The Literate And Academy In Yuan Dynasty

The Academy was an important activity center for Literates in the Yuan Dynasty.Its prosperity was attributed not only to the official policy support,but also to the participation of the Literates.The relationship between Literates and Academies in the Yuan Dynasty reflected the political ecology of the time,the living conditions of the Literates,the education and the integration of different ethnic groups.To examine the Academies in the Yuan Dynasty from the activities of Literates,we can know the state and pursuit of the Literates in politics,economy,academic communication,culture,education and social civilization.The director of Academy was an outstanding representative of Literates.They used the Academy as a medium to present their new interpretations of Confucian classics to create academic ideas and Literates' consciousness in line with the era.Literates in the Song and Yuan Dynasties upheld loyalty.Their determination of not serving the new imperial court was constantly promoted by later generations.They were faced with a choice dilemma in the change dynasties:moral and social ethics required them to be loyal to the old dynasty,but the reality forced them to make their own right choice.Ming Tao Academy is a well-known Academy for lecture in the Southern Song Dynasty.It has a relatively complete record of the lectures the director of the Academy has given,through which we can have a glimpse of the Literates'spiritual world and the ways Neo-Confucianists and their followers used to create and spread the new Literate consciousness through Academy lectures.When the dynasty changed from Song to Yuan,the three directors of Ming Tao Academy:Hu Chong,Zhou Yinghe and Wu Jian,believers and preachers of Neo-Confucianism,became either adherents or turncoats.The reasons behind it can be found from their respective backgrounds and the situations when Song Dynasty was dying.The different choices of the directors when dynasty changed reflected the encounters of Literates at that time in different circumstances.Jiangnan Literate family and its descendants has experienced a process where change and inheritance coexisted at the turn of dynasties.Some Jiangnan Literates in the Song and Yuan Dynasties lectured in the mountains,bearing the old dynasty in mind,but this phenomenon lasted only for about one generation.Most of their descendants saw Yuan as a legitimate dynasty.Some maintained their families'educational superiority based on the Confucian household registration and Academies.When the imperial examination reopened in Yuan,these Literates gained a position in the regime through the exam and was an important part of the ruling class.As the change took place,some traditions of the Literate's family also continued.Jiangnan Literate Fang Fengchen was an adherent and lectured,as a hermit,in Shi Xia Academy built by his family.He firmly refused the Yuan's recruiting.However,his son Fang Liang chose to cooperate with Yuan officials to rebuild Shi Xia Academy and was appointed as the director through estate donation to the Academy.Thanks to the elite heritage in culture and education of the Fang family,Fang Fengchen's grandson Fang Daorui passed the imperial exam to become an official in the Yuan Dynasty and was still loyal to Southern Song Dynasty after Yuan was overthrown.The change and inheritance of the Fang family is typical in the Literate families in Jiangnan.Family Academy was an important form of the Yuan Academy.Its officiation made its creation and development firmly under the control of the government.Its universality reflected the downward trend in cultural education.Among all the family Academies,some were not confined to officiation and the form of family Academy.They had become influential regional academic centers under the guidance of certain Literate groups and laid the foundation for academic changes in the late Yuan Dynasty.Literates in Huizhou area in the Yuan Dynasty such as Hu Bingyuan,Chen Yue,Wang Yanchang made Ming Jing Academy an important academic center in the Southeast area and made the idea of "seeing Zhuxi's theory as the only orthodoxy one(Wei Zhu Shi Zong)" a predominant academic theory for a long time by means of annotating the Four Books and Five Classics,initiating Academy lectures and regularly holding exams,etc.Zhao Fang,Zheng Yu,Zhu Sheng and other junior Literates overcame the drawbacks of "Wei Zhu Shi Zong" and became the representatives of the Literates who "mediate the difference between Zhu Xi's and Lu Jiuyuan's theories" based on their early experiences as students of academic masters in the Academy and by means of Academy lectures.The Academy of the Yuan Dynasty has become a symbol of integration between Mongolian and Han ethnic group and other groups.Literates from different ethnic groups participated in the construction of Academy,which reflects the phenomenon of multi-ethnic literate circle at that time and leaves indelible imprints in the history of Chinese Academy.The children from Mongolian military family Qian Nu and Shu sutai founded their own Academies,which not only contributed to the change of their identities from brave men to Literates,but also won the praise from the emperor and greatly influenced their descendants.Inspired by duty and Literate culture,Mongolian officials Chou Di and Kui Kui still devoted themselves to the rebuilt of West Lake Academy in Hangzhou even during the war time in the late Yuan Dynasty.Retired Mongolian official Dan Ke founded three Academies in the Sichuan only by himself.He purchased more than three hundred thousand volumes for Shi Shi Academy,which contained the most books among Academies at that time.His deed received praise from Han Literate.Academy was one of the important activity centers for Literates in the Yuan Dynasty.A considerable number of collective works at that time were about Academy.These records about Academies and directors,to some extent,reflects not only the development of the Academy,but also the perception and impression of the Literates on the Academy and directors.They are the direct materials to understand the situation of the Academy in the Yuan Dynasty.Wu Cheng,Yu Ji and Huang Jin are different Literate representatives in the Yuan Dynasty.Through their collective works about the Academy,we can know what view the Literates at that time had about the Academy and the directors.This is also a very important aspect to learn about the relationship between man and Academy.In short,against the large background of officiation,Literates' operation of Academies did not reverse the drawbacks in whole,but as the main body of Academy activities,the Literates promoted the further spread and popularity of cultural education,facilitated academic inheritance and innovation,accelerated the integration of ethnic groups and rethought the development of Academy,which prepared for the emergence of gentry class in the Ming and Qing dynasties and brought about prosperity for the Academy in the Yuan Dynasty.