Entity
School of Chinese Language and Literature, Yunnan University
Kunming, Yunnan, China
In 1938, amidst the upheaval of war, architects Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin drafted the blueprints for Yingqiu Academy on the Donglu Campus of Yunnan University. Completed that same year, this quiet courtyard was funded by Gu Yingqiu, wife of Long Yun, then Governor of Yunnan Province. Today, it houses the graduate and administrative offices of the School of Chinese Language and Literature, an institution whose roots reach back to Qing Dynasty academies and the 1922 establishment of Donglu University.
Step through the northeast moon gate framing the sky to feel the cool touch of the local clay, wood, and stone walls. The architecture blends Chinese and Western styles, featuring a watchtower casting long afternoon shadows in the southwest corner and wooden corridors that creak softly underfoot. These very walkways once echoed with the footsteps of legendary scholars. Here, generations of scholars—including the classical scholar Yuan Jiagu, the philosopher Xie Wuliang, and later figures such as Liu Wendian, Zhang Ruoming, and Li Guangtian—shaped the modern study of Chinese letters.
The school officially established its Department of Chinese Literature in 1935, renaming it the Department of Literature and History in 1937, before it became an independent department in 1951. Inside these rooms, researchers preserved the voices of the region. During large-scale field expeditions in 1958, 1962, 1963, 1981, and 1983, faculty and students ventured into the Yunnan mountains. They gathered a massive archive of rare primary manuscripts and oral literature from ethnic minorities, capturing the scent of aged paper and the dark ink of hand-recorded folklore.
Listed as a provincial-level cultural relic in 1987, Yingqiu Academy remains a living space of active scholarship. The school now hosts a distinguished academic team dedicated to research and teaching. The building stands as a physical anchor for a community that continues to map the boundaries of language, folklore, and literary history.