Cognitive Research on Teaching Strategies of Chinese Ancient Poems forForeignersGuoli LiuSchool of foreign studies Henan Polytechnic University,China 454003liugl@AbstractüImages in Chinese Ancient Poems are usually the punch lines and the key points in Chinese for foreigners. According to the Image Schema Theory and the Mental Space Theory of Cognitive Linguistics, teachers should manage to build up schemas of Chinese culture in the minds of foreign students by introducing them the backgrounds and stories contained in Ancient Poems. So that foreigner students can get the meaning between lines and go further to enjoy Chinese Ancient Poems. Meanwhile, it is helpful to introduce Chinese culture to the world.Key Wordsü Ancient Poem Image Schema Chinese forForeignerI. IntroductionChinese Ancient Poems are a very important part inteaching Chinese for foreign students. Meanwhile, because ofthe rich images in Ancient Poems and the differentbackground, ways of thinking and culture, it is difficult forforeign students to understand and appreciate Chinese Ancient Poems, for many images of Chinese culture are absent in theirminds. In order to enable foreign students to appreciate thesepoems, teachers have to construct the image schemas in theirminds.II. Images in Chinese Ancient PoemsImages contain the values, ways of thinking, life-style,belief and customs of a nation. “Milky Way” and “Yinhe”, forinstance, are two images of different nations. They have different cultural meaning though they have the sameinstruction. The former reminds people of the ancient Greekmyth while the latter, a beautiful Chinese legend of “theCowboy and the Weaving Girl”.There are a large variety of images, for example, a plant,a bird or beast, an idiom, a proverb, an allusion, a metaphor, even a number, etc. Different nations have their uniqueimages because of their different backgrounds and customs. There are more fascinating images in Chinese Ancient Poems.It may be a hero in history (Qu Yuan in the sentence of “Yuan and Xiang River dry never, Qu Yuan grudges forever.”, a traditional festival (Qing Ming Festival in “On Qing Ming shower after shower it rains, lost a traveler’s soul seems.”ˈ a name of a place( Yang Zhou in “Sailing to Yang Zhou in the March of prosperous blossom.”, title of a poem (Girls of Shang feel nothing about the loss of their country, still singing Hou Ting Hua on the other side of the river.”, an allusion (the cowboy and the weaving girl in “the night in the imperial palace feels cool as water, nothing they can do in bed but looking at the stars of Cowboy and Weaving Girl.”, and so on.III. Theories of “Image Schema” and “Metal Space”A. the Image Schema theorycThe term of Image Schema theory was firstly put forward by Mark Johnson in 1987 based on the philosophy of embodiment and its main characteristics were expounded in the book titled The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason. Image schema is a dynamic pattern appearing repeatedly in the process of inter-acting and moving perception, it can provide coherence and structure for people’s experience. People gain the image schemas in the process of inter-active experience between human being and outside world. Schema refers to a cognitive structure that can process the information and experience into a certain commen sense (Wang Yin, 2005, 65-67. Image schema is a mode that stores a person’s former knowledge and experience in his mind. It does not simply pile the facts and experience but categorize them into ordered knowledge systems. Schema is the basis to know the world, it will reorganize, re-understand and re-remember the new information. It links the new information with the former knowledge in a person’s mind. Decoding and recoding the newly-input information rely on the schemas the structures or net. These newly-input information must match the schemas in mind, a person can understand the information. Therefore, the knowledge stored in readers’ minds functions greatly to understand new information. As is known, different community members get different knowledge and value affected by their different traditions, cultures, backgrounds, religions and beliefs. This cultural cognitive mental state wasstored in mind in the pattern of schemas and it forms the cultural cognitive schema.B. Metal Space TheoryG. Fauconnier put forward Metal Space Theory in his book Metal Space(1985/1994. He raised Conceptual Integration Theory(1997 and Conceptual Blending Theory(2002 in recent years. According this theory, the metal space is divided into four parts of input space I, input space II, blending space and generic space. The four spaces are linked with mapping to form a conceptual blending net. The process of mapping from input space to blending space is called “compression”, that is, it is a process to simplify the complex concepts from different input spaces to a new, complete and united space. The blending concepts are stable and easy to remember. Of its function, mental space is way we unconsciously organize our background cognitive process when we speak and think. By mapping and inserting the partial structure and background, new structure, action, concept, feeling and understanding will be formed in the blending space.IV. Strategies of image teaching in ancient poemsWestern poems stress on logical reasoning and are very rigorous; while the Chinese poems stress on image combination, very vagarious and indirect. It is just the vague and indirect words that fly the reader’s imagination, so that reader s can feel thebou ndlessness and magnificence of the sentences “straightly rising the military smoke in the sands, more round seems the sinking sun over the broad river.” Chinese readers have the same background and culture so that they can get the similar feeling. The images of “the sands”, “military smoke”, “broad river” and “sinking sun” can trigger them the similar imagination. While the foreign students cannot gain the same feeling because of the different background, they cannot