Tang Xianzu’s Story | Founding the Xiangpu Academy in Suichang

Founded Xiangpu Academy in Suichang.

Some say that the establishment of academies stands as Tang Xianzu’s greatest achievement in life and his most influential cultural undertaking, second only to his creation of the “Four Dreams of Linchuan.” This assessment is by no means an exaggeration. Having discussed the Guisheng Academy he founded in Xuwén, let us now turn to the Xiangpu Academy he established in Suichang.

If one were to mark the boundary between the Ming dynasty’s zenith and decline with a single period, it would undoubtedly be the Wanli era—when the dynasty transitioned from prosperity to decay. During the first decade of Wanli, the state enjoyed remarkable flourishing, an episode celebrated in history as the “Wanli Revival.” Yet by the mid‑to‑late Wanli years, the emperor’s prolonged neglect of governance left the central government virtually paralyzed, precipitating a steady erosion of national strength. This decline was particularly starkly reflected in the realm of education. In the third month of the twenty‑first year of Wanli (1593), Tang Xianzu arrived in Suichang County, Zhejiang Province, to assume the post of magistrate. There he found the local Confucian Temple in a deplorable state: rainwater dripped through its dilapidated eaves, so that when it rained heavily outside, it rained just as heavily inside; bricks, stones, and rubble piled up to provide shelter from the elements—a situation that had become little more than a laughingstock. The temple possessed neither a library nor classrooms, and not even a shooting hall. Tang Xianzu came to believe that establishing a school capable of offering proper shelter while also teaching the six arts—ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics—was his paramount duty as magistrate.

Moreover, another reason that prompted Tang Xianzu to hasten the construction of the academy was that, although Zhejiang was a prosperous region, Suichang was a small mountainous county, relatively underdeveloped. The principal means of reversing such backwardness lay in prioritizing education—thereby raising cultural standards, transforming people’s mental outlook, and fostering sound moral values. This approach not only reflected the experience of the local sage Wang Anshi in governing Yinxian County in Zhejiang (now Yinzhou District), but also resonated with Tang Xianzu’s own insights gained during his tenure in Xuweng.

Building a proper academy was no easy task. Tang Xianzu did not seek to do too much or rush the process; instead, he proceeded step by step, beginning with the construction of the archery hall. The archery hall, in ancient times, was a place for practicing archery, equipped with targets at a fixed distance—students were deemed qualified if they could hit the bull’s‑eye with their arrows. In just two months, the archery hall was completed. Next came the school buildings—simple rooms for study. There were thirty such rooms, each accommodating two students, providing space for sixty pupils in all. Together, the archery hall and the school buildings were known as “Xiangpu Academy.”

With the academy now established, the paramount concern was ensuring its enduring vitality across the ages—a goal that required sustained financial support. To this end, Tang Xianzu ordered that two temples, one with “few monks but ample grain rents,” allocate ten mu of leased land to fund the academy’s repairs and scholarship programs. Anticipating that future generations might fail to appreciate his sincere intentions, or seeking to guard against the uncertainties of time, he personally composed the “Memorial on Relocating the Leased Land to Xiangpu” and the “Record of the Establishment of Fields for Xiangpu Academy,” having them inscribed on stone tablets to serve as lasting monuments for posterity. In the twenty-second year of the Wanli era (1594), Tang Xianzu further erected the Zunjing Pavilion within the academy to house its library.

Tang Xianzu’s painstaking efforts in founding the Xiangpu Academy were not in vain: education in Suichang County was elevated, talented individuals were nurtured, and a thriving cultural renaissance ensued. Tang Xianzu also won the deep affection of the people of Suichang; accordingly, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, the county dispatched representatives and commissioned a painter to travel great distances to the Yueming Hall at the Tang residence, where a portrait of Tang Xianzu was specially created. This portrait was intended to be enshrined in the Xiangpu Academy as a memorial shrine, serving as a lasting tribute to his legacy. Throughout Suichang’s thousand-year history and across more than three hundred successive county magistrates, only Tang Xianzu was accorded such exceptional honor.