ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces two special characteristics of Classical Chinese (CC) texts – conversational style and the prevalence of omissions – and demonstrates how to incorporate them into CC teaching and learning. A famous ancient fable, 畫蛇添足, is used to present an integrated CC pedagogy with a focus on these two special features, which includes a descriptive introduction of grammar structures, reading CC texts, in-class exercises, activities and assignments. The grammatical analysis and pedagogical account provided in this chapter demonstrate that a full appreciation of the characteristics of CC texts and its grammar would help learners achieve a better understanding of CC texts and improve the effectiveness of CC pedagogy.
