Multiple Interpretations in Secondary School Chinese Language and Literature Teaching: A Case Study of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70088/xdr2rf19Keywords:
The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, theme-based teaching, multiple interpretations, critical thinking, secondary school ChineseAbstract
As a treasure of classical Chinese poetry, Bai Juyi's The Song of Everlasting Sorrow has long been a poem whose theme is debated on all sides. Several representative positions have taken shape: the "love theory," the "allegory theory," the "sentimental theory," and the "dual theme theory." Taking The Song of Everlasting Sorrow as its example, this paper attempts to break with the traditional model in secondary school Chinese teaching that fixes a single "orthodox" reading on the theme of a canonical text. It systematically examines the reasonableness and the limitations of each school of thought on the poem's theme, and explores how to guide students toward multiple interpretations in teaching practice, so as to cultivate their capacity for close reading, their historical insight, and their critical thinking, to bring academic research effectively into the secondary school classroom, and to enhance students' core competencies in the Chinese language subject.References
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Copyright (c) 2026 Zenan Hu, Jie Gao (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
