Listen to this articlenǐ wù lì xiàng 拟物立象
Image Creation Through Object Imitation
通过捕捉自然界和社会生活中具体事物的感性形象，加以模拟与提炼、概括，创造出艺术家心目中独有的艺术形象。这一创作理念来源于《周易》。《周易》用设立卦象象征天下的万事万物及其变化规律，启发了文学艺术通过具体的艺术形象对自然界与人类自身进行认识与表达。这种思维方式对中国古代文学、艺术理论产生了深远的影响，孕育了意象理论的产生。
This refers to the process in which an artist creates his unique artistic representations of concrete objects, found in the natural world and social life, by mimicking, refining, and synthesizing their perceptual images. This concept for artistic creation comes from The Book of Changes, which uses images of hexagrams to symbolize everything in nature and their rules of change. The Book of Changes has inspired literature and art to make use of concrete artistic images to interpret and describe nature and human beings themselves. This mode of thinking has exerted a far-reaching influence on literary and artistic theories in ancient China, nurturing the birth of the theory of imagery.
引例 Citations：
◎圣人有以见天下之赜，而拟诸其形容，象其物宜，是故谓之象。（《周易·系辞上》）
（圣人用《周易》卦爻来察见天下万物的奥妙，从而模拟万物的形态，象征事物之所宜，所以称之为象。）
Hexagrams and trigrams described in The Book of Changes allowed sages to survey the subtleties of all things under heaven to determine what was fitting through simulation of the shapes of things. That is why they were called likenesses. (The Book of Changes)
◎子曰：“书不尽言，言不尽意。”然则圣人之意其不可见乎？子曰：“圣人立象以尽意……”（《周易·系辞上》）
（孔子说：“文字不能完全表达言语的意思，言语不能完全表达人的思想。”那么，圣人的思想难道就不可知道了吗？孔子说：“圣人设立卦象就是为了全面表达他的思想……”）
Confucius says: “Writing cannot fully express what is spoken, and what is spoken cannot fully express a speaker’s thoughts.” Then is it ever possible to know the thoughts of a sage? Confucius says: “Sages expressed their thoughts fully through establishing images…” (The Book of Changes)
