Donglin Academy Travel Guide

Scenic spot introduction:

Donglin Academy was founded in the first year of Zhenghe period (1111 AD) by Yang Shi (nicknamed Guishan), a famous scholar and a direct disciple of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, a Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Northern Song Dynasty. It was a famous academy and a center for the spread of Neo-Confucianism in the Jiangnan region of my country during the Song and Ming dynasties, and was even more famous for the Donglin Party Incident in the late Ming Dynasty.

Attractions distribution:

Donglin Academy is located at the east gate of Wuxi city. The building complex covers an area of nearly 20 square meters, with white walls and black tiles, halls and corridors, and towering stone archways. Panchi The clear water and the towering ancient cypresses around it make the place look particularly quiet and peaceful.
Donglin Academy was founded in the first year of Zhenghe reign of Northern Song Dynasty (1111 AD). At that time, it was the place where Yang Shi (also known as Guishan), a famous scholar and a direct disciple of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, gave lectures for a long time. The origin of the name "Donglin Academy" is related to the poem "Walking on Donglin Road" written by Yang Shi when he visited Mount Lushan. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the people of the county built Yang Shi's ancestral hall here. In the tenth year of Zhizheng reign of Yuan Dynasty (1350 AD), the monk Yue Qiutan built Donglin Temple on it. It was not until the 20th year of Chenghua reign of Ming Dynasty (1484 AD) that the monk Xinliang rebuilt it. Over the past hundred years, The place became a Buddhist area; in the 32nd year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1604), Gu Xiancheng, who was dismissed from his post, together with his brother Yuncheng, as well as Gao Panlong, An Xifan, Liu Yuanzhen, Ye Maocai, Shi Menglin, Xue Fujiao, Qian Yiben and others, in order to inherit Yang Shi's teaching legacy, jointly advocated the reconstruction and restoration with ceremonial donations; after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, famous people in Wuxi gathered to restore the Donglin Academy to its original state and initiated reconstruction as the academy had fallen into disrepair; after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Wuxi Municipal Government restored the academy many times, basically restoring the layout and structure of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the style of its heyday.
Over the past 400 years, the academy has been rebuilt and destroyed many times. Lize Hall , stele pavilion, Daonan Temple There is a famous couplet written by Gu Xiancheng inside the building: "The sound of wind, rain and reading, each sound is pleasant to the ear; the affairs of family, nation and the world, everything is of concern", which has always been the spiritual palace of Chinese intellectuals.