Plum blossom Academy

Also known as Yangzhou Academy Museum, it is one of the ancient academies in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Zhongjian in Jiajing of Ming Dynasty was originally named Ganquan academy, also known as Chongya Academy. It was changed into Meihua Academy in the 12th year of Yongzheng of Qing Dynasty.

Plum blossom Academy

Meihua academy, one of the ancient academies in Yangzhou, is located outside Guangchu gate of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

Zhongjian in Jiajing of Ming Dynasty was originally named Ganquan academy, also known as Chongya Academy. It was changed into Meihua Academy in the 12th year of Yongzheng of Qing Dynasty.

History of Academies

Its history can be traced back to the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. In 1527, Zhan Ruoshui, the emperor's supervisor of the state, gave a lecture on the performance appraisal in Yangzhou, and Ge Jian, a Gongsheng in Yangzhou, was his teacher's preaching place to build a "sweet spring nest" outside the gate of Guangchu. Later, Zhu Tingli, the censor of salt inspection, was rebuilt into a "ganquanshan library", which was abandoned in the 37th year of Jiajing. In the 20th year of Wanli (1592), Wu Xiujun, the governor of Yangzhou, built a mountain by accumulating soil and planting plum blossoms. In 1734, Liu Chongxuan, the Tongzhi of Yangzhou Prefecture, and the son of Ma rizuan, the great salt merchant, restored the plum blossom Academy at the original site. Yao Nai, a famous Tongcheng School scholar, was employed as the head of the Academy, and Zhu Xiaochun, the history of salt transportation, was also a teacher here. In the year of Jiaqing, Hong Wu, a famous scholar of Anhui school, was also in charge of the Academy. During the period of Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang, Meihua academy and anding academy, another major Academy in Yangzhou, used teachers to exchange talents and expand their influence. Among the students of Meihua academy, there are many who have made great achievements. For example, Liu Wenqi, a famous scholar of Yangzhou school, and Ling Shu were educated in Meihua Academy. In addition, some celebrities such as Liu Taigong, Ren Dachun, Wang Zhong, Duan Yucai, Wang Niansun, sun Xingyan, etc., although it is not clear whether their academy is stable or Meihua, but as far as the mutual employment of teachers between the two academies is concerned, Meihua academy naturally has a certain impact on their academic achievements.

In 1866, Ding Richang rebuilt the Academy in Dongguan Street. Wu rangzhi, a famous calligrapher and painter, wrote "plum academy" and carved it into stone. In 1868, it gave way to anding Academy. Meihua Academy was moved to Zuowei Street official house, which is 123 years ago. Meihua Academy was changed into Zungu school in 1902, Lianghuai normal school in 1908, and Jiangsu Provincial fifth normal school in 1912. In the third year of the Republic of China, the Fifth Division moved to dawangbian and set up a primary school on the original site. The liberation department was abandoned as Meihua primary school. It was changed to Yangzhou No.7 Middle School in 1972 and Yangzhou Vocational and technical school in 1980. The ruins of Meihua academy include a nanmu hall, two book buildings, a corridor and a stone forehead. In 1990, the corridor of Meihua Academy was renovated to its original appearance, and a polished brick gate building was built at the school gate, which is very ancient and elegant. It is embedded in the book "plum blossom academy" written by Wu rangzhi in the fifth year of Tongzhi.

The name of Meihua academy is really related to Meihua. In 1592, the magistrate of Yangzhou dredged the moat, dug up mud and piled up a soil ridge on the open space, planted hundreds of plum trees on it, and built a paradise in front of the ridge as a resting place for the officials of the state and County who stayed in Yangzhou, and used these buildings as a lecture place for the students. When Niu YingYuan came to Yangzhou, he changed it into Chongya Academy. During the reign of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian banned the academy and Chongya Academy was destroyed. In 1734, after a long period of silence, the national trend of building academies began again. Liu Chongxuan, the Tongzhi of Yangzhou government, and Ma yueguan, the great salt merchant, built the plum blossom Academy in meihualing, the former site of Chongya Academy.

Ma yueguan was enthusiastic about culture and education. He built several houses in the former site of Chongya college. The front three couplets are gate houses, and the three couplets are instrument doors. There are also halls and lecture halls. There are sixty-four number houses, which shows the large scale. In the early years of Qianlong's reign, the Academy was renamed Ganquan academy, and it soon became known as Meihua Academy. In 1743, it was incorporated into anding academy, and the houses of Meihua Academy were restored to the Ma family.

In 1777, Ma Zhenbo, the son of Ma yueguan, petitioned to return the former Meiling plum blossom academy building to the public. Zhu Xiaochun, the envoy, accepted the petition and renovated the academy building. He wrote the plaque of "plum blossom academy" and engraved it on the lintel, and invited Yao Nai, a famous writer, to take charge of the Academy. So far, the Academy was established by the salt officials and aided by the salt merchants, with the frequent exchanges of famous teachers, scholars and scholars, and entered the most glorious period.

Unfortunately, Zhu Xiaochun resigned in 1780 and returned to Beijing. Yao Nai also resigned as head of Meihua academy and left Yang. After Zhu Xiaochun left Yangzhou, salt transportation envoys Zeng Li, salt administration erleb and akdanga took over Meihua Academy. Akdanga was very concerned about Meihua Academy. He increased the number of students and recruited more than 100 students from other places. In the 14th year of Jiaqing (1809), when the Ministry of rites examiners, akdanga gave the people travel expenses to Beijing to participate in the examination. Four people were selected in the first list, among which Hongying was the number one in high school and meihua Academy was well-known. Later, akdanga donated more than 4000 yuan to Xiaolian, and Jiahong donated two thousand yuan to build five couplets of Wenchang building in the Academy, which served as the place for Xiaolian's class and the hall for the number one scholar. For a time, Meihua Academy was as famous as Yuelu Academy, Songyang academy, Yingtian academy and Bailu Academy.

