Listen to this articlechàngshén 畅神
Free Flow of One’s Mind
指精神与自然合一时所达到的自由舒畅的一种审美状态。特指欣赏山水画、山水诗时精神融入自然及物象的审美效应。宗炳在《画山水序》中指出，欣赏山水画可以领悟古代圣贤寄寓在山水中的哲理与乐趣；可以进入一种摒弃了一切外物和杂念的绝对虚无境界，是一种全身心的极度愉悦和精神的最高自由。他提出这一术语，不仅揭示了山水画、山水诗及自然美的特殊审美功能，也反映了传统文学艺术对天人和谐、心灵和谐的价值追求。
The term describes a state of mind one achieves when appreciating an artwork, in which process one’s inner feelings interact freely and joyfully with nature. In particular, it describes one’s aesthetic experience of appreciating landscape paintings and landscape poems, when one feels absorbed with the natural scenes and images depicted. In his “On the Creation of Landscape Painting,” Zong Bing, painter and painting critic, pointed out that by watching landscape paintings, one can appreciate the philosophy and pleasure which sages of past times drew from landscape. When doing so, one becomes oblivious to the external world and is totally free from worldly considerations, thus achieving full satisfaction of both body and mind. This term not only reveals the unique aesthetic function of landscape paintings, landscape poems, and natural beauty, but also demonstrates traditional literature and arts’ pursuit of harmony between nature and man and between mind and heart.
引例 Citation：
◎圣贤映于绝代，万趣融其神思，余复何为哉？畅神而已。（宗炳《画山水序》）
（古代的圣贤已经通过想象与思考领略融汇了自然山水中的万般旨趣，我还需要做什么呢？只需体会畅神所带来的快乐就可以了。）
As sages of remote past already discovered the philosophical wisdom inherent in nature through imagination and contemplation, what more do I need to do now? All I have to do is relishing the joy when my mind interacts freely with the depicted landscape. (Zong Bing: On the Creation of Landscape Painting)
