Understandable Chinese Extracurricular Reading Guide (China Edition) (Color Illustration Version)

Author: Editorial Team of This Series
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: Literature is one of the key content areas in Chinese language exams for middle school students and also an important aspect of cultivating high-quality talents. Therefore, it is essential to learn some literary knowledge and become familiar with literary masterpieces. Literature not only enriches knowledge and broadens horizons but also cultivates middle school students' imagination and writing skills, greatly benefiting their academic performance. In addition to understanding the splendid literature of their own country, middle school students should also master the literary knowledge of other countries in the world, as they are also important components of human knowledge and wisdom and treasures that the younger generation cannot afford to ignore. To improve the literary literacy and Chinese proficiency of middle school students, we have compiled the book "Illustrated New Curriculum Standards—Chinese Language Extracurricular Reading You Can Understand," divided into two volumes: China and Foreign. This book is the China volume. It introduces all the extracurricular reading materials prescribed by the new Chinese language curriculum standards for middle school (covering both junior and senior high schools). For each work (or category), the book is divided into three parts: an introduction to the work (or literary category), a summary of the content (essential excerpts), and creative or exploratory reading methods and reflections. The first part provides author and work introductions or an overview of the literary category, which are part of literary and important knowledge points for middle school exams. For example, the author of Journey to the West is Wu Cheng'en, a Ming Dynasty novelist. His courtesy name is Ruzhong, and his sobriquet is Sheyang Mountain Man. He was born in Huai'an Shanyang (Hua'an, Jiangsu) and lived from 1504 to 1582, experiencing five dynasties during his lifetime: Hongzhi, Zhengde, Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli. Journey to the West is one of the outstanding long-form fantasy novels in the history of Chinese literature, together with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Dream of the Red Chamber, forming the Four Great Classical Novels of China. The writing process of Journey to the West is similar to that of Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms: it was based on certain historical facts, developed over a long period through folk traditions, and later summarized and finalized by a single author through creative reworking of quyi, opera, and storytelling. The second part provides a summary of the work's content or selected excerpts from the essence. When introducing masterpieces, it primarily describes the story's setting, development, and main plot, allowing readers to grasp the book's core content. The summaries in the book are not mere hollow introductions but concise or selected excerpts that largely retain the original writing style, enabling readers to understand the author's techniques while mastering the content. When introducing foreign poetry, it selects and presents the most outstanding parts of the works. For other literary works or reading materials, it introduces several works with educational significance or high popularity and literary value. For example, in the summary of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it is written: In the first year of the Zhongping reign of Emperor Ling, Zhang Jiao and his brothers launched the Yellow Turban Rebellion, causing the imperial army to tremble in fear. To resist the Yellow Turbans, the governor of Youzhou, Liu Yan, posted a recruitment notice. At the time, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei all saw the notice. Though they met by chance, all three shared a desire to serve the country, so they became close friends at once and were persuaded by Zhang Fei to drink together at the peach garden behind his village. Later, the three sworn brotherhood under the sky and joined Liu Yan together. The following stories, such as "Passing Five Passes and Slashing Six Generals," "Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage," "Burning the Red Cliffs," and "Seven Captures of Meng Huo," are vividly depicted. The summary continues until the end of the work, giving children a comprehensive understanding of the entire story. The third part presents reflections on exploratory or creative reading. Every literary work, especially masterpieces, holds profound historical significance and offers enlightenment. When compiling this book, we emphasized the inspirational aspects of reading, allowing readers to absorb the greatest spiritual nourishment from the works while avoiding reading for the sake of reading. Through exploratory and creative reading, readers can improve their reading skills and deepen their understanding of the works. To help students master more literary knowledge and become familiar with more literary masterpieces in the shortest time possible, we compiled this book with a scientific and pragmatic approach, believing it will greatly benefit readers in improving their reading and writing skills. To suit the memory characteristics of middle school students and enhance their learning interest, the book uses vivid language for narration while complementing it with numerous illustrations, achieving a balance of text and images, making it lively and engaging. We hope this book will be loved by a wide range of readers and help them understand stories from different eras through various masterpieces, drawing spiritual sustenance from them while pursuing knowledge and setting lofty aspirations in their studies.