The textbooks Ju Zhai uses include morality anecodotes and Confucian classics.

    BEIJING, Dec. 21 -- With the teacher wearing a long traditional Chinese robe, and the students bowing to an image of Confucius hanging on the classroom wall, it is a scene that reminds people of ancient China in movies.

    The setting is not from a film set, but in a sishu in Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province.

    Sishu private academies popular in ancient China is a throwback to the ancient style of teaching that formed the base of the traditional tutorial system in the country.

    After they were abolished in 1905, mass education along with a more Western type curriculum was promoted in its place.

    Suzhou is a city deeply embedded with traditional culture, which makes it a fitting location for the resurrection of sishu.

    Zhang Zhiyi and Xue Yanji, two men in their 30s, began their first lessons on traditional culture this summer, in a villa called Ju Zhai, which literally means Chrysanthemum Room.

    Zhang told China Daily that he chose the name as the flower stands for hermits in ancient Chinese poems, which is the quality he pursues.

    Now on the weekends, a group of parents send their children to Ju Zhai to learn traditional Chinese culture.

    Zhang said they selected six children with better comprehensive ability as their first intake of students out of 30 applicants.

    All the lessons in Ju Zhai are taught on the weekend because they "don't intend to substitute the compulsory education, but only to serve as a complementation," said Zhang.

    The syllabus of Ju Zhai covers morality anecdotes, Confucian classics and ancient poetic literature.

    "We want our students to learn the essence of our ancient culture, which is mainly about virtue, personal integrity and proper behaviour," said Zhang.

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