神思（节选)
Spiritual Thought or Imagination (Shen-ssu)
故思理为妙，神与物游。神居胸臆，而志气统其关键；物沿耳目.而辞令管 其枢机。枢机方通，则物无隐貌；关键将塞，则神有遁心。是以陶钧文思，贵在虚静，疏龠五脏，澡雪精神。积学以储宝，酌理以富才，研阅以穷照，馴致以绎辞；然后使玄解之宰-寻声律而定墨；独照之匠，窥意象而运斤：此盖驭文之首术，谋篇之大端。
Through the mystic subtlety of the imagination, the spirit and the things in the outside world are one in their excursion. The spirit resides in the mind, and (he key to its secret is controlled by feeling and vital force. Physical ihings reach our mind through aur ears and eyes, and the mechanism bringing about their apprehension is rhetoric. When the key works smoothly, there is nothing which will not appear in its true form; but when its operation is obstructed, the spirit loses its rationale.For this reason, vacancy and tranquility are important in the development of literary Lhinking: the achievement of this state of vacancy and tranquility entails the cleansing of the five viscera and the purification of the spirit. One has also to acquire learning in order to maintain a store of precious information, and to contemplate the nature of reysoti so as to enrich his talents; he must search deeply and experience widely in order that he may exhaustively evoke the source of light; he must draw upon literary traditions in order to make his expressions felicitous and smooth.it is only then that he commissions the "mysterious butcher"[who dwells within him] to write in accord with musical patterns; and it is then that he sets the incomparably brilliant "master wheelwright" [who dwells within him] to wield the ax in harmony with his intuitive insight. This, in short, is the first step in the art of writing, and the main principle employed in the planning of a literary piece.