Throughout His life, Gu Xiancheng was determined to combine study with serving the society in his early years, and after middle age, he combined lectures with deliberative activities, thus opening up an atmosphere of intellectuals discussing state affairs. His high spirits and patriotic enthusiasm have also been inspiring future generations. So, why did Gu Xiancheng open Donglin Academy, and what kind of contribution did he make to the social development at that time?
Gu Xiancheng (Gu Xiancheng), also known as Uncle Shi,jingyang (泾阳), was a native of Jingli (present-day Zhangjing, Wuxi), who was revered as "Mr. Donglin" for founding Donglin Academy. When Gu Xiancheng was a child, his family was very poor, and his father Gu Xue opened a tofu workshop, but due to the large family population, he often could not make ends meet, and he had to borrow money from people, and the house where his family lived was very dilapidated and did not shelter from the wind and rain. However, the harsh living environment has inspired Gu Xiancheng's determination to study hard and his ambition to forge ahead. He entered a private school at the age of six, and was smart, hard-working, and ambitious.
He inscribed two sentences on the wall of the burrow room where he lived: "Reading the Book of Confucius is fun, and living in Yan Lane is not poor." The "Yan" mentioned in the poem refers to Yan Hui, a famous student of Confucius, whose family was very poor, but he did not think that he was bitter, studied under Confucius, studied hard, and took pleasure in learning. Gu Xiancheng expressed his bitter optimism and view of wealth and poverty, hoping to be a rich man of knowledge. He also wrote a very famous couplet, "The sound of wind and rain reading is in the ears, family affairs, state affairs, and everything in the world is concerned", expressing his concern for society during his study.
In the fourth year of the Wanli Calendar (1576), the twenty-seven-year-old Gu Xiancheng went to Yingtian (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu) to take the exam, and he pointed out in his article: The key to the governance of the world lies in the proper employment of people, and only by selecting and appointing talents and making them perform their respective duties can the country be stable, politically clear, and the people's feelings stable. At the same time, Gu Xiancheng also stressed that the imperial court should broaden its speeches, humbly accept advice, rule the country by law, pay attention to summing up the lessons and lessons of previous generations for reference, and handle the affairs of the state well. Because Gu Xiancheng's article was ambitious and thoroughly analyzed, the result was that it was named first and has been famous ever since. In the eighth year of the Wanli Calendar (1580), Xie Yuan Gu Xiancheng went to Beijing to participate in the examination, and was admitted to the second place in the second class, and from then on he threw himself into the social torrent and began his eunuch career.
Gu Xiancheng embarked on a career path with strong political enthusiasm and wanted to do something useful for the country and the people. However, at that time, the politics were dark, the military was weak, the finances were tight, and the people were forced to resist one after another due to harsh and violent government. Due to the decline of the Ming Dynasty, the Manchurian nobles who rose outside the Guanwai gradually disobeyed the control of the Central Government of the Ming Dynasty and gradually posed a threat to the Ming Dynasty. In the face of this situation of declining national power, When Gu Xiancheng first entered the career path, he disregarded his own position and wrote direct advice, advocating the use of talents, commenting on the gains and losses of current politics, and having nothing to hide. He first served in the household department and the bureaucracy, then sent Guiyang (present-day Hunan) and Chuzhou (present-day Lishui, Zhejiang) as officials, and then was transferred and re-entered the bureaucracy, no matter where he served in any place or department, he did not flatter the powerful, was honest and self-disciplined, upright and selfless, and did things seriously.
After the death of Shoufu Zhang Juzheng, the successor to Shoufu Wang Xijue only knew that he was blindly pandering to The Divine Sect in the dynasty, and could not listen to the reasonable opinions of the ministers, causing people to be divorced. Once, Wang Xijue said to Gu Xiancheng: "The most strange person today, what the imperial court thinks is right, outsiders must think it is wrong; what the imperial court thinks is wrong, outsiders must think it is right." It means blaming the people for not having their hearts set on the court. Gu Xiancheng replied tit-for-tat: "I think it should be said that what outsiders think is right, the imperial court must think it is wrong; outsiders think it is wrong, and the imperial court must think it is right." He pointed out that the responsibility for the failure of state affairs lies with the imperial court and not below, and in one sentence broke the truth that those in power in the imperial court reversed right and wrong and confused black and white.
In the twenty-second year of the Wanli Dynasty (1594), Gu Xiancheng was appointed as the official Wenxuan Silangzhong, in charge of the promotion and reassignment of the official Ban Rank. When the First Auxiliary King Xijue retired in old age, Emperor Myōshin ordered the officials to select six or seven officials who could be qualified to serve as the first assistant according to their qualities. Gu Xiancheng and the official Shangshu Chen Younian did not favor favoritism, refused to ask for help, and according to the quality of the hope, they drew up a list of seven people to report, and asked The Divine Sect to personally judge. Unexpectedly, the people nominated by Gu Xiancheng were all disgusted by Emperor Shenzong, and Emperor Shenzong could not help but accuse the officials of having a "favoritism" practice, and approved the five words "demoting officials to miscellaneous posts" on the officials' notes, and removed Gu Xiancheng from his post in the selection of silangs. Chen Younian, as an official Shangshu, blamed himself for believing that the responsibility was also on himself, and could not pursue his subordinates, and pleaded for Gu Xiancheng's reinstatement of Wenxuan Silangzhong. Other upright ministers also went to the rescue of Gu Xiancheng, playing a total of several hundred letters. Unexpectedly, Emperor Shenzong insisted on going his own way, and sent some officials who had been neglected to apply for rescue, demoted, and reduced their posts, while Gu Xiancheng was dismissed from his posts and dismissed as a civilian. Since then, Gu Xiancheng has ended his official career of more than ten years and returned to his native Wuxi for the crime of "forbid purpose".
