Thoughts on Teaching Classical Chinese Literature

Abstract

In today's rapidly modernizing China, classical literature teaching is facing bottlenecks, what’s the value of classic literature? Is classical literature still able hold students? How teach it? Undoubtedly, classical literature in modern times still has great vitality, it contains profound Chinese traditional culture and its value lies in the humanities foundation and influence, and also in its irreplaceable charm of literature. In teaching, the teacher should find starting point, select unique angles convey the charm of classical literature; teacher should have three realms ——preach, teach, solve and use advanced supplementary means of teaching; teacher should also understand students ,stimulate students’ interest and combine knowledge and entertainment. KEYWORD: Chinese classical literature; teaching; teacher; student International Conference on Social Science, Education Management and Sports Education (SSEMSE 2015) © 2015. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 2051 2 ABOUT TEACHERS AND TEACHING Han Yu (AD768-824,a scholar and poet in Tang Dynasty) said: teachers, should preach, teach and solve doubts.” According my understanding, this consists of three realms which go forward one by one. Preaching is impart knowledge; Teaching is combine the knowledge and practice; as regards to solve , it refers not only answer students ' academic questions but also answer their issues about life. The highest realm is be guide. In my opinion, it is also the three realms that classical literature teachers should pursue. Needless say knowledge accumulation, as classical literature teacher, if you want teach students “a cup of water of knowledge, you should have a bucket of water reserves. Teachers should be student's models apply what we have learned. The predecessor professor had earnestly instructed us: literature teacher, you not only need teach, but also need be able create works.” I deeply agree with this opinion, literature comes from life; literary has its vitality only in real-life. For example, we teach the Yuan drama, what’s in our textbook is just the introduction of excellent writers and analysis of their works. These are necessary, however, drama is the art of the stage, without performing, it would look like the boat out of the water; it was not quite full enough and also not vivid. Therefore, I usually note what accumulated in the life and combine literature and life; this method received good results in teaching. For instance, when talking about poetry, I take out my own poems I wrote before, appreciate them with students; when talking about drama, I perform role of it, even sing it, or let students watch the show live. Combination textbooks with vivid practice promote students ' interest in learning. As solve , I think, even the classical literature teacher should not indulge in the library and forget about everything else, on the contrary, classical literature teacher should be out of the ivory tower, access wide range of social life, use practice validate knowledge and use knowledge improve life. Only in this way can we become guide of students, and thus fulfill “solve doubts responsibilities. To understand students, we should communicate with them. Teachers may wish be teachers in the classroom, as well as students ’friends outside the classroom. Being mentor is the most ideal teacher-student relationship. In terms of teaching methods, nowadays, teaching aids are already advanced; the use of multimedia equipment provides us great convenience for classical literature teaching. Literature is the art of imagination and is also the visual arts, which direct appeal human feelings. When the Guqin played, cartoon making the petals slowly falling on the screen, poem of Li Shangyin jinse in chant, its artistic influence is much better than simply reciting the poem by teachers or students. [1] The Injustice Dou E, The Romance of West Chamber and other plays, if the teacher can play the video materials while teaching stories, personalities and artistic characteristics of them, students would have deep impression and the whole class effect would be very good.[2] In terms of teaching methods, I believe that there is another problem worth discussing: stand-up teaching and sit-down teaching. Until now, seated teach is only tale in China. At the podium, teachers often have stand in class, sometimes up three or four sections. Long standing makes teachers’ throats sore and their legs cramp. Based on my own experience, the more people sitting than standing, the easier we can arouse memories and more flexible in thinking. Besides, both students and teachers sitting down looks like more equitable manner. Why don't we choose more favorable way?