「物色」作為文論術語最早出現於梁代劉勰的《文心雕龍》，這一特定歷史時期產生的理論概念，實標誌著中國抒情傳統中一個重大的觀念變化，即伴隨「山水詩」而發展起來的人對外物世界的現象論態度。然而長期以來，學界存在著「物色」與「感物」概念混淆的狀況。故此，本文嘗試探討了「物色」這一概念的歷史成因。通過對比「感物詩」與「山水詩」在觀物態度與方式上的本質區別，曾在劃清「物色論」與「感物說」之界限；並通過追蹤「色」字的語義衍變過程以及佛教的影響，進而揭示「物色論」的理論內涵及其標識性意義。

This paper attempts to explore the formation of the term wuse (物色) as a concept of literary theory, which first appeared in Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long (文心雕龍). For a long time, critics have confused the concepts of wuse and ganwu (感物, stirring-and-response), and overlooked the important role that wuse played in the development of the Chinese lyric tradition. By comparing ways of looking at scenery and poets' attitude towards scenery in ganwu poetry and landscape poetry, the paper tries to make a distinction between these two critical concepts. Furthermore, by tracing the use of the word se (色) in ancient literature, the author finds that Buddhist Phenomenalism seems to have triggered the sense of “scenery” in this word. The paper analyzes the relationship between this sense of “scenery” in se and the concept of wuse, and demonstrates the significance of the concept of wuse in Chinese literary criticism.