After more than 400 years of vicissitudes, Meihua Academy had a glorious heyday of salt officials and salt merchants, had the brilliant teaching achievements of four top scholars, and also experienced the depression and collapse of the prohibition of burning books and the shortage of war. The only thing that remained unchanged was the nine character education core of Meihua Academy, which was handed down as "entering the ritual gate, cultivating benevolence and taking the righteous road".

Today, the school here has been relocated. Meihua academy has been renovated as Yangzhou Academy Museum. The steles of Ren and Li in the academy have been restored. From the perspective of "entering the gate, cultivating benevolence and taking the road of righteousness" engraved on the entrance wall of the Academy, we can see that the moral category of Confucian Teaching Promoted by Meihua academy 400 years ago has been of far-reaching significance, influencing and educating generations of scholars.

Characteristics of teaching

Yangzhou academy education has a long history. As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Confucian master Cao Xian "gathered disciples to teach" in his hometown Yangzhou with selected works. Li Shancheng, his disciple, said that he created a precedent of academy education. In Song Dynasty, especially in Chenghua and Jiajing years of Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou academy developed rapidly. In the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi's southern tour presented the imperial book "to the scholars" to the academies in Yangzhou, which was made into plaques and hung on the lecture hall, giving great encouragement to the teachers and scholars. Since then, Yangzhou academies have sprung up, especially the "plum blossom" academy. Anding Academy has the greatest reputation. At first, there were only 30 students in the plum blossom academy, and then it increased to more than 100. There are two kinds of teaching in Academies: "official courses" and "academy Courses". "Official courses" were taught by local officials in academies. Mei Hua academy was taught by Liu Chong, the Tongzhi of Yangzhou Prefecture, and his distant relatives. Zhu Xuhe, the salt Minister of Huaihe and Huaihe, Jiang jianian, the magistrate of Yangzhou, Gao Shiyao, Zhu Hui, the magistrate of Jiangdu County, and Gong Jian, the magistrate of Ganquan County, successively gave lectures. "Yuan Ke" is taught by the academy "Zhang Yuan" (also known as "Shan Chang"). Most of the "masters" of Meihua Academy were famous teachers and scholars at that time. From Yao Nai to Jiang Zonghai, there were five of them. They were all well-known scholars with Jinshi background. Sometimes there was a saying that "scholars at home and abroad were well-known". When Yao Nai was lecturing the plum blossom academy, he taught his disciples ancient literature and semantics. He once compiled ancient literature CI Lei Zuan as a textbook for teaching ancient literature, and wrote Xi Bao Xuan Wen Ji, which is known as "Tongcheng literary school". The academies also often invite distinguished scholars to give lectures, which enlivens the academic atmosphere and broadens the horizons of the students. As a result, there are "a lot of students coming from all over the world" and "a group of scholars prospering at one time", which "shine on the prosperity of the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers".

Cultivating celebrities

According to the list of Jinshi in Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were 650 Jinshi in Yangzhou who passed the imperial examination in Ming and Qing Dynasties, including 245 in Ming Dynasty and 405 in Qing Dynasty. Mei Hua academy successively won four top scholars, including Li Chunfang from Xinghua, Wang Shidan from BAOYING and Chen Yan from Yizheng. In the 14th year of Jiaqing (1809) of the Qing Dynasty, four people were selected in the plum blossom Academy at one time. Among them, Hong Ying was the first in the palace examination and won the first prize. In October of that year, Yangzhou Salt minister akdanga went to Beijing to attend the celebration of Jiaqing's 50th birthday. Emperor Jiaqing personally inquired about Hong Ying's family background and commented that Hong Ying had "real talent and learning". After his return to Yangzhou, akdanga created the five pillars of Wenchang building after Meihua academy, which was used as the place for the Xiaolian class and the hall for the number one scholar For a time, Meihua Academy was as famous as Yuelu Academy, Songyang academy, Yingtian academy and Bailu Academy.

Current situation of Academies

The existing old house of Meihua academy also has a nanmu hall with three corridors in front of it. The back of the hall is connected with a two-story wooden building with three rooms in width. The front and back main rooms are on the same central axis, which is moderate and regular. In terms of function, the back eaves walls of each entrance room were originally equipped with middle doors, which were connected in front and back, and opened and closed as needed. The two entrances faced each other and connected in series. Now the original doors have been closed with bricks and stones. Building, the hall of Nanmu frame, thick beams and solid columns, grand and beautiful. Behind the two into the building, towering tall and straight, right and left high wall clip Qi, highlighting its solemn momentum. In the east of the second entrance hall, there is a gate building. In the north of the gate, there are 17 long corridors. The corridor in the north is more than 60 meters long, which is rare in Yangcheng. At the top of the west wall door of the corridor, there are also stone inscriptions of "plum blossom academy" written by Wu rangzhi, a calligrapher in the fifth year of Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty. In addition, there are brick inscriptions on the top of two small hexagonal doors

Chinese PinYin : Mei Hua Shu Yuan