China Academy Museum Opens in Changsha

The China Academy Museum, the country's only museum focused on the history of Chinese academies for classic learning, opened Thursday in Changsha, Hunan Province. Thousands of ancient Chinese academies are depicted in murals at the museum.

Chinese academies (Shuyuan) originated in 725 during the Tang Dynasty. They were places where scholars could teach and study the classics, and where books collected from around the country could be preserved.

During the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), many academies were established with government support. Each academy had its own teaching and administrative structure and was economically independent. This type of Chinese school ended in the late Qing Dynasty.

The China Academy Museum was established in Yuelu Academy, which has witnessed more than a thousand years of history and is the only ancient Chinese academy to have evolved into a modern institution of higher learning.

We spent nearly ten years to get funding to establish the museum, said its president Chen Songchang. The 4,768-square-meter museum cost 50 million yuan to build.