In the core area of ​​the ancient city of Guangzhou in Lingnan, there is a building complex covering an area of ​​15,000 square meters, with red walls and yellow tiles, and magnificent momentum. It is the Panyu Academy, which has gone through the baptism of more than 600 years and has become a living fossil for interpreting the imperial examination system of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Panyu Academy was built in the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty. Its predecessor can be traced back to the Panyu County School in the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, it formed a grand scale of “three roads and five entrances”. This building carries the ideal of Lingnan scholars to “cultivate oneself, manage the family, govern the country and bring peace to the world”. With its unique architectural design, it has built a museum of imperial examination civilization that travels through time and space.

The construction of the Panyu Academy has always followed the ritual pattern of “school on the left and temple on the right”. The existing main buildings such as Lingxing Gate, Panchi, and Dacheng Hall, although repaired many times in the Qing Dynasty, still retain the majestic atmosphere of Ming Dynasty architecture. The spatial sequence of the academy implies the Confucian path of advancement, from the symbol of “Wenquxing descending to earth” at Lingxing Gate, to the ritual of “cleansing the secular dust” at Panchi, to the steps of “the supreme ruler” at Dacheng Hall, and finally to the lecture hall of “the model for all ages” at Chongsheng Temple, which fully presents the spatial narrative of “self-cultivation – family management – governance of the country”. The precise arrangement of this architectural vocabulary makes the academy a materialized carrier of Confucian ethics.

In the era of imperial examinations, Panyu Academy, as the highest institution of learning in the Guangdong region, cultivated outstanding figures such as Zhuang Yougong, the champion of the Qing Dynasty, and Chen Li, a great scholar in Lingnan. Its education system integrates multiple disciplines such as classics, history, and literature, and adopts a teaching model combining “lecture system” and “monthly examination system”, forming a unique academic ecology. According to the Panyu County Chronicles, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Panyu Academy trained more than 1,400 Juren and more than 300 Jinshi, becoming an important source of Lingnan culture.

The architectural design of Panyu Academy is a model of ancient ritual architecture. The triple space along the north-south central axis coincides with the “Heaven, Earth and Man” Three Talents of the Book of Changes. Lingxing Gate to Panchi is the transition zone for “entering the world”. The six-column and three-door shape of Lingxing Gate symbolizes “the sky is round and the earth is square”. The semicircular design of Panchi corresponds precisely to the solar altitude angle on the winter solstice. After the sunlight is refracted by the water surface, it just covers the tablet of Confucius in the Dacheng Hall, forming a visual spectacle of “holy light covering”.

The Dacheng Gate to the Dacheng Hall is the core sacrificial area. The nine steps symbolize the “Nine Five Supremes”. The 36 golden nanmu pillars in the hall correspond to the number of the thirty-six celestial beings. The interlaced brackets are like the stars hanging upside down, creating a solemn and dignified sacrificial atmosphere. The Chongsheng Temple and Minglun Hall are the “worldly” education areas. The lecture hall is hung with a plaque of “Teacher of All Ages”. The side rooms on both sides were once the examination halls for the imperial examinations. Candidates were seated according to the order of “Heaven and Earth” in the “Thousand Character Classic”, forming a unique spatial order.

Digital codes run through every detail of the building. The Dacheng Hall is five rooms wide, implying the five elements; three rooms deep, in line with the three talents; the total number of paving stones on the platform is “hundred”, which is a metaphor for “hundreds of sons passing the imperial examinations”; there are 36 rooms in the east and west examination halls, which correspond to the number of the thirty-six celestial beings. These designs are not only a projection of the ancients’ cosmology, but also a psychological suggestion system for candidates.

The construction of Panyu Academy embodies the pinnacle of ancient environmental wisdom. The curvature radius of the Pan Pond precisely matches the solar altitude angle at noon on the winter solstice. Modern spectral analysis confirms that such a design can increase the illumination in the hall by 23%, and the light is soft. The “turtle back” drainage system uses a 0.5% micro-arch slope and a glutinous rice mortar culvert, and the drainage rate during heavy rain reaches 0.8 cubic meters per second. During the heavy rain in Guangzhou in 2018, the ground of the academy was dry as usual, while the adjacent modern buildings were flooded to a depth of 30 centimeters, which fully confirmed its drainage efficiency.

There are also clever behavioral manipulation techniques here. The “Dragon Gate Robbery” stone archway is 2.9 meters high, lower than the average height of men at the time, forcing candidates to bow their heads to express humility; thorny shrubs are planted in the passage of the examination room, which is both soundproof and warns against cheating with the allusion of “Jiwei”; the left eye of the stone lion in Mingyuan Tower has a dent due to being touched by candidates for many years, and such a tactile ritual is used to relieve the anxiety of candidates. These designs perfectly combine Feng Shui theory with environmental psychology to create a special venue that is conducive to the imperial examination.

The building materials of the academy show the ecological wisdom of ancient times. The oyster shell window is made of oyster shells, a specialty of Lingnan, which are ground to 0.2 mm light transmittance and inlaid into diamond-lattice windows. The energy-saving effect is 41% higher than that of rice paper windows. The three-in-one floor is rammed with shell ash, clay, and gravel, with a porosity of 15%, which can reduce the indoor temperature by 3-5℃ in summer. The Dacheng Hall adopts the principle of “the height of the column does not exceed the width of the room”. The side foot and the birth technology make it able to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8. After 650 years of typhoon test, it still stands tall.

The adjacent examination rooms are equipped with double-layer blue brick walls, and the hollow layer is filled with husks, with a measured sound insulation of 35 decibels. The restoration experiment in 2017 showed that the pen strokes of the examinees were almost inaudible, which greatly increased the difficulty of cheating and transmitting sound. These innovations in material technology have made the academy a “breathing architectural organism”.

The architectural details can be called a three-dimensional “Siku Quanshu”. 99 wooden bats, “nine” is the anode, and “bat” is homophonic to “Fu”, with the wing tips pointing to the statue of Confucius, forming a visual guide line. The dragon beast on the roof holds a bamboo water pipe in its mouth, forming the image of “dragon spitting sweet rain” on rainy days. The blue bricks of the corridor are paved with “herringbone pattern”, which is not only anti-slip, but also a metaphor for “talents emerging in large numbers”. These symbol systems integrate Confucian ethics, auspicious meanings and architectural aesthetics to form a unique cultural language.

When modern technology re-examines this ancient building, thermal imaging shows that the red wall’s solar radiation reflectivity is 18% higher than that of modern coatings; structural engineers marvel at the anti-seismic wisdom of “column grid elastic distribution”; environmental psychologists have deciphered the regulatory mechanism of spatial sequence on attention. Panyu Academy is no longer a solidified historical specimen, but a bridge for the dialogue between traditional construction wisdom and modern technology. Its architectural philosophy of “harmony between man and nature”, ecological practice of “adapting to local conditions”, and spatial narrative of “ritual education” provide precious inspiration for contemporary architecture.

This imperial examination temple spanning six hundred years writes the deep code of Chinese traditional culture with red walls and green tiles. It is not only the “Dragon Gate” of ancient scholars, but also the great creation of Chinese civilization in the field of architecture. When we walk through it, touching those exquisite carvings and wise designs, it seems that we can hear the dialogue between history and the future and see the fusion of tradition and modernity. This may be the greatest legacy that Panyu Academy has left to the world – a philosophy of human habitation that respects nature and laws, which is always worth deciphering and inheriting by future generations.