The poem Jiang Xue (Snow in the River) is always the first on my list whenever I recall any poetic writings on landscape written by the Chinese literati Liu Zhongyuan (柳宗元) of the Tang Dynasty. Jiang Xue is a popular Chinese poem well-received by many Chinese and could easily be recited by children. Its five-character quadruplet structure looks simple but carries much deep thoughts and meanings (Yi 意) which allows free associations and wanderings in the state (境) of spaces and landscape plotted by each word. As we wander and mediate in the poetic space, our imagination could go uncon-strained in the landscape of greens and creeks created. It is a space for continuous imagination, a space for emotions and perceptions, a space for tunes and hues, a space to appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters. When we read his poems, we will be drawn into the feelings of the poet and felt the ups and downs, we may enter into the trance of forgetting the subject and the object”. This is an attempt to sift the essence of the literary state(poetics)of Chinese literature by analysing the poetic works of Liu Zhongyuan in various stages of his life which had reflected the marriage of his internal and external states. To make way for different perspectives, the ideas of Liu’s contemporary Wang Changling (王昌齡)- another Chinese literati -on 'the state of objects' (物 境) and the state of mind and the heart (意境)in his Si Ge (the rules of poems詩格) and the aesthetics features of state of the mind and the heart mentioned in the Si Pin the quality of poems (詩品) by Si Kongtu (司空圖) will be adopted in order to investigate the close relationship between the heart (mind 心) and the state(poetic space 境),i.e. the pursuit of the state of the objects(物境之追求). I will then proceed to the making and discovery of ' the state of the heart and mind’(the experience) and the deep meaning of the state of disolving the subject -l the state of forgetting the subject and the object). It is through this re-construction and analysis of the poetic works of Liu Zhongyuan that the essence of the state of the mind and heart(意境) in Chinese literature could be further experienced through different perspectives.

每提到唐代著名文學家柳宗元之山水詩文時，先想起的總是那首家喻戶曉小孩子也可琅琅上口的〈江雪〉，的確，透過這首看似簡單易誦但又意蕴深遠、引人生出許多聯想的五言絕句詩確實開了一道窗户，讓我們可進入柳宗元以詩文勾織而成的山水境界中游赏，透赏渐進入詩文境中沉思任想像奔馳於林問幽壑中。此境可稱之為文學意境，那是會引人浮想速翩、情景交融，兼具音色之效、文字之美的境界，不單文人内心之感情波伏、跌宕，同時又会於不自覺中進入“物我雨忘”之境界。 以下将試著就柳宗元於不同时期融合内及外在境况而成之詩文内蕴将文學意境的精髓提煉出来，並借助與柳宗元同時期另一大文人王昌龄於《詩格》中所言及之“物境”到“意境”之說及晚唐另一大家司空圖之《詩品》中涉及的關於“意境”說的美學特質，並不同面探视柳宗元作品中心”舆“境”之密切聯係(“物境”之追求)，繼而对“意境”說之營造與發現(意境的體會)以及“渾然無我”之“境”的深層含意探討(物我兩忘之境)，透過對柳宗元詩文之整理、分析，以便可不同角度更具深刻地會中國文學中“意境”说的精粹意義所在。