Taizhou's treasure, Tongjiang Academy, where Zhu Xi taught and lectured

I walked into Tongjiang Academy with respect. This academy was founded by the eighth-generation grandson of the late Tang poet Fang Gan, Fang Zuo, during the Song Qian Dao era. Named after Fang Gan's ancestral home, Tonglu, it has a history of over 800 years. In those years, Tongjiang Academy not only promoted the prosperity of the local imperial examination, nurtured many literati, but more importantly, it attracted many first-class scholars of the Southern Song Dynasty with its unique charm and excellent academic atmosphere. These scholars are like dazzling stars, including Zhu Xi, Wu Si, Wang Shipeng, Chen Yong, and others. Their thoughts and knowledge are like the light of a lighthouse, spreading with the influence of Tongjiang Academy, setting a great example for future Confucian scholars. It allows these later Confucian scholars to look back on the past and regard Tongjiang Academy as a spiritual place. Later literati all regard Tongjiang Academy as a spiritual home. They came to Tongjiang Academy with a pilgrim's heart, looking back on the past, remembering its once glorious history. Just like us today, following the footsteps of our ancestors, we seem to be able to feel the vitality of the ancient academy and hear the ancient bell echoing between the mountains and the water. As soon as I entered the academy, what caught my eye was a simple and elegant hall called the 'Lecture Hall'. The lecture hall is the core part of the academy and the place for academic discussions and lectures. I seem to have traveled through time and space, back to the ancient times when Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, lectured here. The sound of ancient teachings seems to echo in my ears. This place was once a prosperous place of culture and a place where many celebrities studied. Gently pushing open the wooden door, the book house is filled with neatly arranged desks and beds, and the simple wooden furniture exudes a faint woody fragrance. Here I felt the long-lost atmosphere of farming and reading, quiet and far-reaching. Every brick and tile here witnesses the cultural context of Tongjiang Academy for thousands of years. There is a stele in the corner of the academy, on which is engraved the poem Zhu Xi sent to his son: 'The most is that the world cannot stay, Zhu Yan bids farewell to the mirror and the flowers bid farewell to the tree.' It tells the passage of time and the shortness of life. It advises people to cherish time and study hard.