yuelu academy
I'm not sure I'd recognise Yuelu Academy if I saw it in a photo. Nor Hunan University, necessarily. My memories are more about the feeling than the scenery.
Hunan University, as I remember it being in 1999 to 2000, was a sprawling, open campus at the foot of Yuelu Shan on the west bank of the Xiang River. The campus streets were lined with trees, which kept it a surprisingly pleasant place to be, even in the long, hot, intensely humid summer. In the centre was a large statue of Mao Zedong looking out towards the river. Nearby this statue was a lecture theatre in a mixture of traditional Chinese and late 19th century European styles. This lecture theatre was built in the late Qing Dynasty. There were many signs up around the campus commemorating Hunan University's 1000th anniversary - that is correct, three zeroes, one thousandth anniversary.
You see, in 976CE Yuelu Academy was founded. Hunan University claims descent from Yuelu Academy. There have obviously been a few name changes, some new buildings, some changes in the subject matter taught and researched over the years, but there is a continuity from the Yuelu Academy founded in 976CE to Hunan University as it is today.
Visiting Hunan University meant visiting an institution whose founding predates the arrival of humans on the island I was born and raised on.
And on the campus of Hunan University, not too far from that Qing Dynasty lecture theatre, is the original site of the Yuelu Academy. I'm pretty sure that the buildings there are not the original original Northern Song dynasty buildings, and that in fact over the centuries the original buildings have been repaired, renovated, rebuilt, even replaced, but the original Yuelu Academy is there, nestled into the folds of Yuelu Shan, with the modern Hunan University it developed into spreading out around it.
I remember there being a large, wide road running along the base of Yuelu Shan at the northern end, running past the main gate that lead to the gondola that takes you to the peak, and that road was my first introduction to Yuelu Shan. After a few weekends exploring Changsha I realised that at the end of this broad street where it narrowed dramatically, the road did not, in fact, end, as it seemed, but wound around the base of the mountain into the campus of Hunan Normal Unviversity, and then into Hunan University. And so I discovered these two beautifully calm, tree-covered campuses at the base of Yuelu Shan. Then, of course, I found my way to the aforementioned statue of Mao, Qing Dynasty lecture theatre, and the original Yuelu Academy.
The campuses of Hunan Normal University and Hunan University were already very calm. Buying my ticket and walking into Yuelu Academy took things to the next level, from pleasantly calm to serenity distilled, condensed, and solidified into the form of academy buildings in a garden setting.
Back then I could barely read a handful of Chinese characters. All I could do was walk around observing the scenery and soaking in the serenity. That was all I needed. I would love to go back now, able to read Chinese, to really get a feel for the place.
But back then, when Tianxin Park, the Xiang riverbank, and Yuelu Shan were refuges from the busy-ness of Changsha, Yuelu Academy was a little bubble of serenity to recharge the senses and soul. And that feeling is what my memory retains of that place.