The name of the academy began in the Tang Dynasty, and it was originally a place for official revision, proofreading and book collection. For example, after Li Zheng revised the Academy, it was renamed Jixian Temple Academy, which was built in the 11th year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. The duty of the college administrator is to "compile ancient and modern classics to learn from the grand ceremony of the country, and the consultant should also serve as the emperor's attendant." In addition, in the Tang Dynasty, some private places for reading and giving lectures were also called academies, such as Huangliao Academy. In Jishui County, Jiangxi Province, Tang Tong sentenced Liu Qinglin to give lectures. Songzhou Academy, located in Zhangzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province, is the place where Jun and scholars "give lectures"; Yimen Academy, located in Tang Yimen, Chen Zhou, De 'an County, Jiangxi Province, stayed behind to establish a scholar with thousands of books. His children's weak crown made them study in Cyndi Luo and Luo Jian, where Wu Tong Academy gave lectures. ? Academy flourished 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 was maintained by private lectures. In the early Song Dynasty, the rulers were too busy with military conquest to take care of school building and teaching, so the private academy was further developed and formed an educational organization with great influence and outstanding characteristics. Zuqian of Lu Song said in Bailudong Academy: "At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Simin first appeared in five seasons, 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. " In addition to Bailudong, Yuelu, Suiyang (Yingtianfu) and Songyang, the most famous academies in the early Song Dynasty included Maoshan and Shigu. These academies generally developed from private seclusion to building houses, collecting books, and giving lectures; Most of them are set in secluded places in the mountains, and later generations think that they are influenced by Buddhist Zen forests.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, academies declined for a time, which was due to the rulers' efforts to set up official schools and emphasize imperial examinations in order to control education more directly. Scholars learn many laws, and it is rare to be an official without the imperial examination. They don't want to live in the mountains for a long time and lose interest in the academy, so that "the academy was abandoned until the end of Chongning." However, the official school in the Northern Song Dynasty quickly became a vassal of the imperial examination and became increasingly corrupt, so the wind of setting up academies in the Southern Song Dynasty revived. The development of academies in the Southern Song Dynasty was closely related to the prevalence of Neo-Confucianism. Academy has become an important base for studying and spreading Neo-Confucianism. Zhu played an important role in the revival of academies in the Southern Song Dynasty and had a far-reaching influence on the development of academies in later generations. He discovered the former site of Bailudong Academy in Lushan Mountain in the sixth year of Xichun, and applied for reconstruction in the following year, which was successful. Zhu set rules for the academy, and made systematic and detailed provisions on the purpose of the academy, the order of learning, the importance of self-cultivation, handling affairs and accepting patients. Known as the "Bailudong Academy Rules", it was followed by most academies in later generations and had a considerable impact on the development of education in feudal society in China.
In the early Song Dynasty, the imperial court made great efforts to select talents through the imperial examination, but neglected the schools that trained talents. Song Renzong's Fan Zhongyan and Song Shenzong's Wang Anshi successively criticized this wrong practice of only taking talents and not raising people, thinking that this practice was as stupid as farmers waiting for harvest and not farming, which eventually led to the exhaustion of talents. Fan Zhongyan believes that it is important to choose sages, but if you choose not to teach, you will be short of people for a long time, and sages will not continue, so teaching is the first and selection is the second. Only by advocating strict imperial examinations can talents be obtained, and only through education can talents be obtained. Wang Anshi believes that the imperial examination is only to learn by rote, and schools spend a lot of time preparing for the imperial examination, instead of teaching things that are practical for all countries, and what they learn later is completely useless. In order to reverse the social atmosphere of valuing imperial examinations over schools, he stressed that schools should play an active role in cultivating talents. He suggested that talents should be gradually unified in schools, that is, all students studying in the Central Government School passed the school exams instead of the imperial examinations and were directly awarded the official positions. Bringing talent selection into talent training means handing over the function of talent selection to the close combination of school and school education, which not only gives full play to the positive role of school in talent training, but also improves the social status of the school. Both Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi's reforms were defeated by conformist forces.