景觀不是一個普遍對象，因為並不是所有文化和所有的歷史階段都有景觀這個概念。景觀的觀念最早出現於中國六朝，之後出現於歐洲文藝復興時代。景觀並不限於肉眼可見，由於人們隸屬於不同的文化，即使處於相同的物理環境，所見到的實在界卻大不相同。本文作者提出六項準則用以客觀區辨具有景觀概念的各種文化。作者並進一步指出實在界的類比性，以邏輯而言，命題的主詞S是地球（或物理環境），謂詞P是某個世界（或是經由某個存有者的感覺、觀念、言說與行動所把握到的環境的表述語詞）。因此實在界可以用S∕P的邏輯命題形式來表述，亦即表述為「S as P」， 意為「環境即是一種景觀」。公元440年左右，宗炳寫下「山水質而有趣靈」的句子，便是對此實在界的感應表述。

Landscape is not a universal object, since the notion does not exist in all cultures and at all stages of history. It first appeared in China under the Six Dynasties, then in Europe at the Renaissance. It is not, either, limited to the visible, since people belonging to different cultures, placed in the same physical environment, do not see the same reality. The author proposes six criteria for distinguishing objectively the cultures where a notion of landscape really exists. He then shows that reality is analogous, in logical terms, to a predication in which the subject S is the Earth (or the physical environment) and the predicate P a certain world (or the terms in which this environment is grasped through the senses, the ideas, the words and the actions of a certain being). Reality, then, can be represented with the formula S/P, i.e. “S as P”; e.g. “the environment as a landscape”. It is surmised that Zong Bing had a premonition of this reality when he wrote, around 440 AD, that “landscape, while possessing a material form, tends to the spiritual”.