Zhengzhou, 9 September (ZXS) -- Songyang Academy: The ancient rhyme is leisurely, and the style of writing is endless

China News Agency reporter Han Zhangyun

This summer, Songyang Academy in Dengfeng City, Henan Province welcomed waves of research teams, who visited the Tang Monument, commemorated Confucius around Panchi, and stood under the "Ercheng (i.e. Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi)" hand-planted locust tree to listen to the allusions of "Chengmen Lixue".

Songyang Academy, named because it is located on the Yangmian of Zhongyue Songshan Mountain, is known as the "Four Great Colleges" together with Henan Yingtianfu Academy, Hunan Yuelu Academy, and Jiangxi Bailudong Academy.

On August 8, Dengfeng, Henan, tourists visited Songyang Academy. Photo by China News Agency reporter Han Zhangyun

Walking up the stairs, pines and cypresses towering in the sky, birds chirping quietly, the whole academy is very elegant and quiet. The Qianlong Emperor, who had traveled here, praised the poem, "The Songyang scenery of the academy is the clearest, and the stone building is the name of the imperial palace."

As soon as you step into the academy, you can feel the smell of books here. The two 4500,<>-year-old cypress trees in the courtyard seem to tell the world about the ups and downs of this ancient academy. Time has passed for thousands of years, and now, the sound of books in Songyang Academy has long been drowned in the long river of history, but the seeds of civilizational exchanges and mutual learning have taken root here.

"In the history of Chinese academies, Songyang Academy is famous for its long history and collection of famous artists. Songyang Academy was founded in the eighth year of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei (484 AD), then called Songyang Temple, and has a history of more than 1500,1035 years. Gong Songtao, vice president of the China Academy Society, who has long been committed to the study of Songshan culture, said in an interview with the China News Agency that in history, it was a place of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucian activities, and a cultural holy place of "three religions combined", and was renamed Songyang Academy in the second year of Song Renzong's Jingyou (<> AD).

On August 8, Dengfeng, Henan, tourists visited the 7,4500-year-old ancient cypress in Songyang Academy. Photo by China News Agency reporter Han Zhangyun

The existing main building of Songyang Academy was rebuilt during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, consisting of five courtyards, more than 500 halls and corridors, and buildings such as the Pantheon, the Hall of the Ancestors, the Temple of the Three Sages, and the Library Building, and its layout is closely related to the three responsibilities of the ancient academy - "lecturing, offering and collecting books".

Gong Songtao introduced that when Songyang Academy was established, it was at the peak of the development of ancient Chinese culture, and official schools were established throughout the country and prefectures and counties. Different from the official school, Songyang Academy is a school with the nature of a research institute, which specially invites prestigious scholars to teach, and recruits students with corresponding knowledge levels.

Especially in the Song Dynasty, Songyang Academy was a famous educational place at that time, and famous artists gathered and flourished.

According to historical records, the Song Dynasty famous Confucian Fan Zhongyan, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Sima Guang, Yang Shi, Han Wei, Zhu Xi and others all gave lectures at Songyang Academy. Among them, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, the founders of Cheng Zhu Lixue, have lectured here for more than ten years, and it is here that volumes 9 to 21 of Sima Guang's magnum opus Zizhi Tongjian were completed.

"The lectures of these famous Confucians have made Songyang Academy one of the birthplaces of Song Dynasty." Gong Songtao said.

Gray brick tiles, wooden diamond windows, inscriptions, ancient trees... Thousands of years later, when the students stood under the archway of Songyang Academy's "High Mountain Elevation" and looked back at history, they all admired the ancestors who taught here to solve their confusion.

In 2010, Songyang Academy was inscribed on the World Heritage List as part of the Dengfeng "Heaven and Earth" historical complex.

Since 2012, the "Songshan Forum – Dialogue between Chinese Civilization and World Civilization" has been located in Songyang Academy for many years, where cultural scholars from all over the world have discussed and carried out China's practice of dialogue between different civilizations on an equal footing in the world.

In recent years, research activities across China have continued to heat up. Songyang Academy has successively carried out activities such as "Pen Opening Ceremony", "Entrance Ceremony" and "Songshan Cultural Lecture Hall", attracting many teenagers and Chinese culture lovers to check in and experience Chinese culture in China. Today's Songyang Academy has become an important place to inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and the literary style has not stopped for thousands of years.

"As a place of lecture and research, Songyang Academy has cultivated a large number of talents for ancient China, and at the same time, it has always adhered to openness and innovation, not only teaching Confucian classics, but also guiding students to practice governing the country and economics, paying special attention to the cultivation of students' behavior and morality." Gong Songtao believes that Songyang Academy conforms to the trend of the times and pays attention to the combination of theory and practice, and its ancient teaching mode still has reference significance for contemporary Chinese higher education. (End)