Academies and Society in Southern Sung China

Linda Walton

Publication Year: 1999

Academies belonged to a broad constellation of educational institutions that flourished in the Sung (960-1279), an era marked by profound changes in economy, technology, thought, and social and political order. This study, the first comprehensive look at the Sung academy movement, explains the phenomenon not only as a uh_product of intellectual changes, but also as part of broader social, economic, political, and cultural transformations taking place in Sung China. Academies and Society in Southern Sung China makes extensive use of commemorative inscriptions and other documentation on nearly 500 academies and thus provides a crucial historical perspective on the origins of this key institution.

Published by: University of Hawai'i Press

Contents
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pp. vii-

Acknowledgments

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pp. ix-x

The subject of this book was suggested by my late mentor, Robert M.Hartwell, as a dissertation topic that would allow me to combine interests in both social and intellectual history. When it became clear—to me at least—that a study of Sung academies was too large in scope for a graduate student to tackle, I settled on a more limited local study for...

Introduction

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pp. 1-21

In 1259, Ma Kuang-tsu, prefect of Chien-k’ang (modern Nanking), assembled his colleagues to attend the opening convocation lecture in Spring Wind Hall at Illumined Way Academy, where the audience was said to number in the hundreds.¹ Chou Ying-ho, a protégé of MaKuang-tsu and headmaster of the academy, delivered the lecture.²...

Part 1. Geographies: Intellectual, Economic, and Sacred

1. From Northern to Southern Sung: Academies and the True Way Movement

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pp. 25-49

When the Southern Sung scholar Lü Tsu-ch’ien (1137–1181) looked back on the great academies of Northern Sung in his inscription for White Deer Grotto Academy, he summed up their development in the following way: At the beginning of the dynasty when people had just cast off...

2. Shrines, Schools, and Shih: The Thirteenth-Century Academy Movement

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pp. 50-86

Although intellectual geography continued to play a role in the thirteenth-century academy movement through the legacy of prominent teachers such as Chang Shih in Hunan and Chu Hsi in Fuchien, academies also shared a common institutional character that transcended region. Academies were both regional institutions and sites for the construction of supraregional identity based as much on social class affinities as regional ones. While authors of commemorative...

3. The Academy Movement: Economic and Sacred Geography

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pp. 87-117

Academies were concentrated in the very regions of the Southern Sung empire known to be the most economically advanced, populous, and prosperous, and for which we have the best records: Chiang-hsi, Chiang-tung, Fu-chien, Che-tung, and Che-hsi. Hu-nan, Ssu-ch’uan,and Kuang-tung also have relatively high concentrations of academies.¹ Regional variations and patterns in the academy movement at...

Part 2. Academies in the Society and Culture of the Southern Sung Shih

4. Kin and Community: From Family School to Academy

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pp. 121-149

As active as Chu Hsi and his followers were in promoting academies, seen the academy as a community institution that provided proper learning for the shih, in contrast to examination-oriented government resources to found academies where their sons could be educated inpreparation for taking the examinations. Academies dedicated...

5. Social Integration and Cultural Legitimacy: Academies and the Community of Shih

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pp. 150-172

By the Southern Sung, the local elite community included not onlynative resident shih, but also frequently others who resided there on either a temporary or relatively permanent basis. There are many examples of shih residing more or less permanently, without holding office, in areas other than where they were officially registered.¹ The...

6. Academies and the Learning of the Shih, CA. 1225-1275

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pp. 173-198

Although few records remain of the content of academy teaching in the thirteenth century, fifteen extant lectures, ten of which were given at Illumined Way Academy, suggest how philosophical concepts were transmitted to academy audiences by both scholars invited to lectureand officials who served as academy administrators. Through...

Conclusion

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pp. 199-214

Benjamin Schwartz noted long ago the tension between the demands of personal self-cultivation and public service that was central to Confucianism.¹ After the examination system was introduced in the T’ang, education was tied to the process of recruitment and selection for government office, thus privileging public service over personal ...

E-ISBN-13: 9780824861353
Print-ISBN-13: 9780824819620

Publication Year: 1999