexpectedly, Songyang Temple is a place of crouching tiger, and the cypress trees seen through the Second Hospital are bigger than the "General". When Emperor Wu saw it, he was both surprised and hesitant, but he thought that he was the son of heaven and could not change his mind, so he mistakenly named the cypress tree in the Second Hospital as "the Second General". "General" smiled happily, bent over with laughter and turned into a crooked tree. "Erjiang" sulked and became angry, and became a hollow tree. The "three generals" were very angry about this. They stretched out a branch to the sky and rushed at the top of the skull angrily, as if they were fighting with others. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire in the late Ming Dynasty. Legend goes back to legend, but "General" cypress is really a rare towering tree in the world: the diameter of "General" cypress is 6 meters, and the diameter of "Second General" cypress is 15 meters. Twelve people can just hold the box arm in arm. The cypress is tens of meters high and vigorous, reaching the sky. It was sealed in the first year of Han Yuanfeng (BC 1 10). After thousands of years of vicissitudes, he is still full of vitality and deserves to be a brave man. In the west of the courtyard, there is a monument carved in the third year of Tang Tianbao (AD 744), commonly known as "Datang Monument", which is 8 meters high and is the largest stone monument in Songshan area. It tells the story of Taoist Sun Taichong's "nine turns to the golden elixir" for Emperor Li Longji of the Tang Dynasty. This is ridiculous, but the monument stands tall. Xu Hao's official script is neat, elegant and vigorous. Time flies, the Millennium is fleeting, and the absurdity of alchemy has become a joke. However, Ode to the Sense of Prosperity and Virtue in the Discipline of Songyang in Datang has attracted generations of audiences because it is a masterpiece of the Tang calendar, which is also an unexpected and interesting thing for the people who set up the monument.

● Yingtianfu Academy

Yingtianfu Academy, also known as Suiyang Academy, is located in the south of Shangqiu County. Founded in the late Jin Dynasty, it gained great popularity in the Northern Song Dynasty.

This used to be the place where Qi gave lectures. In the second year of Song Zhenzong Dazhong Xiangfu, Cao Cheng built 150 school buildings on the land and collected more than 1500 copies for enrollment. Another person who made Yingtianfu Academy famous was Fan Zhongyan, who sang "Worry about the world first, and enjoy the world later". Fan Zhongyan was a man with great ambitions when he was studying here. Although he was so poor that he could only eat pickles and porridge for a long time (the story of rowing and cutting porridge is told by Fan Zhongyan), he studied hard all year round, smelling chickens dancing in the early hours of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and then studying poetry books until midnight. Since Yingtianfu Academy is free, which is the biggest reason why Fan Zhongyan chose this academy, there should be many scholars like Fan Zhongyan in the academy. From this aspect, we can also see that the style of study of Yingtianfu Academy is very hard and rigorous.

Fan Zhongyan is also a hands-on teacher. Whenever he gives homework to various life problems, he should write one first, grasp the difficulty of the problem and the focus of writing, so that students can improve their writing level quickly. This practice is quite different from the phenomenon that many professors are eloquent when giving lectures today, but they are not brilliant when they are really applied to society. It is really worth learning for future generations. Yingtianfu Academy was originally located in the old town of Shangqiu, and the complete academy is no longer there. We can only look at some remaining buildings.