Songyang Academy of classical learning

    Songyang Academy is located at the south foot of Mountain Songshan, 3 kilometers north of Dengfeng County seat. Embraced by hills to the east and west, Songyang Academy enjoys a beautiful view with two brisk clear springs joining in front of it into a river and fertile fields extending far away to the south. Standing at the academy gate, visitors can see all the peaks of Mountain Songshan and overlook the Dengfeng County seat. Being an ideal place for study, it is laurelled as one of the Four Academies of the Song Dynasty (960-1729 A.D.), together with the Suiyang Academy in Suizhou (also named “Yingtian Academy”), the Yuelu Adacemy in the Hu'nan Province and the Bailudong Adademy in Jiangxi Province.
    In history, Songyang Academy was jointly dominated by Buddhism and Daoism at first, later by the Confucianism exclusively, however. During the ages from the Later Zhou Dynasty (951-959 A.D.) of the Five Dynasties Period (907-959 A.D.) to the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), Chenghao and Cheng Xi, two great masters of the Luo School of the Confucianism, spread their theories here with hundreds of students. First built in 484 A.D., it had been remedied and extended for several times in different dynasties, later developing into an academy of a large scale with an air of simplicity and elegance.
    General Cypresses of the Western Han Dynasty and the Great Tang Stele of the Tang Dynasty are the feature cultural relics of the Songyang Academy. Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago, when Liu Che, namely Emperor Hanwudi of the Han Dynasty came to visit the Songyang Academy, he was much impressed at the grand flourishing cypress standing in front of him on his stepping into the courtyard. Looking up for a while, he granted a title of “the Greatest General” to it without much thought, out of appreciation. Stepping further into the second court, however, another cypress even more majestic appeared. Regretful as he was, he could only name this cypress “the Greatest General No.2”, for every word spilt out by Chinese Emperors, those sovereign rulers of China, would never be taken back.

Publishes at : 07-07-14 13:55

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