Yuelu Academy

Yuelu Academy was founded in 976 at the foot of Yuelu Mountain and became one of the four great academies of the Song, a centre of neo-Confucian teaching where Zhu Xi lectured in 1167 in a famous debate with Zhang Shi that drew students in such numbers that the pond was reportedly drunk dry by their horses. It has taught almost continuously since, becoming Hunan University in 1926, so the courtyards, lecture hall, library and shrine sit inside a working campus. The buildings are Qing rebuildings on the Song plan, with the lecture hall carrying the two characters for loyalty and filial piety carved large, and the mountain behind offers walks and autumn maple colour.

History

The academy was founded in 976, under the Song emperor Taizu, and became one of the four great academies of China, where the Confucian scholars Zhu Xi and Zhang Shi lectured. Under the Qing its pupils included Wang Fuzhi and, in the 19th century, scholar-officials such as Wei Yuan, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and Guo Songtao; in 1903 it became a modern institute of higher learning, named Hunan University in 1926, the only old Chinese academy to grow into a modern university, and in 1988 it was listed as a major national historic site (Wikipedia, Yuelu Academy).

What to look for

• The lecture hall - the teaching space with its carved characters and Song plan.
• The academy courtyards - a thousand years of continuous teaching in one site.
• The library and shrine - buildings honouring the academy's teachers.
• Yuelu Mountain - the wooded hill behind, red with maples in November.

When to go

March to May and September to November; the maples on Yuelu Mountain turn in late November and bring crowds. Changsha summers are extremely hot. The academy is inside a university campus and busiest at weekends.

Before you go

Buildings are Qing and later reconstructions rather than Song fabric. Entry is charged, and the site is compact. Interpretation assumes familiarity with neo-Confucian history.

Nearby

Hunan University surrounds it; Orange Isle lies in the river below.

Key facts