IMPERIAL COLLEGE

A few steps from the temple of Confucius, the Imperial College is generally much more animated, as it still serves as classrooms, especially the weekend.

Built in 1306 at the time Da De, under the Yuan, it was under the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties the highest institution of higher education. On the front of the front door of the College we will notice a 3 character tablet: " Ji Xian Men " (Talent Gathering Door).

On the other side, behind the door of the College, there is a very beautiful portico of honor covered with glazed tiles. Construction follows three parallel north-south axes. The central axis contains palaces as well as pavilions opened by beautiful doors decorated with green and yellow ceramics and where the emperor comes to comment on classics such as the Yi Lun Tang Hall and the Bi Yong Pavilion.

The Bi Yong Pavilion (Sovereign Concorde Hall) is the most important of the entire College. Restored in 1784 under the reign of Emperor Qian Long, it appeared as a large square building on two floors and covered with yellow glazed bricks, trending into the center of a basin. The side galleries consist of 4 rooms and 6 palaces, where the classics inscribed on stone were exposed.

Behind the Yi Lun Tang Hall is the Jing Yi Ting Pavilion, which served as a work cabinet for high school officials. Students admitted to the College were among the elite Chinese (or «doctor») elite. They also found «licensees» who had failed the official examination for the first time (it should be remembered that this was particularly difficult), as well as foreign students such as Koreans, Siamois and Russians. These students deepened their knowledge of Confucian texts during a three-year cycle followed by a kind of practical internship in a government department, and all this led to their success in the final examination of a post of more or less high staff depending on their rank. It is towards the end of the Qing dynasty, with the emergence of Western science and culture in China (then the fall of the imperial system during the 1 st ^{Republic) that the College gradually lost its raison d 'être and closed its doors in 1900.}