What were the ancient academies used for?

Ancient academies are places where disciples gather to give lectures and learn knowledge.

During the period from the end of Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, wars were frequent, official schools declined, and many scholars lived in seclusion in the mountains, so they imitated the Buddhist meditation system to establish academies, forming a unique educational organization form in China feudal society. Academy is a higher education institution that integrates book collection, teaching and scientific research. The academy system sprouted in the Tang Dynasty, perfected in the Song Dynasty and abolished in the Qing Dynasty. It has a history of more than 1,000 years, and has had an important impact on the education and cultural development of China feudal society.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, there were more and more academies which mainly gave lectures. With the development of Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty, the academy gradually became a place for school activities. There are four most famous academies in Song Dynasty: Bailudong Academy in Lushan, Jiangxi, Yuelu Academy in Changsha, Hunan, Yingtianfu Academy in Shangqiu, Henan, and Songyang Academy in Dengfeng, Henan. Most colleges raise funds to build their own schools. Teaching takes the form of self-study, which combines lectures and teacher's guidance. Its characteristic is to educate and cultivate people's knowledge and virtue, not to gain fame for exams.

There were more than 1200 academies in the Ming dynasty, but there were also government-run academies. Some private colleges and universities teach freely, attacking the disadvantages of the times and becoming places for ideological public opinion and political activities. The most famous is Donglin Academy in Wuxi, Jiangsu. The ruling class of the Ming Dynasty destroyed and banned the academy four times, but the academy was tenacious and was destroyed many times. Under the harsh political oppression, college teachers and students would rather die than surrender. The couplet of Lindong Academy wrote: "The wind and rain sound the sound of reading, and the sound is heard; Family affairs and state affairs, everything cares. "

There were more than 2,000 academies in the Qing Dynasty, but they also reached the peak of official learning, and most of them were no different from official learning, such as the two lakes academy founded by Zhang Zhidong in Wuchang, Guangzhou Yuexiu Academy and so on. In the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu (190 1), it was ordered that provincial academies be changed into university halls, state academies, provincial academies and zhili academies be changed into middle schools, and county academies be changed into primary schools. At this point, the academy withdrew from the historical stage.