Department of Cultural Affairs

Xuehai Academy

Xuehai Academy was established in 1837, after a seven-year construction process by Tamsui prefect Lou Yun and his successor Cao Jin. It was originally named Wen Jia Academy. (In the Minnan dialect, both Wen Jia and Mengjia V the city's name in that era V are pronounced Manka). Ten years later, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang Liu Yunke, when touring the island, changed the name to Xuehai Academy. It was once the highest institution of learning in the Tamsui-Taipei area. The imperial mandarin Chen Wei-ying from the nearby town of Dalongdong (now part of west Taipei) once taught here and served as the academy's principal. Chen was a brilliant educator and highly admired. While serving at Xuehai he launched a charity donation drive to renovate the academy.
The Xuehai Academy featured a complete spatial design for an institution of learning. According to historical diagrams of Tamsui Prefecture, the layout included (in order) an outer wall, a main gate, a lecture hall, a shrine to the early Confucian scholar Zhu Xi, and left and right wings serving as classrooms. In recent years, the main gate was moved inward to accommodate the expansion of a roadway. During the period of Japanese rule, the academy was used as a Japanese-language government office, an army dormitory and the site of the Laosong School. It was ultimately sold to the Kao clan to serve as their ancestral temple. Although the academy has gone through a series of renovations, it retains its original structure, and still serves as the Kao clan ancestral shrine. On August 19, 1985, Xuehai Academy was designated Taipei City's 13th official historical site.