The proud wind of Jiangnan| Donglin Academy (1430)

| Donglin Academy (1430). "The sound of wind, rain, and reading, every sound enters the ear, family affairs, national affairs, world affairs, everything is of concern", this couplet hanging in the academy has received widespread recognition from intellectuals and the public across the country. Donglin Academy, located at No. 867 Jiefang East Road, Liangxi District, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, also known as "Guishan Academy", was founded by Yang Shi in the first year of the Northern Song Dynasty's Zhenghe era, which is 1111, and was later abandoned; In the thirty-second year of Ming Wanli, that is, in 1604, Gu Xiancheng and others rebuilt the academy and lectured here, which was later ordered to be demolished by Wei Zhongxian; the academy was rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty and later changed to Donglin Primary School. The Donglin Party was a bureaucratic political group dominated by Jiangnan scholars in the late Ming Dynasty, which lasted for nearly 40 years until the fall of the Ming Dynasty. In 1604, that is, in the thirty-second year of Wanli, Gu Xiancheng and others repaired the Donglin Academy where Yang Shi of the Song Dynasty lectured, and lectured with Gao Panlong, Qian Yiben and others. At the time of Donglin's lectures, it was a time when social contradictions in the late Ming Dynasty were intensifying. Donglin scholars criticized the government and officials, they demanded honesty and public service, revitalized officialdom, opened up speech, eliminated accumulated abuses in the court and the field, and opposed the nobles' corruption and lawlessness. These criticisms of the current politics received widespread sympathy and support from society at the time, but also met with fierce opposition from eunuchs and their affiliated forces. The two sides developed and evolved into a fierce party struggle in the late Ming Dynasty due to differences in political views. The opposition collectively referred to the scholars and officials who lectured at Donglin Academy or had relations with or supported and sympathized with the lectures as the "Donglin Party". The current Donglin Academy is open to the public for free, covering an area of 13,000 square meters, with a building area of 2,800 square meters, including stone archways, Pan pool, Donglin Jing She, Lize Hall, Yiyong Hall, Yanju Temple, Daonan Ancestral Hall and other buildings. The spirit of "reading, lecturing, and patriotism" advocated by Donglin Academy once aroused a nationwide response from scholars in the late Ming Dynasty, making the academy famous; the academy was the gathering place and source of the "Donglin Party" members in the late Ming Dynasty party struggle, and was the focus of national politics at the time, and also the main opinion center for discussing national affairs in the Jiangnan region. Due to the profound cultural history of Donglin Academy, it has been announced by the State Council as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.