Chinese philosophy emphasizes the close relationship between man and nature. The Chinese believe that simply observe and enjoy the scenes of nature can not win people over the morality and wisdom, and say that a benevolent man often inspired by the mountains and water, so to their fate. It is the philosophical foundation for the landscape in Chinese painting.

Do not just absorb the landscape between Chinese painting and Western one. Chinese landscape is not a simple reproduction of nature, but expression of cultural and aesthetic perspectives. In the eyes of the Chinese people, mountains, rivers, lakes and seas have their own life and spiritual power, and show different yields in different seasons and weather conditions as human being.

In Chinese literature and art, there is a specific term called "Indoor Tour", which is a virtual tour through the mountains and concerns of water by reading literature on the nature. But the tour of internal may be a better use of elegant landscape.

For painters of landscape, nature is the best teacher and his closest friends. It must be very far to find inspiration from the famous mountains and rivers. And this can only copy, but to summarize the scenes and deductions from what they saw. All the Strange Peaks in One Draft (Sou Jin Qifeng Da Caogao), a landscape by Shi Tao of the Qing Dynasty, shows lofty mountains, dense forests, springs, roads, castles, houses, pavilions, bridges and fishing boats. The landscape is densely composed and the bold brushstrokes add vigor. The mountains and waters here must be conceived from numerous mountains and waters the painter had visited, and they not only reflect nature but the interior world of the painter. That is what a Chinese painting requires: imitation of nature guided by the soul. A landscape must show mountains and waters cultivated by the painter in his interior world.