Academy originated in Tang Dynasty and flourished in Song Dynasty. It is an important form of educational organization in China's ancient educational history and academic history. From the mid-Tang Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, it experienced thousands of years of school-running history, and formed a set of unique school-running forms, management systems and teaching methods, which made the traditional private schools with a long history mature and perfect. Although Lixia Academy and Jixian Temple Academy, which were established in the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, were palace libraries rather than educational institutions, they were the beginning of the name of "Academy". After that, some private academies in the Tang Dynasty were just places for scholars to study. Several of them, such as Huangliao Academy, Wu Tong Academy, Songzhu Academy and Dongjia Academy, have recorded teaching activities, marking the initial formation of educational institutions named after Shou Yuan. Academies in the Tang and Five Dynasties are often directly related to later academies. Therefore, it can be said that the Tang Dynasty was the embryonic period of Chinese academies.

Chinese academies flourished in the Song Dynasty, with a total of 397 academies, almost to the point of supplementing or replacing official learning, which was enough to eclipse official learning. The most striking sign of the academies in the Northern Song Dynasty is the emergence of a number of privately-founded national famous academies. Due to the official support and funding, academy education has played an important role in replacing and supplementing official schools. There are dozens of academies in the Northern Song Dynasty, all over the country, among which Yuelu Academy, Bailudong Academy, Yingtian Academy and Suiyang Academy are famous. There are Shigu Academy, Maoshan Academy and Hualin Academy. The development of academies in the Southern Song Dynasty entered a new stage, marked by the combination of academies and Neo-Confucianism. As an institutionalized private school, the academy finally became mature and perfect. By Li Zongshi, there were more than 100 new academies in China, accounting for more than two-thirds of the total number of academies in the Southern Song Dynasty. As many as 20 books were awarded by Li Zong himself. The maturity and perfection of the academy system are as follows: the academy system of free lectures, academic research, difficult questions and arguments has also been fully formed; It is particularly important to clearly put forward the unique educational purpose of the academy, consciously distinguish between the academy and the official school, and oppose the academy becoming a vassal of science, so that the academy can become a place to train useful talents who can preach and teach. However, due to the official support for the academy, it also brought some official influence. Although the Ming Dynasty attached importance to culture and education, it focused on developing and perfecting official schools at all levels. In the early Ming Dynasty, the academy was in a state of silence. However, after the official school became a vassal of the imperial examination, a group of scholar-officials founded and revived the academy to save the disadvantages of the times and cultivate talents. Therefore, after Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, not only those famous academies with a long tradition of giving lectures (such as Bailudong, Yuelu, Wuyi and Shigu) were revived one after another, but also many new academies were founded. The real revival of academies in Ming Dynasty was after the rise of Wang Xuesi in Zhengde period, which not only established a large number of academies, but also restored the spirit of free lectures in academies, making academies the most important academic base. The prevalence of free lectures is bound to be opposed by autocratic rulers. In the middle and late Ming dynasty, the rulers felt more and more need to strengthen ideological control, so four famous academies were banned in history (that is, in the sixteenth year of Jiajing, the local academies were officially banned; In the seventeenth year of Jiajing, "the Academy of the World was ruined"; In the seventh year of Wanli, Zhang was in power and ordered the destruction of the academy. In the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Donglin Academy was banned and spread to other academies, which reflected the contradiction and conflict between free lectures and feudal absolutism. However, the number of academies in Ming Dynasty still far exceeded that in Song and Yuan Dynasties, with a total of 1, 239 academies. The Jiajing Wanli period was the most. In terms of space, there were 19 academies in the Ming Dynasty, but they were mainly concentrated in the south of the Yangtze River, especially in Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang and Hunan. This is closely related to the political and economic development at that time, especially the academic development.

After the Manchu entered the customs, although the rulers of the Qing Dynasty adopted the policy of worshipping Confucianism and attaching importance to education, they held a strict attitude of restraining the academy and hindered its development. After Kangxi and Yongzheng, the academy gradually recovered, with not only private creations, but also the worship of many local officials. Kangxi advocated Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, and awarded the tablet of "Learning to be an Official" to Bailudong Academy and Yuelu Academy, and the tablet of "Learning to be an Official" to Suzhou Ziyang Academy. Kangxi's move played an objective role in supporting the academy. Yongzheng changed the passive policy of preventing restrictions into a positive attitude, issued letters affirming the social role of academies and providing economic security, which promoted the development of academies in Qing Dynasty. Gan Long not only supports the construction of academies financially, but also attaches great importance to the appointment, reward and promotion of teachers and the entrance examination for college students. The policy of "Yong Gan" brought two characteristics to academies in Qing Dynasty: First, the scale of academy construction reached a historical peak, and academy education was fully popularized; Second, the problem of official learning in colleges is more serious and prominent. The number of academies in the Qing Dynasty exceeded that of any previous dynasty, 1900, and they were all imperial examinations and vassals.

