The gate was formerly built at the time of the Song Dynasty, and was then called “ Central Gate” because in southern China there were lots of stone torii. The present structure was renovated in the 7th year of Tongzhi Reign of Qing Dynasty (1868), adopting the structure of a General Gate of southern China. Before the gate are 12 steps which lead up to the gate and the five rooms around it. There are flush gable roof on the top and a stepped gable wall in the yard. In the front of the gate stand a couple of quadrate columns with white walls, black tiles and eave tiles, and drawings of dragons flying around the Taiji together with cloud patterns drawn on the beams. The whole Gate is impressive. The words “Yuelu Academy” on the horizontal board were inscriptions of Zhenzong, an Emperor of the Song Dynasty. It was said in the 8th year of Xiangfu Reign, Northern Song Dynasty (1015), Zhenzong learnt the education reputation of Yuelu Academy and the virtue of the master, Zhou Shi, so he summoned Zhou Shi to the capital to an interview and gave him the title Master of the Imperial College in the hope that he would stay in the capital to give lectures. However, Zhou Shi longed for his Yuelu Academy and insisted on going back to the Academy. So, the emperor awarded his Majesty’s own handwriting “Yuelu Academy” to hang on the top of the Main Gate and meanwhile presented him with some other classics to take back to the Academy. From then on, Yuelu Academy became well known all around the country and students came to study in an endless stream. Yuelu Academy became one of the four famous Academies in the Northern Song Dynasty. Now on the door posts of the gate are couplets which read “ The Kingdom of Chu, unique home of talents, The Academy of Yuelu, where they are more abundant than any where else.” The first line of the couplet is from “the 26th year of Xianggong, Zuo Zhuan”, and the second line is from “Taibo of the Confucian Analects”. This couplet originates from Chinese classics and it is very appropriate given the fact that talents have been brought up continuously by the Academy since its establishment.

The Second Gate of the Academy is constructed just behind the Main Gate. The site used to be the Li Temple in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In the 1st year of Jiajing Reign, Ming Dynasty (1527), the Confucian Temple was built to the left side of the Academy. Thus the Second Gate of the Academy was built at the current site. The Second Gate consists of 5 rooms with single eaves and overhanging gable roofs. The three rooms in the middle have three doors with granite doorframes. Two passages are constructed on the two sides connecting the rooms in the south and north. It was blown down by the Japanese in the Anti-Japanese War and was rebuilt in 1984.

Over the gate, there once hung a plaque inscribed with “Lecture Hall in the Famous Mountain.” The original plaque was made in the 7th year of Tongzhi Reign, Qing Dynasty (1868), but was ruined during the Anti-Japanese War. The current plaque is a replica of the original made in 1984 by collecting words from the calligraphy works of He Shaoji, a famous Hunan calligrapher. The couplet on the two sides of the gate “Taking soul at the foot of the great Yuelu Hill; Storing prime in this famous mountain of Yuelu”. The first line is an excerpt from the Book of Documents (Shangshu) while the second line was derived from History of the Former Han Dynasty (Hanshu), meaning that the Academy is situated at the foot of Yuelu Hill deep in the thick forests. The author is, Cheng Songwan, the warden of the Academy (at that time, the Academy was renamed Hunan Higher-Learning School) in the late Qing Dynasty. In the halls on the wings of the second gate, there is the couplet written by Luo Dian, Master of the Academy in the late Qing Dynasty. The couplet reads “Adjacent to the Heng Mountain and Xiang River, the Academy possesses the spirits of the nature; Taking the ancient Confucian studies as its model in academic work, the Academy obtains the essentials of the Chinese classics.”

Located at the heart of the Academy, the lecture hall is the most important place for teaching and momentous ceremony as well as the core of the all construction of the Academy. The hall had 5 lecture rooms when it was first built in the 9th year of Kaibao Reign, Northern Song Dynasty (976), when the whole of Yuelu Academy was under construction. All the subsequent restorations didn’t make significant changes. In the 6th year of Qiandao Reign, Southern Song Dynasty (1168), the famous idealist Zhangshi and Zhuxi made a joint lecture here, which was the first joint lecture in the Confucianacademies of China.

Under the foreside brim of the hall is a horizontally-inscribed board “Seeking Truths from the Facts” written by Bing Bucheng, the principal of Hunan Industrial School in the early period of the Republic of China. “Seeking Truths From the Facts” originated from the book “Biography of Liu De, the King of Hejian, Han Shu”. The principal of the industrial school treated it as a school motto in order to encourage the students of the Academy to be realistic in doing everything throughout their lives so as to judge wisely.

