Listen to this articlexiāo sǎn jiǎn yuǎn 萧散简远
Natural, Leisurely, Simple yet Profound
指书法、诗歌、文章等艺术作品的风格天然浑成、淡泊随意，而意蕴简古高远。“萧散”指自然闲适，没有刻意繁琐的修饰，不拘泥于法度规则。作为文艺批评术语，由宋代苏轼（1037—1101）提出，对明清时期的文艺创作与批评影响较大。它以庄子的思想为基础，又融入了禅宗的思想，强调自在散淡，心中不存执念，超越一切秩序与法度的羁绊，无往而不适，追求作品的疏朗、散淡、自由之美和合乎天然之趣。
This concept refers to those calligraphic works, poems, essays, and other literary and artistic works that are natural, leisurely and simple in style but have profound implications. A natural and leisurely style rejects excessive embellishment and is not bound by any particular forms. Created by Su Shi(1037–1101) in the Song Dynasty as a term of literary and art criticism, this concept had great influence on literary and artistic works in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Based on the thought of Zhuangzi and including the thinking of the Chan Sect, this concept stresses the need to be leisurely and simple and the need to avoid being opinionated, to break free from the fetters of rules and regulations and to take things as they come to ensure that an artistic work embodies the beauty of leisure, simplicity, freedom, and naturalness.
引例 Citations：
◎予尝论书，以谓钟、王之迹，萧散简远，妙在笔画之外。至唐颜、柳，始集古今笔法而尽发之，极书之变，天下翕然以为宗师，而钟、王之法益微。至于诗亦然。（苏轼《书黄子思诗集后》）
（我曾经谈论书法，认为钟繇（yáo）、王羲之的书法，萧散简远，其妙处在笔画之外。到了唐代颜真卿、柳公权，集成古今的运笔方法而极力加以发挥，可以说穷尽了书法的变化，天下人一致推他们为宗师，钟繇、王羲之的书法影响反而越来越弱了。诗的创作也是这样。）
I once talked about calligraphy, and I said that the calligraphic works of Zhong Yao and Wang Xizhi were natural, leisurely, simple, yet profound, and their artistic appeal went far beyond the calligraphic works themselves. In the Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan drew on all the calligraphic styles of previous times to develop their own calligraphic styles. It is fair to say that Yan and Liu reached the zenith of calligraphic art, and they were unanimously regarded as the great calligraphic masters. In contrast, the influence of Zhong Yao and Wang Xizhi is on the decline. The same is true with poetry. (Su Shi: Postscript to Selected Poems of Huang Zisi)
◎诗至玄晖语益工，然萧散自得之趣，亦复少减，渐有唐风矣。（唐庚《书“三谢”诗后》）
（诗歌发展到谢朓，语句更加工整，但是自然闲适、悠然自得的趣味也随之减少了，逐渐有唐人作品的特点了。）
Xie Tiao’s poems were more neatly done than his predecessors’, but as a result such poems became less natural and leisurely, and one begins to see a distinctive feature of Tang poems in them. (Tang Geng: Postscript to Poems of Xie Lingyun, Xie Huilian, and Xie Tiao)
