or Tung-lin Academy
Chinese academy founded during the Song dynasty and revived in 1604 by scholars and officials to protest the moral laxity and intellectual weakness undermining public life in the last years of the Ming dynasty .
Its members cultivated the antiabsolutist views of Mencius and rebuked the court for failing to uphold Confucian values. The court eunuch Wei Zhongxian persecuted members and supporters of the Academy, practically wiping it out by 1627. It was rehabilitated after Wei's death.