A Study On Social Cultivation Of Academy In The Song Dynasty

Budded from Tang dynasty, flourishing in Song, lasting through Yuan and popularizing in Ming and Qing, Academy, as an important cultural and academic organization in ancient Chinese education history, remained prosperous over one thousand years. It was in Song that Academies gained rapid development and won illustrious reputation. As the carrier of the Confucian School culture, the Academies in Song involved themselves in society civilization and contributed to its development, which played a foundation—laying role in the whole history of Academies.The traditional Chinese society would never forget to attach great importance to the society civilization. Academies in Song, inheriting this tradition and promoting the work for public good through establishing new Academies, giving lectures to the masses and participating in society civilization, made a preeminent contribution to the event of society civilization in Song. They embodied the cultivation through profound culture intention which was contained by their distinct architecture, or passed down culture seed by collecting books, or pushed forward the improvement of local civilization by means of taking part in academic activities, or made great changes in local customs and practices by way of offering sacrifices to prominent and respectable scholars, and all those devoted the development of social civilization in Song.The Academies in Song, putting much emphasis on the cultivation of ethics morality, are characterized by their content and form of civilization close to ordinary people and achieved ideal social effect. The Academies in Song set an example to the later Academies in their accumulated practice and experience in society civilization, to some extent; they also guided the evolution of academics of later ages. So the reform of modern higher education should draw on the experience of Academies in Song, thus we can expect its glories.