This gate in front of us is the Main Gate, the gate was formerly built at the time of the Song Dynasty, and was then called “Central Gate”. The main gate underwent both destruction and reconstruction in the course of time. The present structure was once thoroughly renovated in 1868.
The characters “Yuelu Academy” on the horizontal tablet were inscribed by Emperor Zhen Zong of the Song Dynasty. It was presented as an award to Zhoushi, the master of the academy, when he was summoned to the emperor’s presence. On both door posts are couplets which read “The kingdom of Chu, unique home of the talents, The Academy of Yuelu, the very cradle of all ”.It was composed in the Qing Dynasty by the master of the academy, Yuan Jiangang and his disciple Zhang Renjie.
This gate was the Second Gate, It was first built in 1527 during the Ming Dynasty. It underwent repairs and restoration many times .It was completely devastated during the Anti-Japanese War .In 1984, the gate was restored to its former state.
This is the Lecture Hall, where the students had lessons here, it was first built at the time of the Song Dynasty and was once named “Jing Yi Hall”. Now, it has a more elaborate name “The Hall of the Loyalty, Filiality Honesty and Integrity”, because on the inner walls of the hall are engraved four big Chinese Characters:“ loyalty, filiality, honesty and integrity. They were handwriting by the great scholar, Zhuxi, who once lectured here. Others, such as the School Regulations, the Administrations and Way to Read were masterpieces of the masters of the academy. On the two horizontal tablets hanging on top were written:
“Learn before you can probe the infiniteness of the universe.”
“The doctrines taught here in the south are genuine Confucian doctrines.”
They were inscribed by the emperor Kangxi and Qianlong respectively during the Qing Dynasty.
The building in front of us is the Yushu Library, “yushu” literally means “imperial books”, so Yushu Library ,built in 999A.D in the early Song Dynasty, was a place to keep imperial books. Books were continuously sent here during the succeeding dynasties. The library was first named “Classics Treasuring House” in the Song Dynasty, “Classic Venerating House” in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and finally “Yushu Library” in the Qing Dynasty,. It had been repaired and expanded many times, and now it has a collection of over twenty thousand Chinese classics. This building was rebuilt on its original site in 1986.
The two small pavilions Xi Quan and Ni Lan , built during the Song and Ming Dynasties, were restored to the right and left of the compound galleries in order to display cultural relics.