The Yuelu Academy (also as known as the "Yuelu Academy of Classical Learning")is located on the east side of Yuelu Mountain in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. As one of the four most prestigious academies over the last 1,000 years in China, Yuelu Academy has been a famous institution of higher learning as well as a centre of academic activities and cultures since it was formally set up in the ninth year of the Kai Bao Reign of the Northern Song Dynasty (976).

Yuelu Academy, surviving the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, was converted into Hunan Institute of Higher Learning in 1903, and Hunan Normal College, Hunan Public Polytechnic School in succession, and was finally named Hunan University in 1926. The historical transformation from Yuelu Academy to Hunan University is an epitome of the development of China’s higher education, which mirrors the vicissitudes of China’s education system.