Fang Guancheng (1696 ~ 1768) was born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province in the Qing Dynasty. During Yongzheng, this was the archives of Pingjun County King. In the seventh year of Qianlong (1742), he was awarded the Qinghe River in Zhili (the jurisdiction is in Taibus Banner, Inner Mongolia), and the official was the governor of Zhili and the prince of Taibao. He has been managing water in Zhili for 20 years, and has made dozens of master plans for river management before and after, and invited famous scholars such as Zhao Yiqing and Dai Zhen to edit Zhili River Canal Book 130 volumes. This book is of great benefit to the river regulation project in Zhili area in later generations. In addition, Fang's exploration and research on Confucian classics, literature and history are also very rich. Co-authored with Qin, a scholar, a 262-volume General Examination of Five Rites, which includes knowledge of astronomy, geography, algorithms, music, etc. He is the author of Shu Ben Tang Poetry, Tian Yihui Draft and Wen Ting Ji.
According to the Records of Xuanhua County, which was revised in the early years of the Republic of China, when Fang Guancheng visited the northwest with officials of the Qing court in the 20th year of Qianlong (1755) and passed by Xuanhua Prefecture, Zhang, the magistrate of Xuanhua Prefecture, and Huang Kerun, the magistrate of Xuanhua Prefecture, asked him to write the name of the academy and wrote an inscription for it. After visiting the academy, Fang readily agreed, and immediately wrote down the large-character plaque of "Liuchuan Academy" and drafted the manuscript of "Liuchuan Academy Inscription".
The inscription of Liuchuan Academy is not so much an inscription as an educational paper that expounds China's ancient educational thought. The article is profound and vivid, with vivid metaphors and rich principles of education and teaching, which is of great reference significance to our school education today. At the same time, the content written in this paper helps us to understand the construction history of Liuchuan Academy in Xuanhua and the general situation of the school buildings in Xuanhua Middle School (early). In view of this, we copied it. However, it should be noted that influenced by the ancient prose of Tongcheng School, this inscription pays attention to justice, pursues elegance and conciseness, and uses the written language of pre-Qin, so it is difficult to understand. Moreover, most of its contents are typed from the gossip of Zhouyi, which adds to the vague color of the inscription. To this end, we have rewritten some traditional Chinese characters in the inscription into corresponding simplified Chinese characters, added punctuation marks to the original text, and added a brief explanation:
First, the inscription points out that ancient education pays great attention to the principle of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and step by step, and expounds it from the seals of Mongolian divination and gradual divination.
Secondly, it points out the backward situation of cultural education in Xuanxian county in past dynasties, thus suggesting the necessity of establishing an academy, and expounds the historical background and housing layout of the academy.
Thirdly, starting from the naming of Liuchuan Academy, it talks about the natural environment of the Academy, and once again takes care of the meaning of Mongolian divination and gradual divination. Scholars and teachers who have been earnestly warned must never violate the principle of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and step by step, and must never have ambitious ideas.