Wuyi Mountain Ziyang Academy

　　 Ziyang Academy is situated at the foot of Hidden Screen Peak in the fifth bend of Wuyi Mountain. It was first established in the tenth year of the Chunxi era of the Song Dynasty (1183) under the name Wuyi Retreat, expanded during the late Southern Song Dynasty and renamed Ziyang Academy, and then changed to Zhu Wen Gong Ancestral Hall during the Zhengtong era of the Ming Dynasty. The Song Dynasty Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi lectured here for ten years. The original complex included structures such as the Benevolence and Wisdom Hall, Hidden Quest Study, Cold Perch Studio, Evening View Pavilion, and Iron Flute Pavilion. Only parts of the lodging and Hidden Quest Study remain today. Many stone inscriptions and poetic works can still be found throughout the academy, notably Zhu Xi’s personally inscribed “So Pass the Travelers” and Chen Xing’s “Cliffs Towering Thousands of Ren” carved on Sun-drying Rock.

　　 Wuyi Retreat is located at the foot of Hidden Screen Peak in Wuyi Mountain. It is an academy personally planned and constructed by the Southern Song Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi in the tenth year of the Chunxi era (1183). It stands as one of the great architectural landmarks of Wuyi Mountain, hailed as “the grandest sight of Wuyi.”

　　 The origins of constructing Wuyi Retreat trace back to the fifth year of the Chunxi era (1178). That early autumn, while traveling through Wuyi with his brother-in-law Liu Yanji and the hermit Liu Fu, Zhu Xi was struck by the winding bends of the Nine-Bend Stream and the drifting mists beneath Hidden Screen Peak—a scene that refreshed his senses and inspired the initial idea to “settle this homeland” and “welcome the immortals’ call, bestow me the yellow silk scroll, gift me twin jade pendants, when shall my thatched hut rise to banish worldly din.” After years of careful planning and preparation, construction finally began in the tenth year of the Chunxi era (1183) and reached initial completion that same year. According to Zhu Xi’s “Miscellaneous Poems on Wuyi Retreat,” the layout was roughly as follows: nestled between the embracing slopes at the foot of Hidden Screen Peak stood a three-room structure called the Benevolence and Wisdom Hall. To its left and right were two bedrooms—one for Zhu Xi himself, known as the Hidden Quest Study, and the other for receiving guests, called the Lodging Quarters. Beyond the left slope lay a secluded mountain hollow with a stone gate at the entrance, named Stone Gate Hollow. Inside were rows of rooms serving as communal quarters for scholars, called the Goodness Observing Studio. West of the Stone Gate was another room designated for Taoist practitioners, known as the Cold Perch Studio. In front of the Goodness Observing Studio stood two pavilions—the Evening View Pavilion and the Iron Flute Pavilion. Outside the Cold Perch Studio ran a fence enclosing the space between the slopes, with a wooden gate hung with a plaque reading “Wuyi Retreat.” Upon its completion, Zhu Xi invited Han Yuji, prefect of Jian Ning, and the renowned historian Yuan Shu from Jian’an (modern-day Jianyang County, Fujian), among others, to celebrate. Han Yuji wrote “Record of Wuyi Retreat.”