本文主旨在於對中國山水畫之第一篇畫論〈畫山水序〉之內涵意蘊進行分析及評價。本文首先對於魏晉南北朝時期山水畫思想的興起進行簡短說明，漢朝末年興起之品評人物，由人倫鑑識轉向形象之美的追求，是魏晉南北朝人物畫興起的原因。但是魏晉玄學對於自然的傾慕與隱逸生活情懷的追求，必然導致對自然山水的愛好，並關連到山水畫的受到重視。宗炳的〈畫山水序〉在這種氛圍下，成為中國山水畫論的第一篇開山之作。本文其次，簡介宗炳生平事蹟與著述。接著解析〈畫山水序〉所包含的美學理論結構，其中包含了「澄懷味象」這個命題所代表的美的存有論，對於「山水」有了本質定義；「應目會心」所代表的藝術創作論，涉及想像力、比例控制以及「心」、「眼」、「手」三者在創作上的綜合感通；「萬趣融其神思」的藝術鑑賞論，將「臥遊」當成藝術鑑賞的程序，並將「暢神」提煉為藝術鑑賞的最高境界。本文最後評估了〈畫山水序〉的美學意義。

”The Preface to Landscape Painting” is the first thesis on Chinese landscape painting in history, and this paper is meant to analyze and evaluate its meanings and implications. First, we introduce briefly how the thought about landscape painting rose in the Wei-Jin Northern and Southern Dynasties. The character appraisal that had emerged in the late Han Dynasty was then deflected from the appraisal of human relationships toward the pursuit of the image beauty, which caused the rise of portrait painting in the Wei-Jin Northern and Southern Dynasties. And yet the admiration of nature and pursuit of reclusive life on the part of the Wei-Jin Neo-taoism inevitably led to the love for natural landscapes, which is somewhat connected with the serious attention to landscape painting. It is in such an atmosphere that ”The Preface to Landscape Painting” emerged as the earliest writing on Chinese landscapes. Secondly, we present succinctly Zong Bing's life and writings and then analyze the structure of his aesthetic theory in ”The Preface.” Here, the thesis of ”appreciating images with a pure mind” is an aesthetic ontology that defines the essence of ”landscapes”; ”appealing to the eyes and reaching the mind” represents a theory of art creation that involves imagination, proportion control, along with the orchestrated correspondence among the ”mind,” the ”eyes” and the ”hand”; ”all pleasures incorporated in the divine way of thinking,” as a theory of art appreciation, considers ”the dream journey” as the process of art appreciation and refines mood of ”letting the spirit unfold” into the supreme state of art appreciation. In the end, this article accesses the aesthetic significance of ”The Preface to Landscape Painting.”