本文從謝靈運山水詩與物感經驗、玄言詩、佛教以及賦的關係入手，探討其山水詩的成因，並作美學分析。謝氏的詩歌整體看，具有強烈的感物緣情品格，然而他的山水詩卻彰顯出如劉勰所說的「如印之印泥」的描寫性。值得注意的是，這並非單純的寫實性，它其實產生於某種觀法的指導之下。玄言詩從比興和緣情的撤退為謝靈運的山水詩打開了空間，謝詩復又受到當時佛教的頓、漸之悟爭論的重要影響。他的山水詩最後的理語，往往為人所詬病，不過，若是作同情的詮解，它其實是詩歌整體動力過程所不可或缺的一部分，表示山水遊觀之中頓悟已經完成。此一頓悟中止了時序感和抒情衝動，賦予謝詩的描寫性以佛教空觀的美學品格。同時，他的山水詩受到賦的鋪敘手法影響，在「取勢」的鋪敘過程中，遊山玩水的遊觀和模山範水的詩思融為一體，並藉此獲得覺悟。

This paper discusses the formation of Xie Lingyun’s 謝靈運 landscape poetry by examining such contributory factors as sense experience, metaphysical poetry, Buddhism, and fu 賦, and also attempts an aesthetic analysis of the poems. Viewed as a whole, Xie’s poems have an intense lyricism, but his landscape poems possess a descriptive quality that seems, in the words of Liu Xie 劉勰, “like a stamp on a seal.” It is worth noting that this descriptive quality is not pure realism, but is in fact produced by observing one’s surroundings in a certain way. Metaphysical poetry’s step back from bixing 比興 and lyricism opened up the space in which Xie Lingyun developed his landscape poetry, which was also importantly influenced by the dispute in Buddhism over the doctrines of sudden and gradual realization. The reasoning expressed in the final lines of Xie’s landscape poems was often criticized, but is in fact an indispensable part of the impetus of each poem as a whole, expressing a sudden realization attained while wandering among the mountains and rivers. This sudden realization suspends both the feeling of time passing and the impulse to express emotion, endowing the descriptions in Xie’s poems with the aesthetic qualities of emptiness, a doctrine central to Buddhism. At the same time, Xie’s landscape poetry was also influenced by fu narrative techniques; in the course of the narrative, the activities of traveling and sightseeing in the landscape and the poetic thoughts inspired by the mountains and rivers fuse together into a single whole, through which a realization is reached.