Jíshuǐ

Jishui's villages supported a scholarly culture sustained by families, local elites and academies. During the Yuan dynasty, these institutions helped maintain the study of the Confucian classics beyond the major urban schools. Zhu Xi's teachings gained influence through their close association with the civil-service examinations, although local traditions of learning depended on particular households and teachers and could weaken when those supports disappeared.

In the early Ming, the county was the home of Xie Jin, one of the scholars who supervised the Yongle encyclopaedia. The compilation brought learned men to Nanjing to gather and arrange texts on a vast range of subjects. For Jishui, such careers connected village education and family learning with service at the imperial court. Its scholarly history joined locally maintained academies with the opportunities and demands of the examination system, producing influence that could reach well beyond the county.