Lianxi (濂溪故里) is the home ground of Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073), the Song-dynasty philosopher born in Dao County, Yongzhou, whose Taiji Tushuo and Tongshu laid the theoretical foundation of Neo-Confucianism. He is remembered by the name Lianxi, the Lian stream, which he took in retirement to honour the stream near his home, and the name has spread across the county: a Lianxi subdistrict, a Lianxi academy, a memorial hall and a square all carry it. His hometown memorial stands in Loutian village, Qingtang town, on the eastern slope of Dao Mountain. From here the ideas that Zhu Xi later built into the Cheng-Zhu school first took shape. The place is now a claim and a monument as much as a village.
Zhou Dunyi wrote the diagram that founded Neo-Confucianism, and his home county of Dao still names itself after the Lian stream he took as his title. Born there in 1017, he gave the county's subdistrict, academy and square the Lianxi name it now wears.