山水百家言 导读

Flora of Landscape Thought INTRODUCTION

在中国文学作品中最早提及造园用的石头是汉代的大赋。6世纪初，描写这些石头的诗句在咏物诗里普遍出现。诗中的石头，作为一种具体物品，缺乏特性；其功能在于作为一种象征，而这种象征的意义是很容易译解的。诗人与其所描写的石头之间没有什么实在联系。

In Chinese literature, garden rocks were first mentioned in the Han rhapsodic fu. Starting in the sixth century, description of rocks became common in ＂poetry on objects＂ （咏物诗）. In this genre, the poetic rock lacks specificity as a physical object and functions instead as an emblem whose meaning can be easily decoded. The poet evidences little material relationship with the rocks he describes. In the ninth century, a cluster of new themes and motifs was ushered in, and the poetic treatment of rocks came to differ significantly from that in traditional poetry on objects. These differences are to be seen in the development of what may be called a rock aesthetic; in the formulation of the rock fancier＇s peculiar relationship to the rock in terms of possession, obsession, and self-expression; and in the moral anxiety that constantly threatened to upset his aesthetic enjoyment.