The name of the academy first appeared in the Tang Dynasty. At first, it was an official place to revise, proofread and collect books. According to the examination, in the sixth year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (7 18), Gan Yuan Academy was changed to Lee Jung Soo Academy, and the word "Academy" appeared in Historical Records. In the 13th year of Kaiyuan (725), Lee Jung Soo Academy was renamed Jixian Temple Academy. The duty of college administrators is to "collect and sort out ancient and modern classics to learn from national ceremonies and prepare countermeasures", and also to be the attendants of the emperor and "doubt the history books by quality". In addition, some private places for reading and giving lectures in the Tang Dynasty were also called academies, such as Huangliao Academy founded by Liu Qinglin in Jishui County, Jiangxi Province in the Tang Dynasty. Songzhou Academy, built in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, is the "lecture center" of Chen Jun, the son of Chen Yuanguang, a Confucian general in Tang Dynasty, and Wu Tong Academy, built in Fengxin County, Jiangxi Province, is the lecture center of Cyndi Luo and Luo Jian. ...
The popularity and prosperity of academies appeared in the early Song Dynasty. During the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, due to years of war, official schools were abandoned, and education depended entirely on private lectures. In the early Song Dynasty, the rulers were too busy with military conquest to set up schools, so the private academies were further developed and formed educational institutions with great influence and outstanding characteristics. Lv Zuqian, a famous Neo-Confucianist in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote "The Record of Bailudong Academy": "At the beginning of the country, the people were new in the fifth season, and there were few scholars. The sea is peaceful, and the style of writing is getting stronger. Confucian scholars often give lectures by mountains and forests, and the number is hundreds. Songyang, Yuelu, Suiyang and Shidong are particularly famous, and they are known as the four major academies in the world. " There were many famous academies in the early Song Dynasty. These academies generally developed from private seclusion to building houses, collecting books and giving lectures. Because the location of the academy is mostly in a secluded place in the mountains, the person in charge of the academy, that is, the "dean" in the modern sense, is called the "mountain leader". It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that the imperial examination was abolished that the academy was renamed as a school and the name of Shanchang was abolished.