Self-Cultivation in Meditation-Based Pedagogy for Classical Chinese: Effects on Emotional Resonance, Comprehension, and Retention

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  In Roundtable Session: Chinese and Confucian Perspectives

Abstract

Rooted in Confucian jingzuo and Daoist zuowang, meditation has historically cultivated attentional stability, emotional harmony, moral self-cultivation, and interpretive depth in Chinese education. This study examines the effects on emotional resonance, text comprehension, and memory retention in Classical Chinese learning. Forty secondary students participated in a four-week quasi-experimental intervention integrating guided meditation into lessons on a Tang-dynasty classical text. The experimental group received guided mindfulness breathing and literary-imagery visualization; the control group received standard instruction. Mixed-methods data from comprehension and delayed-recall tests, validated self-reports, classroom observations, and interviews indicated improvements in comprehension, retention, and emotional engagement. Integrating traditional self-cultivation with contemporary pedagogy, this approach offers a culturally responsive, transferable model for fostering cognitive–affective engagement in humanistic education.

Author

• RONG DENG, The Education University of Hong Kong