A Study Of Recommended Classical Chinese Literature Readings For Middle School Students In The Perspective Of Selected Versions Of Classical Chinese Literature Over The Ages

Classical Chinese literature selections have always been an important source for students throughout history to study canonical texts.After the Song Dynasty,compiling classical literature collections became a trend and these selections were elevated to a high position.In ancient times,classical literature collections served as textbooks with compulsory,indoctrinating,and popularizing effects.The continuity of this type of textbook allowed Chinese culture to continue to spread and evolve,shaping the form of Chinese culture.The combination of textbooks and the imperial examination system has made classical literature compilations an essential guide for ancient literati to study.The impact of classical literature textbooks on Chinese culture is enormous,even greater than that of poetry,drama,and novels in shaping and influencing Chinese society.The 2022 newly revised National Curriculum Standard for the Chinese Language in Compulsory Education and the Curriculum Standard for High School Chinese Language provide a list of recommended excellent poetry and prose pieces in their appendices,requiring students to read 40 excellent classical literature works during their middle school years.The specific works can be recommended by textbook editors and Chinese teachers.Based on the selected classical works over the ages,the author uses quantitative analysis to select over one hundred outstanding classical literature works throughout the long history of ancient literature.Through reviewing the selection of classical literature collections throughout the dynasties and examining the recommended excellent poetry and prose in light of the current curriculum standards,the author conducts a comparative analysis to gain insights,hoping to attract further attention and reflection on this topic.The paper consists of four chapters.Chapter One is a survey of classical literature collections throughout the dynasties,which is divided into two parts: the ancient and modern collections.This chapter investigates the scope of each period’s classical literature collections and introduces and analyzes each collection’s editor,content,format,and selection bias.Chapter two is a quantitative analysis of classical literature selections throughout the dynasties.At first,it introduces the concept of quantitative analysis and clarifies the sources,selection,and weighting of data as well as statistical methods.Next,this chapter presents the statistical results and data analysis,ranking the top one hundred classical literature works selected through quantitative analysis.Finally,these top one hundred classical literature works are analyzed.Chapter three is a comparative study of recommended works based on quantitative analysis.Firstly,it compares the top one hundred classical literature works with selected works in Chinese textbooks.Secondly,these one hundred pieces are compared with recommended works in curriculum standards appendices.Chapter four provides recommendations for middle school extracurricular classical literature readings and their applications.Concerning the analysis of the top one hundred classical literature works and the comparison with classical literature selections in textbooks,the author recommends a list of classical literature works for middle school students.This chapter also proposes suggestions for the restructuring of teaching resources in and outside class and the formation of learning task groups related to classical literature education.