老庄的“虚静凝神”之论与《周易》的“观物取象”说虽非直接谈艺术想象，但给刘勰的神思说开启了理论闸门。庄周以后，创作过程中的思维特点日渐被认识。汉末魏初的曹植、孔融、刘宋时的宗炳以及与刘勰同时代的肖子显都明确使用了“神思”一词，遗憾的是并没有直接说明它... Although Lao Zhuang’s theory of “resting in silence” and “taking things in the image” of the Book of Changes, though not directly talking about the artistic imagination, opened the theoretical gate to Liu Xie’s spiritual thinking. After Zhuang Zhou, the thinking characteristics in the creative process are increasingly recognized. Cao Zhi, Kong Rong in the late Han Dynasty and early Wei Dynasty, Zong Bing in Liu Song Dynasty, and Xiao Zixian in the same period as Liu Xie explicitly used the term “god thinking”, but regrettably did not directly explain it.