Many people in the government and public sighed at the loss of such an upright and selfless official in the DPRK, and also greatly admired Gu Xiancheng's character, and Gu Xiancheng's reputation was even higher.
Because Gu Xiancheng has a high reputation in both academic and political circles, many people come to him for advice. Regardless of his sick body, regardless of his rich or poor, Gu Xiancheng treated everyone equally and warmly welcomed him. Later, he saw that there were too many people coming, and in the small town of Jingli, even the ancestral hall, the inn, and the neighbors around him were full of guests, and they could not accommodate it, so he consulted with the eldest brother Sex Cheng, the second brother Zicheng and the younger brother Yuncheng, and built dozens of bookstores on the south side of his house for people to live in, and Gu Xiancheng's wife Zhu Shi cooked for the students to cook, so that the students came as if they were returning home. In the north and south of Jingxi, the sound of books is loud during the day, and the candles are shining at night, and there is a scene of studying day and night. Many scholars who have already achieved fame and high learning have also rushed to seek advice.
While lecturing at home, Gu Xiancheng often went to Suzhou, Changzhou, Yixing and other places to give lectures, and often gathered with Wuzhong scholars such as Suzhou, Songjiang, Changshu, Taicang, Jiaxing, and Yixing to discuss scholarship at the second spring of Huishan In Wuxi. In the lecture activities, Gu Xiancheng urgently felt the need to have a fixed place for lectures, to turn the scattered lectures into a coordinated and organized unified activity, so as to have a good impact and effect on Wudi and even the whole society. In the thirty-second year of the Wanli Dynasty (1604), through the joint efforts of Gu Xiancheng and Wudi scholars, the government finally approved the reconstruction of the Donglin Academy at the site of the Donglin Academy inside the east gate of Wuxi City. The reconstruction work began on April 11 of that year and was completed on September 9, sharing more than 1,200 taels of silver. As one of the initiators, Gu Xiancheng donated the most silver, and then instigated Wudi officials and jinshen to donate money to fund the repair, and made great efforts. In October of that year, Gu Xiancheng, together with Gu Yuncheng, Gao Panlong, An Xifan, Liu Yuanzhen, Qian Yiben, Xue Shijiao, Ye Maocai (then known as the Eight Gentlemen of Donglin), and others initiated the Donglin Conference and formulated the "Donglin Convention," and Gu Xiancheng was the first speaker of Donglin Academy.
Donglin lectures were established under specific historical conditions to meet the common needs of the times, society, and scholars. It stipulates that there will be a general meeting every year, a small meeting every month, and will be spoken regularly except in the cold and summer. This changed the original form of the gentry's scattered study tours into centralized and fixed organized lecture activities. Moreover, the college does not distinguish between honor and inferiority, no region, no matter how long or small, no tuition, as long as you want, you can participate, and also provide accommodation and convenience. The teaching method is very flexible, sometimes using the method of speech, after a period of speaking, it is interspersed with poems to enliven the atmosphere and develop the spirit, and the speaker also answers questions at any time. Sometimes group discussion is used to communicate ideas and exchange ideas.
Because the Donglin Lecture has created a brand-new atmosphere of lecturing, it has aroused widespread concern from the government and the public. Some scholars came from all over the country to attend the meeting, scholars gathered, the annual congress sometimes numbered as many as a thousand, and the small academy became an important meeting area for the domestic literati at that time, echoing the Jiangnan scholars. Donglin Academy actually became a center of public opinion, and the people here gradually formed a political faction from an academic group, which was called the "Donglin Party" by their opponents. The Donglin Party waged a deadly struggle against the decadent forces in the imperial court, and Gu Xiancheng, the main lecturer of the Donglin Academy, became the spiritual leader of the Donglin Party with his outstanding ideological temperament.
The thirty-ninth year of the Wanli Calendar (1611) was the year of the Imperial Court's jingcha, that is, the inspection and adjustment of the officials of the imperial court. Ye Xianggao, the Donglin official who presided over the matter, hoped to actively try to resolve past disputes, handle affairs impartially, clarify the rule of officials, and make the political situation look new. Unexpectedly, officials of other factions joined forces to frame the stolen goods and focused on the Donglin officials, intending to bring down the Korean and Chinese orthodox people and let them control the cabinet power. Therefore, the efforts of the Officials of Donglin were not realized this time. On the contrary, a bunch of traitorous parties, blessed by misfortune, have all crowded into important places and spared no effort to fabricate excuses to crack down on and squeeze out the orthodox people of the DPRK. Gu Xiancheng, who was accused of "lecturing in Donglin and remotely administering the government of the DYNASTY," was in a difficult situation, and the situation of Donglin Academy also began to decline, with a sharp decline in attendance and a gradual decline in lectures. The following year, Gu Xiancheng, who had been worried about the country and the people all his life, completed his sixty-two-year-old life course.