Jixia Revisited: In Search of China's Cultural Soul

What is cultural confidence? It is a clarity of awareness: knowing where we come from, understanding our civilization in its formative years, and recognizing the vibrant spirit it embodies.

To understand this, we turn to Chen Xingeng's Jixia Academy Masters. In 2025, Writers Publishing House released a book that reveals a previously hidden era. The Jixia Academy, outside the Ji Gate of Linzi, the bustling capital of the Qi State during the Warring States Period, was a living intellectual ferment. Here, figures who shaped the very fabric of our culture – the witty Chunyu Kun, the lofty Mencius, the erudite Xunzi, the cosmologist Zou Yan, Tian Pian, Lu Zhonglian, and others – take the stage one by one. This gathering is an intellectual appointment across two millennia. To visit Jixia is to see the magnificent cultural foundation laid during the "Axial Age of Chinese civilization."

Chen's exhaustive historical nonfiction work recreates pre-Qin thought through literature. The Jixia Academy is the setting for the book. With meticulous historical research and vivid storytelling, it depicts intellectual freedom, academic independence, and human nature's struggles. It accessibly and compellingly depicts the Hundred Schools of Thought.

At its core, the book is a character-driven narrative that unfolds like a multi-act play. These key figures of the Jixia Academy debate, challenge, and collide. Chen brings these historical names to life with simple, humorous prose.

Chunyu Kun's eloquence, Mencius's radical advocacy for the primacy of the people, and Xunzi's profound synthesis of Confucian thought are transformed from mere historical accounts into dynamic scenes of philosophical debate and intellectual conflict. Chen enriches the narrative with everyday details and nuanced interpersonal relationships, drawing on extensive historical research to ensure both factual accuracy and contextual depth. This book is a work that balances historical depth with literary appeal.

First, we need to understand the significance of the Jixia Academy and the role of the Jixia Masters. In 374 BCE, Duke Huan of Qi founded the Jixia Academy, which treated scholars from across the country like senior grand masters. The brightest minds of the era gathered there. Society viewed pure thought, debate, and the pursuit of knowledge as a noble endeavor deserving of state support. They were free to discuss any topic, from statecraft and governance to the nature of the cosmos and individuality.

The Jixia Academy endured through the reigns of several Qi kings: Duke Huan, King Wei, King Xuan, King Min, and King Xiang. Adhering to the principle of "discussing governance without taking office," it continued to attract talented minds from far and wide, always granting them the autonomy to decide their own path, whether to serve in government or remain independent. In that era of relentless warfare, the various schools of thought – Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, the School of Names, and the Yin-Yang School – contended and coexisted in a rich pluralism.

This environment of freedom and openness provided an ideal setting for intellectuals. Chunyu Kun, who used metaphor to counsel rulers; Mencius, who stood tall before those in power while advocating for the primacy of the people; Xunzi, who advocated a ritual-based system of governance; the Daoist thinkers Peng Meng, Song Xing, and Tian Pian; and future Legalist titans Li Si and Han Feizi, who studied at Jixia before shaping a different order, were all present.

The Jixia Academy was more than a gathering of brilliant minds – it was a battleground of ideas. The famous debates between Chunyu Kun and Mencius were just one example. Even within the same Confucian school, Mencius and Xunzi held diametrically opposed views on human nature – the former arguing it was inherently good and the latter that it was evil.

And in a fascinating twist, Xunzi, a staunch Confucian, could count among his disciples, Legalist architects like Han Feizi and Li Si. In this free space for intellectual collision, the Jixia Masters forged the foundations of Chinese thought.

The relationship between the Jixia Masters and the rulers of Qi was one of mutual empowerment. There was no shortage of dedicated scholars among the people – men of lofty ideals who carried in their hearts a deep sense of responsibility for their country and fellow citizens. They arrived at the Jixia Academy with this very purpose. In return, the rulers of Qi gave them the respect they deserved and honored their desire to serve the state and the people. And those scholars, in turn, repaid this enlightened patronage with their wisdom and passion.

This spirit of richness, openness, pluralism, and inclusiveness is the true portrait of the Jixia legacy. "Discussing governance without taking office" was not merely a policy; it was a spiritual haven for the scholar class. There, they were free to turn their gaze outward – to explore the cosmos and deliberate on the rise and fall of nations – and inward, to contemplate the meaning of life and cultivate their talents.

The rise and fall of the Jixia Academy mirrored the fortunes of the State of Qi itself. It reminds us that the vitality of a civilization lies not only in its granaries and swords but also in its members' relentless inquiry into the cosmos, society, and the human heart. Founded under Duke Huan of Qi and lasting until the Qin's conquest of the six states, the academy endured through the reigns of numerous rulers. Its unparalleled gathering of brilliant minds and extraordinary longevity make it a unique entity in Chinese history.

Reading Masters of the Jixia Academy is an act of cultural root-seeking – a discovery that the very blood flowing through our veins carries a rich and diverse heritage. It is only when we see Chunyu Kun, Mencius, and Xunzi expounding their teachings within their own domains at the Jixia Academy, witnessing how ideas clashed and yet fused with one another, that we can truly grasp what it means to be both broad and profound. This vision of intellectual vibrancy reveals a crucial truth: our tradition is never a lifeless monolith. Those seemingly contradictory ideas once coexisted and thrived together in lively harmony. We come to realize that our civilization, which we take such pride in, possesses from its very inception a spirit vast enough to embrace a Hundred Schools of Thought.

This awakening gives rise to genuine cultural confidence. When we learn that the Jixia Masters adhered to the principle of "discussing governance without taking office" – maintaining their intellectual independence in the presence of power, upholding the Way against political might with neither arrogance nor subservience – we cannot help but feel a profound respect for their Chinese scholarly spirit. It is here, in these pages, that we witness Mencius urging the Qi kings toward benevolent rule, Xunzi dissecting human nature with cold rationality while refusing to flatter the powerful, and countless Jixia Masters bowing to truth alone in their debates. It is in this spirit that we realize: the noblest tradition of Chinese intellectuals was already forged more than two millennia ago.

(Zhu Yunying holds a PhD in English Language and Literature from Fudan University.)