Nanjing Xiyin Academy

Nanjing Xiyin Academy

Nanjing Xiyin Academy is a protected cultural heritage site of Nanjing.

Nanjing Xiyin Academy

Nanjing Xiyin Academy was one of the eight renowned academies in Nanjing during the late Qing Dynasty. The academy was established in the 18th year of the Daoguang reign (1858) by Tao Shu, the Viceroy of Liangjiang.

This academy has many stories. During the Guangxu reign, Duanfang, the Viceroy of Liangjiang, constructed two traditional-style library buildings on the original site of the “Xiyin Academy” in Nanjing’s Longpanli, creating China’s earliest public library. It housed the collection from Ding Bing’s “Eight Thousand Volume Tower” along with many other precious editions. After the Xinhai Revolution, the Jiangnan Library underwent several name changes, but the “Eight Thousand Volume Tower” collection remained largely intact. Today, the collection from the “Eight Thousand Volume Tower” has been relocated to Hujuli and is specially preserved in a dedicated storage area by the Ancient Books Department of the Nanjing Library.

The academy was quite large in scale. It hired the renowned scholar Xue Shiyu as its headmaster and selected outstanding students to enroll, nurturing numerous talents. In the late Qing Dynasty, when Duanfang and four other high-ranking officials visited Europe to study, they praised the libraries of Western Europe. Later, when Duanfang became the Viceroy of Liangjiang, he founded China’s earliest public library — the Jiangnan Library (now the Special Collection Department of the Nanjing Library) here in 1907, appointing Miao Quansun, an editor at the Hanlin Academy, as the library’s director.

According to historical records, in February 1912, Mr. Lu Xun, at the invitation of Cai Yuanpei, came to work at the Ministry of Education of the Nanjing Provisional Government. In his spare time from work, Lu Xun often visited the Jiangnan Library with Xu Shouchang to borrow rare books. At the Jiangnan Library, Lu Xun once copied by hand the annotated edition of the “Book of the Later Han” compiled by Sun Zhizu and supplemented by Xie Cheng, titled “Xie Cheng’s Book of the Later Han: Supplement to the Omissions.” The “Tao Feng Tower” of the Jiangnan Library is simple and elegant. In front of the building, there are also two nearly hundred-year-old ginkgo trees, making the environment extremely beautiful. The site has been listed as a protected cultural heritage site of Nanjing.