以歷史為本的中國精神世界使精神從上天落實為大地上的問題,同時也使大地成為社會化的俗世而失去原本作為自然的超越性,因此需要在大地上重新定義一個超越之地以滿足精神的超越維度,于是,在社會之外的山水就被識別為超越之地。但俗世的歷史仍然是精神世界的主題,世外的漁樵借得山水的超越尺度而得以發現歷史中的超越的歷史性。

The historically rooted Chinese mental world has made the spirit an earthly question instead of a heavenly one. At the same time,the earth has been socialized to be a secular world where the transcendence of its nature is excluded; therefore,a place of transcendence has had to be found and redefined on the earth so as to make a transcendent space in which to settle the spirit. Thus the wild,referenced as the "mountains-andwaters,"has been recognized as the place of transcendence. While historical thinking still occupies secular minds,the fishermen and woodsmen living in the mountains-and-waters—a metaphor for Chinese philosophers who were outsiders to the social world of ups and downs—have developed endless discourses to discover the transcendent historicity of history.