Peitian Nanshan Academy

Peitian Nanshan Academy

Over five centuries ago during the Chenghua era of the Ming Dynasty, in the small village of Peitian, the seventh-generation ancestor Wu Zukuan cut wood and cleared grass to build a "Stone Hillock Thatched Cottage." He hired down-and-out scholars to teach a few children in the village how to read and write. As the verse goes, “Two masters took up teaching duties, while two or three disciples studied the classics,” indicating that the scale was very small at the time, yet it was the “originator of scholarly culture across the thirteen townships of Changlian.”

Upholding honesty in family governance and inheriting scholarly traditions have long been the ideals of Hakka education. Later, the "Stone Hillock Thatched Cottage" became the "Nanshan Academy," expanding both its building area and student intake. Scholars and Confucian intellectuals were employed as teachers, and the curriculum gradually aligned with the requirements of the imperial examination system. During the Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty, the Minister of War Pei Yingzhang was mandated to inspect Fujian and Zhejiang. He first went to Tingzhou, then toured Guanzhai Mountain in Liancheng, before crossing Wushi Sacrificial Ridge and climbing Qianxun Slope into Peitian. In other words, it was the refined scholarly atmosphere of Nanshan Academy that attracted him. After inspecting the academy, Pei Yingzhang was deeply moved and wrote a couplet: “Though a hundred li from Tingzhou city, it is the foremost gate to Confucian learning.”

By the Qing Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, a number of imperial scholars and Confucian scholars emerged from Nanshan Academy, with seven of them, including Wu Xi, serving in the imperial court.

Features of Nanshan Academy

A Crystallization of Wisdom: The emergence of grassroots academies can be seen as a crystallization of public wisdom. Unlike the impractical idealism of literati or the many official initiatives that often catered to worldly concerns, these academies were both grounded in rural realities and embodied lofty cultural ideals. The fact that Nanshan Academy not only endured for five hundred years but also continued to develop and improve is due to the fruitful outcomes of education, which sustained the villagers’ enthusiasm for running the school.

Academy Funding: The funding for the academy primarily came from the annual payment of one hundred dan of grain rent by the local “Yanqing Hall.” Any shortfall was covered by the Nan Village Ancestral Hall. By the Guangxu era, Wu Changfeng of the Wuting Public Ancestral Hall bequeathed 42 mu of land and 700 mu of rent to establish a charitable school warehouse, creating a system of financial aid and scholarships for students. This set a precedent for endowment funds supporting education, assistance, and merit rewards. The name change to Peitian Primary School occurred after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Prior to that, it generally operated under a school board system responsible for decision-making, construction, management, and hiring teachers, led by locally respected gentry. This continued until the principal system of the Republican era. The academy owned school fields, and the school warehouse had relatively stable income, unaffected by dynastic changes. Over the turbulent centuries in China, how many hopes of the peasantry were dashed due to lack of institutional protection? Today, Peitian Primary School, like other schools, has built new teaching buildings, but this modest institution with just 13 teachers and over 200 students owns 50 mu of bamboo groves and mixed fruit orchards—an achievement unmatched by sibling schools. This ancestral legacy has spared the school from the embarrassment of not being able to afford chalk or candles, and it lends an unusual serenity to the expressions of its teachers—a rare sight in their profession.

Teaching Methods: The flexible teaching approach fostered an intoxicatingly vibrant learning atmosphere. In 1906, the academy was renamed the Nanshan District Central National School of Changting County and began offering modern education. In addition to traditional subjects such as Chinese literature, history, geography, and composition, the curriculum included new subjects like mathematics and natural science; character-building courses such as self-cultivation, fine arts, and music; practical subjects like labor and handicrafts; and physical education to improve fitness, including sports and gymnastics—totaling more than ten subjects. Co-education was practiced, and boarding facilities were available for out-of-town students, bringing the content and form close to modern education. Most notably, English was taught—in the deep mountains of an inward-looking Qing Dynasty, where the outside world was barely known, children were learning English. One can imagine how astonished their parents must have been when they heard them conversing in English. Historical records indicate that the campus had a football field, horizontal and parallel bars, and even wooden horses. What did all this lively activity signify in an era when men had just cut off their long braids and women had just begun to unbind their feet?

Eminent Scholars from Bo Shui: During the imperial examination era of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this academy produced 191 successful candidates for the xiucai degree, 19 of whom entered government service, five reaching the fifth rank, and the highest attaining the third rank. Remarkably, in modern times, it also produced four students who studied alongside Sun Yat-sen in France and Japan. No wonder Ji Yun, Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy in the Qing Dynasty, after visiting the cluster of academies in Peitian, was impressed by the revival of the Central Plains tradition of farming and studying in Peitian, and inscribed the famous plaque “Eminent Scholars from Bo Shui.” Shall we talk of romance?

Progressive Ideals: The scholarly aura of the people of Peitian forged their openness and progressiveness. The “Daoshan Thatched Cottage,” also known as the “Infant Relief Room,” functioned as the village’s orphanage and home for the elderly. All orphans or seniors without family support were raised here through donations from villagers. Its unique social education and welfare system began taking shape as early as the Xianfeng era. The “Bamboo Cultivation Tower,” focused on exchanging and training skills in clay work, carpentry, carving, sculpting, and paper-cutting, the “Child Rescue Society,” which sought to correct son preference, and the “Daheshan Taoist Hall,” which enforced drug rehabilitation—all stand as evidence of enlightenment and progress. Across the entire Peitian ancient residential complex, whether in mansions or humble homes, patterns of ancient coins made of cobblestones are laid at doorways, courtyards, and pathways. These symbolize warding off evil and supporting righteousness, remind clan members of business awareness, and reflect the ancestors’ consistent emphasis on the integration of officialdom and commerce—an advanced notion in a feudal society where the rigid hierarchy of “scholar, farmer, artisan, merchant” was deeply entrenched.

Among the enlightened and progressive values of Peitian’s ancestors, the most noteworthy is the phrase “May We Discuss Romance.” These four ink characters are engraved on the interior wall of the Rongxi Studio. Beyond the visual impact, one is struck by how, in a feudal society marked by male superiority and strict gender segregation, the ancestors of Peitian held such progressive views. Rongxi Studio was originally intended to provide a space for local women to learn literacy, needlework, and etiquette. Its students were unmarried maidens and newlywed brides, with mothers, mothers-in-law, and elder sisters-in-law serving as teachers. The main curriculum covered family teachings and clan rules, especially the “Three Obediences and Four Virtues” such as respect, filial piety, harmony among siblings, order of seniority, gender distinctions, and kinship unity. The couplet “Bamboo friends at the courtyard broaden the heart; pines facing the door widen the view” conveys the studio’s aim to elevate women’s refinement and broaden their horizons. The plaque “Worthy Royal Figures” clarifies its goal of cultivating virtuous wives and good mothers.