The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an.

"[1] Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed secretarial and literary tasks for the court.

[36] The later Tongwen Guan set up by the Qing dynasty for translating western languages was subordinated to the Zongli Yamen and not the Hanlin.

The Beijing Hanlin Academy and its library were severely damaged in a fire during the Siege of the International Legations in Peking (now known as Beijing) in 1900 by the Kansu Braves while fighting against the Eight-Nation Alliance, close to the British Legation as an intimidation tactic.

Some of the incendiaries were shot down, but the buildings were an inferno and the old trees standing round them blazed like torches.