Culai Academy or Culai Academy of Classical Learning (徂徕书院 cúlái shūyuàn) was built by the Northern Song scholar Shi Jie during the time of his mourning (1038–40). Beside the academy was the "Duyi-tang" (读易堂 dúyì-táng, "Hall for Reading the Yi"), where Shi Jie, Sun Fu

Sun Fu

Sun Fu, style name Guoyi , was a military general serving under the warlord Sun Quan during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history.-Biography:...

, and Shi Jie's disciple Jiang Qian studied the Zuo Zhuan

Zuo Zhuan

The Zuo Zhuan , sometimes translated as the Chronicle of Zuo or the Commentary of Zuo, is among the earliest Chinese works of narrative history and covers the period from 722 BCE to 468 BCE. It is one of the most important sources for understanding the history of the Spring and Autumn Period...

 to the Spring and Autumn Annals

Spring and Autumn Annals

The Spring and Autumn Annals is the official chronicle of the State of Lu covering the period from 722 BCE to 481 BCE. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged on annalistic principles. The text is extremely concise and, if all the commentaries are excluded, about 16,000...

 and the Book of Changes

I Ching

The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...

.

It has been classed as one of the Four Great Academies of the Early Song.

The academy was located on the north side of Mt Culai, currently Tai'an

Tai'an

Tai'an is a prefecture-level city in western Shandong province, People's Republic of China.Centered around Mount Tai, the city borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the north, Laiwu to the northeast, Zibo to the east, Linyi to the southeast, Liaocheng to the extreme west and Jining to the south...

 City, Shandong

Shandong

' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...

province. The place is now called Shufang (書坊), meaning "library".