Classical Chinese literature, representing a profound aspect of traditional Chinese culture, continues to play an essential role in the language curricula of primary and secondary schools across Chinese-speaking regions. Despite its cultural importance, Classical Chinese poses significant challenges for contemporary students. Commonly cited issues include students’ perceptions of the subject as complex, abstract, and disconnected from their daily lives, which often results in decreased motivation, diminished interest, and poor learning outcomes. Consequently, educators frequently face difficulties engaging students effectively, highlighting an urgent need for innovative teaching strategies. This study addresses these challenges by integrating the ARCS motivational framework into a virtual reality (VR)-enhanced instructional model specifically tailored for Classical Chinese education. The ARCS model, developed by John Keller, identifies four core motivational components critical to learning processes: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. Attention refers to strategies that capture and sustain learners’ interest; Relevance emphasizes connecting the learning material to students’ personal experiences and goals; Confidence involves providing support and feedback to help learners believe in their ability to succeed; and Satisfaction pertains to creating rewarding and meaningful learning experiences. By embedding these principles into the instructional design, the proposed VR-enhanced teaching model aims to enhance students’ intrinsic motivation and facilitate deeper engagement with Classical Chinese texts. A preliminary experience was conducted by inviting 15 secondary school students to the classroom and collecting feedback on their learning experiences. The results indicated that this learning approach helps improve students’ understanding of the contextual situations in the texts and their willingness to participate, while also stimulating their curiosity and affinity for classical literature. Virtual reality technology, with its immersive and interactive characteristics, serves as the primary instructional medium. Specifically, VR enables the creation of realistic and rich learning environments, allowing students to virtually explore historical settings, interact directly with literary characters, and vividly experience narratives. This immersive educational approach transforms the typically abstract and challenging nature of Classical Chinese texts into engaging and meaningful experiences. (See Figs. 1 and 2) The instructional model proposed in this research follows a structured approach: first, learners’ attention is captured through immersive VR scenes designed to stimulate curiosity and interest; second, lessons explicitly demonstrate relevance by relating Classical Chinese content to students’ contemporary lives and cultural heritage; third, confidence is fostered through incremental difficulty levels within VR activities, combined with immediate, personalized feedback; finally, satisfaction is reinforced through interactive scenarios, rewarding learners’ progress and achievement, thereby motivating continued engagement. (See Fig. 3)