In the center of the Hall are two gilding inscribed wooden boards. One reads “Learn before you can probe the infiniteness of Tian, the universe”. Emperor Kang Xi of Qing Dynasty inscribed it to encourage the idealists to advocate their philosophy and improve their self-cultivation. The original board was destroyed and the current one was re-inscribed according to the calligraphy of the Emperor. The second board was inscribed by Emperor Qian Long and it reads “The doctrines taught here in the South are genuine Confucian doctrines”. This is the highest praise the Academy could receive from the perspective of the advocates of idealism, indicating the essential status of the Academy in the history of the idealism. This gilding board is the original one.

There are also many valuable culture relics of steles in the lecture hall. On the inner walls of the hall are engraved four big Chinese Characters- loyalty, piety, honesty and integrity. They were written by the great scholar Zhu Xi, who once lectured here. Others such as “Uniform and stand as a mark of respect” written and set by one master of the Qing Dynasty, Ouyang Zhenghuan; the stele “School Regulations” written by Master Wang Wenqing of Qing Dynasty are all the important historical materials for the study of the education in China’s Confucian academies. They still have their own enlightening meaning to us nowadays.

On the front screen of the hall is engraved “Yuelu Academy Regulations” written by Zhang Shi, the famous idealist, master of the Academy of the Qiangdao 1st or 2nd year, Southern Song Dynasty (1165 or 1166). It characterizes the basic principles of education in Yuelu Academy and has had an essential influence on the education here. The masterpiece was calligraphed by Zhou Zhaoyi, the alumnus of Hunan University and the Chairman of Hunan Calligraphers’ Association in 1983. On the back of the screen is engraved the Yuelu Hill Map copied from “ Nanyue Mountain Records”.

On the two sides of the Lecture Hall, there are two rooms call the Teaching Room and Banxue Room that used to be the dormitories of teachers and students of the Academy. In the past, students spent a great deal of their time in studying classics independently there. The Academy owns a long history of having its own dormitories. In the 9th year of Kaibao Reign, Song Taizong (976), 52 study dormitories were built. After that, the dormitories were ruined and rebuilt several times and its name had changed repeatedly also. The current building was constructed in the 3rd year of Guangxu Reign, Qing Dynasty (1903) and named as Teaching Rooms and Banxue Rooms for the purpose of teaching and administration from the very beginning. The name of “ Jiaoxue Room” is deprived from “ Records of Rites. Liji”, meaning that education is crucial for the country; while the name of “Banxue Room” originated from “Excerpt from the Book of Documents (or Shangshu), meaning that teaching is not enough and teaching and learning are reciprocal and must work together. The two names reflect the relationship between teaching and learning. When Cai Hesen and Mao Zedong were studying in the college in Changsha, they came and stayed here many times. Now there is a special room in the Academy to commemorate this and Banxue Room is used for the exhibition and study of history records.

Located to the left side of the Lecture Hall, the Revising Hall of Xiang Shui also acts as the lecture hall of the Academy. Its original name is “ Cheng De Hall” .The hall, was built first in the 6th year of Jiajing Reign, Ming Dynasty (1527) and reconstructed in the late Qing Dynasty. It got its present name “Classics -Revising Hall of Xiang Shui” in the 11th year of Daoguang Reign, Qing Dynasty (1831), when Wu Rongguang, a military governor of Hunan, founded the Classics - Revising Hall of Xiang Shui and epigraphed the board. The site at that time was at that of Chuan Shan Temple. At a time when most of the academies in China concentrated on the imperial competitive examinations, Wu established the Hall for the purpose of studying Sinology, to cultivate persons with the capabilitiy for mastering classics and applying what they learned to society and to build up a brand new style of study. Emphasizing the “more exquisite and minute in one’s learning” as well as the idealist traditions of Zhu Xi and Zhang Shi, the hall incorporated different ideas, theories of various schools without any sectarian bias. The famous students are Guo Songtao and Zuo Zongtang etc.

Tha hall had its history of running the school in Yuelu Academy for 45 years. When Wu Rongguang resigned from his position in the 16th year of Daoguang Reign, Qing Dynasty (1836), the students became few and far between. The hall was moved to Tian Xin Pavilion in the southern part of Changsha in the 1st year of Guangxu Reign, Qing Dynasty (1875), and the original site was used to build the Chuanshan Temple and the board of “ Classics - Xiang Shui Revising Hall” was kept in Ming De Hall just for historical memory.