陶渊明：道家精神最高境界 Tao Yuan-Ming: Daoism at its Best

录自冯友兰《中国哲学简史》：
道家对艺术没有正面提出系统的见解，但是他们追求心灵的自由流动，把自然看为最高理想，这给了中国的伟大艺术家无穷的灵感。由于这一点，许多中国艺术家把自然作为艺术的对象，就不足为怪了。中国美术作品中的许多杰作都是写山水、花鸟、树木、竹枝。在许多山水画里，山脚下、溪水边，往往能看见一个人，静坐沉醉在天地的大美之中，从中领会超越于自然和人生之上的妙道。
在中国的诗歌里，让我们读陶渊明（公元三七三至四七二年）的诗《饮酒》（其五）：
结庐在人境，而无车马喧。
问君何能尔？心远地自偏。
采菊东篱下，悠然见南山。
山气日夕佳，飞鸟相与还。
此中有真意，欲辨已忘言。
这正是道家所追求的最高精神境界。
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Extraced from A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by Fong You-lan:
The Taoists had no formal treaties on art, but their admiration of the free moment of the spirit and their idealization of nature gave profound inspiration to the great artists of China. This is being the case, it is no wonder that most of the great artists of China took nature as their subject. Most of the masterpieces of Chinese painting are paintings of landscapes, animals and flowers, trees and bamboos. In the landscape painting, at the foot of maintain or the bank of a stream, one always find a man sitting, appreciating the beauty of nature and contemplating the Tao or Way that transcends both nature and man.
Likewise in Chinese poetry we find such poems as that by T’ao Ch’ien (Tao Qian 陶潜, AD. 372-427):
I build my hut in a zone of human habitation,
Yet near me there sounds no noise of horse or coach,
Would you know how that is possible?
A heart that is distant creates a wilderness round it.
I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge,
Then gaze long at the distant summer hills,
The mountain air is fresh at the dusk of day;
The flying birds two by two return.
In these things there lies a deep meaning,
Yet when we would express it, words suddenly fail us.
Here we have Taoism at its best.