First, influenced by the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi. In Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, politics was dark and decadent, political figures were constantly changing, ownership was constantly changing, and people's social life was extremely unstable. People in this period were very tired of this kind of life and hoped to get a kind of peace of life in order to achieve psychological and emotional peace. Laozi and Zhuangzi's Taoist philosophy of "heaven and earth, earth and Tao, Tao and nature" caters to people's psychological requirements of being tired of the world and seeking emptiness. Therefore, "returning to nature" has become the highest realm of people's cultural spirit, and natural objects have become the life objects that people deliberately pursue and repeatedly observe. People use art to express this kind of life content, that is, landscape poetry and landscape painting, which is why landscape poetry and landscape painting are so popular.
Second, influenced by Buddhism. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism was introduced to China in the Han Dynasty, which cut off all worldly selfish thoughts and emphasized the idea of "being born", and also catered to people's psychological needs of being world-weary and pursuing emptiness. Natural things are natural beings completely separated from all selfish distractions. Therefore, people regard natural objects as symbols of their own mentality, use them in aesthetic photos, and brand social life on them. Natural objects have become people's aesthetic objects, which are embodied in art as landscape poems and landscape paintings.
Third, it is the product of the official "shortcut to the south". In that special era of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, "shortcut to the south" was one of the effective ways for some literati to become officials. People who take this career path often retire from the mountains first in order to improve their social status. In their seclusion, these literati took pleasure in poetry and painting, showed their talents and attracted the attention of the world, especially the government. These literati have the most contact, observation and deliberation in their seclusion, and these natural objects are also the important content of their lives. Landscape poetry and landscape painting, as the two most important arts at that time, represented the aesthetic proposition at that time and had extremely high aesthetic significance. If the literati want to show their talents and get the attention of the world, they need to express their life with the art that people value most and are most willing to accept. So landscape poetry and landscape painting can prevail. Of course, this will naturally produce many excellent landscape poems and landscapes. People's appreciation of these works of art is indeed an aesthetic edification and enjoyment, and natural objects such as mountains and rivers, as the objects and contents reflected by landscape poems, landscape paintings and other arts, have also become beautiful things and aesthetic objects because of the aesthetic significance of poems and paintings, so natural beauty has emerged. Landscape poetry is a poem that expresses the author's feelings by describing landscapes. Xie Lingyun, a poet in Jin Dynasty, created the style of landscape poetry. The famous mountains, rivers, lakes and waters it depicts often smear the author's subjective color to varying degrees, soak up the feelings entrusted by the author, and leave the mark of the times or class. Due to the poet's dissatisfaction with reality, most of the ancient landscape poems show quiet interest and negative seclusion, and some express the poet's love for the motherland and passion for a better life. The writing of landscape poems should have a high emotional appeal, reflect the spirit of the times, and enable readers to be cultivated by sentiment and enjoy aesthetics.
Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were the most turbulent times in China's history. Social contradictions have intensified, people are living in poverty, and those in power are addicted to pleasure and corruption. The lost ruling class, drinking and having fun, fled the mountains. In addition, Buddhism and Taoism prevailed during this period, and the concept of being born was born. Intellectuals in the general ruling class either drift with the tide, drift with the tide, or passively retire and protect themselves. Therefore, in this period, China's literary history produced landscape poems, and painting history produced landscape paintings. Landscape painting began to break away from the background of figure painting, pure landscape painting began to appear, and a group of people with lofty ideals appeared, such as Zong Bing and Wang Wei, who failed to summon them in seclusion, Gao Ren. They can't change anything, but they don't want to serve the powerful. So they lived in seclusion in the mountains and rivers, and talked about wine. Entrust personal grievances, patriotic enthusiasm, sadness and helplessness between mountains and rivers, and seek relief between mountains and rivers.