Guisheng Academy

　　 In the 19th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1591), the great dramatist Tang Xianzu was demoted to the position of Supplemental Registrar in Xuwen County after submitting a petition that offended Emperor Shenzong and powerful court officials. During his tenure, he observed that the local people “undervalued life and lacked knowledge of rites and righteousness.” Therefore, together with the then-county magistrate Xiong Min, he donated funds to establish the academy in the same year, 1591. Tang composed a series of literary works such as “On Guisheng Academy” and “On Mingfu,” advocating the principle of “a noble person studies the Way in order to love others.” He promoted the ideas that “human nature is the most precious under heaven” and “to know life is to know self-worth, and also to know that all lives under heaven deserve to be valued.” These teachings played a certain role in social enlightenment at the time.

　　 The academy faces south and is built along a north-south axis, with a sequence of structures including the front hall, central hall, pavilion, and rear hall, arranged in a traditional four-courtyard courtyard complex. The front hall features a flush gable roof, with a total width of 13.5 meters and depth of 7 meters. The plaque above the entrance is made of gray plaster and inscribed with the four characters “贵生书院” (Guisheng Academy). There are two six-room study wings on the east and west sides, each divided into twelve study rooms named “Erudition,” “Inquiry,” “Reflection,” “Discernment,” “Practice,” “Investigation of Things,” “Extension of Knowledge,” “Sincerity,” “Rectification of the Mind,” “Cultivation of the Self,” “Ordering the Family,” and “Governing the State.” In 1985, the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee and the Xuwen County People’s Government funded the recasting of a vivid statue of Tang Xianzu. Guisheng Academy was designated as a Guangdong Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 1989.