Were there any universities in ancient China? What's it like? The word "university" has a long history. Its original meaning, one is the name of ancient books, and the other is the highest institution of learning in the country. As an ancient book, Daxue is one of the Confucian classics The Book of Rites. After the Han Dynasty, Daxue, Mencius, The Analects of Confucius and The Doctrine of the Mean were also called Xiaojing, and a single book was circulated.

Zhu, a master of Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty, especially praised these four books, which are referred to as four books for short, and his carefully written Notes on Four Books is a must-read for literati to become famous after the Song Dynasty. As the highest institution of learning, a university is a "business school". Imperial academy is a part of ancient higher education in China.

China Modern University officially appeared at the end of 19. Prior to this, China traditional society also had a unique higher education system, which was divided into two major systems: official education and private education. Official schools are established by the government, while private schools are founded by private individuals.

Official studies include Sinology and Rural Studies in the Western Zhou Dynasty, imperial academy and County Studies in the Han Dynasty, imperial academy, imperial academy, Fuzhou and County Studies after the Tang and Song Dynasties, and Sociology after the Yuan Dynasty. These schools mainly teach and study classics, history and morality, but at the same time they also have special education, such as medicine, law and arithmetic, which were monopolized by the government during the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Private schools gradually rose in the Spring and Autumn Period, and by the Warring States Period, they were quite large. After Qin Dynasty, private school and official school became an important part of the school system.

The influence of private schools is greater than that of official schools, because private schools are not only more popular than official schools, but also more lasting, and are much less affected by dynasty changes or other political changes. The appearance of academy in Song Dynasty means the birth of China folk colleges and universities. The academy, which mainly focuses on research, discussion and lectures, can be called an ancient graduate school.

Compared with official schools, academies have more academic freedom and autonomy, and pay more attention to academic cultivation and personal cultivation, rather than taking the imperial examination as the ultimate goal. Therefore, it can be said that the traditional academy is an autonomous academic group focusing on the teaching and research of humanities.