Academies and Society in Southern Sung China

3. The Academy Movement: Economic and Sacred Geography

3  The Academy Movement E c o n o m i c a n d S a c r e d G e o g r a p h y  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 times were due to the influence of particular individuals, such as Chang Shih in central Hu-nan or Chu Hsi in northwestern Fu-chien, each of whom gathered large numbers of followers and inspired the building of academies. In addition to “intellectual geography,” discussed in chapter 1, other geographical conditions need to be considered in evaluating the regional distribution of academies. Although not as closely related to urban development as academies became in the Ming and Ch’ing,2 Southern Sung academies were by no means isolated scholarly refuges. The ideal of late T’ang retreats where scholarly recluses taught their students persisted in the origins of early Northern Sung academies. But the data for Southern Sung suggest very clearly that, although shrines at scholars’ studies may have been 87  located in rural settings, as these shrines were transformed into academies with the support of government officials, they were frequently moved into or close to urban centers, walled city enclaves that served as county or prefectural seats of government. In his inscription on White Egret Islet Academy in the 1260s, Ou-yang Shou-tao distinguished academies from prefectural schools by arguing that academies provided places for scholarly recluses to be drawn out of their rural retreats into more central locations where they could associate with other scholars and serve the needs of more students (see chapter 2).3 Li-yang Academy began as a shrine to Fan Chung-yen at the site C h a p t e r T h r e e  88  S o u t h e r n S u n g C h i n a of a Taoist temple where he had studied as a youth.4 After the shrine was destroyed (probably at the fall of the Northern Sung), his residence was restored beside the Taoist temple around 1195, and when it became an academy in 1226 it was moved near the city wall.5 Lü Tsuch ’ien’s Beautiful Pools Academy was located within the Chin-hua city wall. As Yuan Fu noted: “Although it is close to the market, it is not noisy. It is like fleeing the world, but not being an eremite.”6 The names of many academies bear witness to a nostalgia for the rural landscape, as academies named for mountains, gardens, streams, and other aspects of the natural environment continued to reflect the ideal of reclusion and retreat, even as they were moved to more urban settings . Although the phrase “beautiful pools” comes from the Changes commentary on the tui hexagram, referring to the collaboration of friends in study and moral self-cultivation, the name “Beautiful Pools” also directly alluded to two lakes in front of Lü Tsu-ch’ien’s original retreat to the west of the city.7 Looking at the broader context of location, we can identify clusters of academies along major transportation arteries, suggesting that accessibility was important in the selection of their sites. When Yuan Fu decided to build Elephant Mountain Academy, because the original site of Lu Chiu-yuan’s retreat was “in the mountains and not close to a thoroughfare,” he assigned one of Lu’s followers to find a similar place that would be more accessible.8 Ming, the site of ten academies, was the terminus of the canal between the Southern Sung capital, Hang-chou, and the seaport of Ming-chou (modern Ningpo), which served as the transshipment center for ocean-going trade to domestic markets.9 Hung, with twenty-four academies, lay in close proximity to P’o-yang Lake and at the point where a tributary of the Yangtze divides into the Kan and Hsin Rivers. Hung was also the intersection of two major highways: a north-south road from Chiang on the Yangtze that continued to its terminus in Kuang-chou, and an east-west road...