Ancient Learning

(May 26th) Today we went to Yuelu Academy. This one of the four great academies of ancient China and is still in use today. This school was founded way back in 976 A.D. making it 2 centuries older than Oxford. Of course it was another rainy day today, but perhaps it made this courtyard look even more serene.

Yuelu academy has many buildings, all of which are connected by various paths, and everywhere you turn there are small gardens and courtyards. In fact, China as a whole seems to be filled with gardening. Whether it is along the side of major roads and highways, between building, or little alleys, you can usually find some gardens and the Chinese seem to be more elaborate with their landscaping as well.

As I walked through the academy, it was easy to feel that this place would be a very calm and tranquil setting for learning. Changsha as a whole is a very loud city and apparently Chinese cities in general are like this, but here is one of the few places you could find a den of solitude.

The architecture of the academy was amazing. There were all of these paths connecting the various buildings and they seemed to flow out of the land itself, often being suspended in the air or curving around gardens. It isn't designed for taking the straightest path between buildings, but rather out of an aesthetic appreciation.

The classrooms here are a bit different than what we see in the west. Students kneel on the ground in a large square in front of a covered platform. On this platform there is a chair for the teach and sayings of ancient wisdom painted in careful strokes behind him. This lecture halls take only a fraction of the space, as other buildings make up the bulk of the grounds.

On the way out of the academy, I took this photo of the main building that houses the lecture hall for students. You can see it was still raining. The building maintains a dominance that contrasts with the gentle construction of the other buildings.