Students have been cramming for exams at the base of Yuèlù Mountain west of the river since AD 976, when the academy was established as one of China’s four institutions of higher learning. The Song-era grounds are now part of Húnán University. By the entrance is Hèxī Pavilion (Hèxī Tái), once on Yuèlù’s summit, which assembles the writings of some of China’s great minds, including a poem of conversing sonnets collaboratively composed by the Confucian scholars Zhu Xi and Zhang Shi.
