The relationship between man and nature experienced a long process from opposition to unity. According to Darwin's view of evolution, man belongs to an inseparable part of nature before he evolves into an adult, and it can be considered that "man" at this time is nature. With the birth of human beings and the gradual progress of thinking, people began to differentiate from nature. At this time, the relationship between man and nature is still at arm's length, and people have a hazy understanding of various changes in nature in the long process of being constantly subordinate to nature and constantly divorced from nature. In the infancy of human beings, nature is opposed to human beings as a completely alien, infinitely powerful and uncontrollable power. People's relationship with it is subject to its power as other animals are to it. At this time, nature is mysterious to human beings, and people are in awe of nature. The almost instinctive fear and awe caused by mysterious nature is impossible to produce any works of landscape literature, and landscape travel notes are no exception. At this time, nature, as a surreal force, is above human beings, and human beings worship nature in fear and awe. As the article "Xu Xiake's Travels" in the General Catalogue of Sikuquanshu says: "Since ancient times, the famous mountains and rivers have been worshipped first, but they have been sealed by their looks, and no scenic spots have been named." "Book of Rites Justice" Volume 12 also says: "The son of heaven sacrifices the world's famous mountains and rivers, and the five mountains regard the three public, and the four blasphemies regard all the weather. Waiting for the famous mountains and rivers in their place. " This religious attitude towards mountains and rivers is the embodiment and extension of the above-mentioned psychology of human beings towards nature, and of course it is far from discovering, understanding and reproducing the beauty of mountains and rivers.
The psychology of respecting and fearing nature comes from the dependence on nature for the continuation of human life. Before the emergence of agricultural civilization, nature was the source of human life, and the utilitarianism arising from this pure material relationship would never appear real landscape literature works. The aesthetic ability of human beings to nature is gradually produced with the conquest of nature. With the improvement of agricultural productivity, people's understanding of natural landscapes has gradually deepened. Although due to the limitation of the times and the propaganda of the rulers for the need of rule, people can't completely strip off the cloak of the mystery of nature, and the famous mountain osawa has been sacrificed by people for a long time in feudal society of our country; However, religious ceremonies have been unable to stop people from accumulating and enriching their aesthetic consciousness of natural landscapes, and nature will eventually be regarded as a "distant examination" that is truly independent of human beings.
in the long historical process of man's generation from nature to society, Confucius took the lead in breaking through this religious attitude towards natural landscapes in theory, and put forward the famous aesthetic proposition that "the knower enjoys water, and the benevolent enjoys Leshan" (The Analects of Confucius is Yong Ye), which replaced the worship of reverence with value judgment. Its great value lies in that it consciously proposed for the first time to proceed from the inner part of the subject rather than from it. Carefully analyze the meaning of these words of Confucius. "The knower enjoys water, and the benevolent enjoys Leshan. Wise people move, benevolent people are quiet; Wise men are happy, and benevolent people live longer. Confucius originally explained the quality characteristics of "wise men" and "benevolent people" from the personality cultivation of "gentlemen". However, in this understanding, people's spiritual qualities are different, and their love for natural landscapes is also different. Moreover, it further means that a certain natural object is loved by people because it has a formal structure similar to people's spiritual quality. The reason why the "wise man" is happy with water is that water has the characteristics of continuous movement, while the "wise man is not confused" (Zi Han) is agile in his work and also has the characteristics of movement. The reason why the "benevolent" is "Leshan" is because the mountains are pregnant with everything and stand still. And "the benevolent does not worry" (Zi Han) is calm and generous, which also has the characteristics of "quietness". In fact, these famous sayings and allegories reveal for the first time that man and nature have some isomorphism in a broad way, and then they can communicate with each other. More importantly, they look at natural landscapes from an ethical and moral point of view, and regard natural landscapes as the expression and symbol of a certain spiritual quality of human beings.
children have different spiritual qualities, and their love for natural landscapes is also different. Moreover, it further means that a certain natural object is loved by people because it has a formal structure similar to people's spiritual quality. The reason why the "wise man" is happy with water is that water has the characteristics of continuous movement, while the "wise man is not confused" (Zi Han) is agile in his work and also has the characteristics of movement. The reason why the "benevolent" is "Leshan" is because the mountains are pregnant with everything and stand still. And "the benevolent does not worry" (Zi Han) is calm and generous, which also has the characteristics of "quietness". In fact, these famous sayings and allegories reveal for the first time that man and nature have some isomorphism in a broad way, and then they can communicate with each other. More importantly, they look at natural landscapes from an ethical and moral point of view, and regard natural landscapes as the expression and symbol of a certain spiritual quality of human beings.