Yiyang Longzhou Academy

Yiyang Longzhou Academy

Longzhou Academy is located on Gu Tai Mountain on the southern bank of the Zi River in Yiyang. In the 30th year of the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty (1551), Magistrate Liu Ji personally donated his salary and ordered those “who had committed very minor offenses and were able to atone for them” to contribute roof tiles and timber as compensation. He also gathered those who had encroached on the unused land of the county school and made them “help rebuild shrine halls and pavilions,” thereby constructing the academy on Gu Tai Mountain. The front of the academy faces the Zi River, and because it is located between Huilong Mountain and Shizhou, it was named “Longzhou.” It featured a main gate, lecture hall, student dormitories, the Zunjing Pavilion, the Five Sages Shrine, and the Miaohé Pavilion, among others. “Its scale and splendor surpassed even that of Shigu and Yuelu Academies,” and he wrote the Records of Longzhou Academy to document the project. He also invited Jiang Xin and others to lecture on “the method of the heart.” In the 16th year of the Chongzhen era (1643), the academy was destroyed in warfare. In the 61st year of the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty (1722), Magistrate Jiang Cheng rebuilt it. In the 12th year of the Qianlong era (1747), Magistrate Gao Ziwei rebuilt the Five Sages Shrine, which enshrined iron statues of five figures—Qu Yuan, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Shi, Zhang Yong, and Hu Yin—cast by Liu Ji. The deeds of Liu Ji and Gao Ziwei were thus recorded in the Yiyang County Annals, and Jiang Xin was added to the “Five Sages Shrine on the right side of the school, expanding it to Six Sages.” Jiang Kai, because he “lectured on Gu Tai” and managed the “Five Sages Shrine affiliated with the academy,” received such deep respect from the locals that when he later took up an official post in Junzhou, “the elders of Yiyang traveled over thousands of miles across lakes and rivers to visit him in Junzhou, without fail year after year.”

In the 37th year of the Qianlong era (1772), Magistrate Feng Dinggao added structures such as a stone memorial archway and the Dongyuan Pavilion. In the 25th year of the Jiaqing era (1820), Jiang Yong was substituted for Zhang Yong among the Five Sages. In the 2nd year of the Xianfeng era (1852), Qing troops were stationed here to fight the Taiping Army. In the 4th (1854) and 9th (1859) years of Xianfeng, Magistrates Lin Tingshi and Zheng Benyu oversaw renovations. In the 11th year of the Guangxu era (1885), Magistrate Mao Longzhang expanded the student dormitories and increased enrollment quotas due to the growing number of students. In the 31st year (1905), it was converted into Yiyang School. Since the Xinhai Revolution, it has successively been renamed as the First Higher Primary School of the County/City, Longzhou Normal School, and others. After 1949, Longzhou Normal School merged with the Provincial Fifth Normal School and was renamed Yiyang Normal School. Its site was later used as a hospital, the Yiyang Regional Cadre School, and a branch of the Provincial Fourth Middle School. Since 1952, it has been the Second Middle School of Yiyang City.

For over 450 years since the establishment of Longzhou Academy, it has never ceased its tradition of learning and culture. Many notable officials from the Ming and Qing dynasties came from here, represented by Yang Changsi, Grand Secretary of Yuanjiang, and Yiyang scholars Luo Yuyi and Guo Duxian. By the early Qing period, the students of the academy were influenced by figures like Guo Duxian and Luo Yuyi, maintaining their national integrity and refusing to serve the Qing court. As a result, the Qing government converted the academy into a charitable school for children’s education. Throughout the Shunzhi, Kangxi, and Yongzheng reigns, few scholars from Yiyang participated in imperial examinations. It was not until the Qianlong era that the academy gradually revived, and the number of Yiyang candidates passing the imperial examinations multiplied. During the Jiaqing era, figures such as Hu Dayuan and Tao Shu became successful examination graduates, with Hu Dayuan even being awarded the title of Tan Hua (third place). In the 13th year of the Tongzhi era (1873), Tian Yousu, Liu Jixun, and Long Xiang all passed the exams in one year, becoming a celebrated tale. In 1936, according to Zeng Zonglu’s estimation, among Yiyang natives, 154 individuals had achieved scholarly honors within just 50 years of the late Qing period.

During the democratic revolution, the academy produced numerous outstanding talents. Revolutionary martyrs such as Xiong Henghan, Xiao Shanling, Xia Xi, and Yuan Zhuren, historian Zhou Gucheng, literary theorist Zhou Yang, renowned writer Zhou Libo, and overseas Chinese educator Zhang Guoji all received their education here. During the socialist construction period, tens of thousands of its alumni spread out across the country.

In 1917, when Mao Zedong investigated the peasant movement in Yiyang, he stayed at the academy twice and also took a leisurely boat ride on the Zi River. Forty-six years later, when Mao invited Tian Shiqing, a fellow alumnus from the First Normal School of Hunan and a native of Yiyang, to reminisce in Beijing, he asked with concern about the state of the academy. He clearly remembered how, during the academy’s holidays back then, only the elderly workers remained behind, and they allowed him to stay upon realizing he was a scholar.

According to the Yiyang County Annals, the Zunjing Pavilion of Longzhou Academy at that time was five zhang tall. After the abolition of the imperial examination system in the late Qing Dynasty, Longzhou Academy underwent several name changes, and Gu Tai Mountain no longer retains its former shape. The storms of history have erased the traces of the ancient academy. Only this small corner of the garden still preserves two pavilions. One is the Ming-era Dongyuan Pavilion, whose name means “to explore the fundamental origins of all things under heaven.” The historian Zhou Gucheng, in his work A General History of the World, broke away from the “Eurocentric” view and proposed that the world is a diverse and interconnected whole, and that world cultures intermingle and influence one another—this idea serves as the most compelling evidence for the meaning of “Dongyuan.” The other is the Sanwu Pavilion, built in 1938 by 35 students of Longzhou who donated funds before leaving for the battlefields of the Anti-Japanese War.