The Bifeng Academy is located in the Songxiao Bay on the south side of the Thousand-Pillar House. It is a place for the descendants of Si Yuanru to study. It is named after the academy backing against Bijia Mountain. The academy is a three-story wooden building. There were originally various exotic flowers and plants planted widely in front of and behind the courtyard, emitting fragrance all year round. The small courtyard on the east side of the academy is a ancestral hall. On the ground of the courtyard patio, there is a ‘Bagua diagram’ engraved with pebbles. The entrance is Hongmen, originally Longmen, which means hoping that children will become dragons. Later, it was changed to avoid the taboo of the emperor’s name. In ancient times, there were no stairs in the academy. The existing stairs were built during the Cultural Revolution. When the descendants of Si Yuanru studied here, in the morning, adults sent children to the second floor to study with wooden ladders. At noon, servants sent tea and meals to the small building with ladders. In the evening, they picked up children downstairs with ladders. During this period, children were not allowed to go downstairs. It can be regarded as a good physical evidence of Zhuji people’s ‘farming and reading to pass on the family tradition’ and attaching great importance to education.