Academy reform in late Qing Dynasty. Academy system is the product of feudal society in China. With the decline of feudal society, it will inevitably decline. Therefore, the academy reform is not a personal wish, but a historical choice. From the middle Tang Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, the Academy experienced thousands of years of school-running history and formed a unique school-running form, management system and teaching methods. Make the traditional private school with a long history mature and perfect. Therefore, the academy has become a bright pearl in the history of ancient education and learning in China.

The department and organizational system of the college consists of the college head (or dean, cave owner and professor, who is the director of the college's teaching management), the college head (or another name for the college head, or assisting the management and teaching work of the college head under the leadership of the college head, or selecting students from class records to collect students' difficult problems), seniors (or equivalent to the teaching of a certain subject, or the head of the college's educational administration, or student cadres who mainly manage students' study and conduct. ), president (selected from the students with excellent academic performance, responsible for assisting the mountain leader to review the examination paper), fasting leader (selected from the students with excellent academic performance, helping the mountain leader to engage in teaching, administration and daily life management), and economic leader (selected from the students by the mountain leader, and the students are familiar with the economic leader). Responsible for analyzing suspicious items for students), prison (a college affiliated to Shanchang, whose main responsibilities are to be responsible for the administration, finance and inspection of students' conduct), first of all (a kind of management of the college), in charge of temples (in charge of sacrificial activities in the college), books (in charge of the storage and lending of college books) and library offices (in charge of all kinds of documents and archives of the college).

Second, the academic research forms of the academy: writing, academic discussion and school establishment;

Thirdly, the style of study in the academy is characterized by emphasizing the goal of moral education and opposing studying for the imperial examination; Advocate academic originality and oppose sticking to chapters and sentences; Open the door to run a school and accept the strengths of each family; Respect teachers and love students, and establish a harmonious relationship between teachers and students.

To sum up, the academy is the result of the long-term development of traditional private schools in China, and it is an advanced feudal institutionalized private school.

In a word, we can't simply judge the advantages and disadvantages of China's ancient education, but should make a concrete analysis to seek enlightenment and reference value for future generations from the dialectical relationship between advantages and disadvantages or gains and losses. Confucius was the greatest educator and educational thinker in ancient China. Confucian culture represented by him had a far-reaching impact on the development of cultural education in China. His educational thoughts are embodied in The Analects of Confucius.

Starting with the discussion of human nature, Confucius thought that there was little difference in human innate nature, and the differences in personality were mainly formed after birth ("similar in sex, far away in learning"), so he attached importance to acquired education and advocated "teaching without distinction".

Confucius' theory takes "benevolence" as the core and the highest moral standard, and advocates "see no evil, don't listen to indecent assault, don't speak indecent assault, don't move indecent assault", emphasizing loyalty, filial piety and benevolence.

Confucius's "don't be angry, don't be angry, don't be unhappy, don't be angry" shows inspiring teaching principles; "Learning without thinking is useless, thinking without learning is dangerous" emphasizes the combination of learning and doing, and requires applying what you have learned.

At the end of the Warring States Period, Xue Ji in The Book of Rites was a rare world educational ideological heritage.

(1) "Learning is the only way to turn people into customs" and "Governing the country and ensuring the people, teaching first" reveal the importance of education and the relationship between education and politics;

(2) "Teaching should have a proper job and retirement should have a place to live", advocating the combination of in-class and out-of-class;

Thirdly, the dialectical relationship between teaching and learning and the concept of "strict teacher and heavy teacher" are put forward.

(4) "The teaching of gentlemen is metaphorical" and "Tao leads to traction, strength leads to restraint, and opening leads to success" advocate heuristic teaching;

⑤ "Learning is not equal to waiting" means advocating gradual progress. Taoism advocates returning to nature and humanity, and letting nature take its course is the best education.