山水詩的出現，其實是中國古典詩人面對天地萬物時所體現的想像與審美觀照的一種型態，山水即是自然世界的微型與縮影，然而，山水游觀的動作，其實也是生活敘述的一部分或一種短暫的停留。從掃描觀看的自然萬物，進而發掘可以佇足停留的山水風姿，因而山水在目光的移動與變化中被定格，發展成為一種特定的景緻或風景。就古典傳統而言，景物的概念包含了山水、風景，且來自於詩人對外在世界的沉思，名為天地或萬物；因此，從自然的概念探討山水詩的問題，這乃是近代論述語境所衍生的視域轉移的研究成果，而緣於這種概念與研究視角的引介，探討古典文學的方式與論述也就有著不同的聚焦點與論題。本論文的重點，即在於辨析古典文學研究在轉向當代論述場域的發展過程時所常用的概念，譬如「自然」與「風景」，在語意的具體涵義上各有何特定的脈絡可尋，藉以提供一種可能的論述參考框架，重新揭示山水詩研究的方向與論題。

This article investigates the concept of landscape in literary thought and its relation to that of nature, especially to the notion of shanshui 山 水 in the classical Chinese literary tradition. In contemporary studies of shanshui shi 山水詩, or landscape poetry, theoretical observations have been largely directed at our conception of nature in general and at external objects in particular. During the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, when the Jesuits attempted to introduce Christianity to Chinese literati via recourse to European higher learning (scientia), the concept of nature in Aristotelian natural philosophy became introduced into classical Chinese scholarship, especially the notion of “investigating external objects” (gewu 格物). Yet, the Jesuits tended to use Chinese terms such as tiandi 天地or wanwu 萬物, but not ziran 自然, to translate and interpret the term “nature” and its related conceptions. Therefore, the rise and subsequent discussion of landscape poetry in the classical Chinese literary tradition was unrelated to the classical concept of ziran. And it was not until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that there occurred the rendition of the Western term “nature” into its Chinese equivalent ziran.In the classical Chinese literary tradition, the poet places himself directly within the natural setting, and nature in poetry is surely a record of, and medium for, personal affectivity. Against such a background, the Chinese mind tried to find an objective correlation between inner feelings and external objects, and landscape poetry in its totality has been esteemed as a manifestation of harmony between man and nature. Following Chris Fitter’s statement that “landscape-consciousness” always in fact “subsists within broader, historically local structures of ‘naturesensibility’ that condition, direct and limit it,” I examine here the concept of landscape and its variants in literary thought. With the introduction of the concept of landscape in its Western context -- that is, nature being viewed as “not so much a state as a process”, and landscape being never “still within the frame” -- I hope to provide a new framework to further studies of landscape and nature in poetry.