中國的游覽文學悠遠綿長，最早可上溯自先秦時期的《詩經》、《楚辭》及宋玉的〈高唐賦〉。《詩經》裡所提到的「游覽」，只粗具游覽意識，以實際具游覽描述的〈溱洧〉一詩來看，該詩純屬「無我之境」。相較於《詩經》，以屈原為主的《楚辭》作品中，不僅游覽的空間擴大，書寫的層次與境界也都大為提升。只是游覽的書寫，是為了抒發作者之情懷而服務，因此，詩中處處皆著詩人之色彩與情懷，不論是「睹物興情」、「借景抒情」或是「託物言志」，都成為「有我之境」的最佳寫照。宋玉〈高唐賦〉屬「侍遊」之作，以「娛君」為最高目的，通篇皆是以山水作為主體，並對山水做美感之觀照，也就是「無我之境」。從《詩經》的「無我之境」，到以屈原為主的《楚辭》的「有我之境」，再回歸到宋玉〈高唐賦〉的「無我之境」，這個過程不僅說明了〈高唐賦〉是我國最早出現的一篇以大自然為獨立審美對象的山水文學， 同時亦宣示了「游覽」文學的成熟與降臨。

The history of tour literature of China is long, and it could be traced back to Classic of Poetry, Chu Ci, and Gao Tang Fu by Song Yu in the period of Pre-Qin. Some light consciousness could be found in the “Tour” mentioned in Classic of Poetry. Take Qui Wei with real tour description for example. It completely belongs to the state of selfless state. Compared with Classic of Poetry, the works in Chu Ci focusing on Qu Yuan, not only expands the space of tour, but also enhances the levels of writing and realm. The writing of tour serves mainly for the expressing the emotions of the writers, so it plays the best representation of the selfward state by showing emotions through landscape, expressing affections by landscape and indicating ambitions with objects. Gao Tang Fu by Song Yu belongs to the field of companion tour with the view of entertaining the king. It mostly contains the contemplation of beauty through the depicting of landscape, in other words, the selfless state. The selfless state inspires the Classic of Poetry, followed by the selfward state, moving forward to the mainly selfward state in Chu Ci focusing on Qu Yuan, and then turns to the selfless state in Gao Tang Fu by Song Yu. It proves that Gao Tang Fu is not only the first landscape literature in our country, mainly and mostly focusing on the aesthetics of nature, but an announcement of the maturity and launch of tour literature.