appreciate the beauty of Chinese ancient poems.A. Construction of Image SchemaThere will be two input spaces in foreign students’ minds according to the Metal Space Theory: one is the cognitive domain of Chinese culture and the other is the domain of native culture. The two spaces will interact and connect and finally form a new blending space. While reading Chinese poems, foreign students will understand them with their native culture and way of thinking unconsciously and of cause, they will get different understanding. The reason is the absence of Chinese images in their minds. So we have to try to contrast the Chinese images in the foreign students’ minds, because, according to G. Fauconneir, these images schemas will be stored for a long time in their minds. When they get to know the story o f “the cowboy and the weaving girl”, for example, they will not equal “the Silver River” in Chinese culture with “ the Milk Way” in the western culture.B. Strategies to construct image schemaIn teaching Chinese for foreigners, teachers usually explain the meanings of the poems to students only, instead of analyzing the culturing meaning of the images for the reason that teachers may also be lack of the knowledge of ancient poems. So the foreign students cannot enjoy the beauty of the poems though they get the meaning. Vagueness is one character of Chinese ancient poems, it enables readers to imagine freely. Otherwise, Chinese ancient poems contain rich meanings with less words. That is because in Chinese ancient poems there are a great number of images, Chinese readers can produce rich imagination while reading them, they can get the true meaning that the images contain and further more, they can enjoy the poems. But this is not true for foreign students for they don’t have these image schemas in their minds, they don’t know the cultural background and the meaning they contain. If teachers fail to explain the images to foreign students, it will cause the loss of culture and they cannot get the true meaning of the poems. So, in the process of teaching, teachers must show both the cultural background and true meaning of the images to foreign students. So that the foreign students canconstruct the image schemas of Chinese culture in their minds and they will not misunderstand them when in read them in other poems.Li Bai’s Qing Ping Tune (the Second, for example:A red red peony passes its fragrance to the pearls of dew,Even the Clouds and Rain of Mount Wu are not as fair as you.Who is, in the palace of Han, alike?Feiyan has to turn to her dress new.This is the second one of the three poems in the title of Qing Ping Tune written by Li Bai to eulogize Yang Guifei. Li Bai combines the peony and Yang Guifei together, peony is Yang Guifei and Yang Guifei is as pretty as peony. The first line describes the bright color and tempting aroma of the peony, even the dews on it are fragrant. So beautiful is the peony and so pretty is Yang Guifei. They are more fairy than the Goddess of Mount. Wu who is flowing cloud in the morning and light rain in the evening. Even Zhao Feiyan, the beauty of Han Dynasty, has to turn to new dresses.In this poem, the poet quotes the allusions of “Clouds and Rain of Mount. Wu” and “Zhao Feiyan”. But the foreign students have no the image schemas of the two stories. They know nothing about the Goddess of Mount. Wu and Zhao Feiyan if teachers do not tell them the stories and they would not grasp the beauty of the poem. So teachers must tell the stories to foreign students.According to the record of Gao Tang Fu written by Song Yu, once Chu Xiangwang (the King of Chu Kingdom traveled to a Cloud–and-Dream Platform together with Song Yu. Seen from far away, the platform was surrounded by changeable clouds. Chu Huaiwang asked Song Yu: “what’s the air?” Song Yu answered: “it is the so-called Clouds. Once a time, our former king travelled to Gao Tang, he was tired and had a snapat the noon. In dream a woman told him: ‘I am the Goddess of Mount. Wu, a guest of Gao Tang. News came that you were here in Gao Tang. I’m willing to make bed for you.’ Our fo rmer king made love with her. The woman said while leaving: ‘I live on the southern slope of Mount. Wu and to be flowing clouds in the morning and light rain in the evening. I’m under the platform from morning till evening.’”Zhao Feiyan was the queen of Liu Ao, King of Han Dynasty. Her given name was Yizhu. She was as light as a swallow and danced very well, so people call her Zhao Feiyan. It is said that the King specially made a crystal plate for her. Putting the plate on one palm of a person, Zhao Feiyan can dance on it gracefully.After learning the two stories, foreign students not only understand the poem more deeply but also build the image schemas of “Zhao F eiyan” and “the Clouds and Rain of Mount. Wu” in their minds and these images will be kept f or a long time even during their lives. They will not be frustrated by the allusions when they meet them in the future reading.V. ConclusionThe images in Chinese Ancient Poems playan important role in containing the poets’ feeling.Foreign students are faced with great difficulties to understand and enjoy them because of the absence of the Chinese images in their minds. If Chinese teachers can explain the images to them to construct the schemas of these Chinese images, foreign students will be easy to understand the poems so that they can enjoy Chinese Ancient Poems. It is helpful for the introduction of Chinese culture to the word.References[1]F.Ungerer & H.J.Schmid. An Introduction to CognitiveLinguistics. Shang Hai: Foreign Language Teaching and Res earching Pressˈ2008.[2]YinWang. Research on Cognitive Linguistics[M]. ChongQing: Chong Qing Press, 2005. (in Chinese[3]Dingfang Shu. An Introduction to Cognitive Semantics[M].Shang Hai: Shang Hai Foreign Language Education Press, 2008. (in Chinese[4]Zhengyang Gu. Cultural Research on Chinese-Englishtranslation of Chinese Ancient Poems[m]. 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