If we do not get tangled up in the specifics of terminology and definitions, then Chinese shanshui painting and Western landscape painting can be seen as belonging to the same form of artistic expression—landscape art. The landscape is a timeless theme in the history of human art, and though the Eastern and Western traditions arose at roughly the same time, they followed very different directions in their development. Aside from differences in tools and materials, there is a much more important difference rooted in cultural aesthetics and concepts of beauty, leading them down different, almost entirely opposite, creative paths. In simple terms, Chinese artists, under the influence of Chinese philosophy, placed great emphasis on “mind” while ignoring “matter,” seeking fusion between the self and the ways of nature. Western painters, on the other hand, followed the culture of ancient Greece and the spirit of Christianity, engaging in a transmutation of their own ideals under the shining rays of humanism, pursuing the precise and perfect embodiment of “matter” rooted in their reverence for the creator. As Lin Fengmian said, “Western art is primarily centered on the imitation of nature, which led it to realism. Eastern art is primarily engaged in the depiction of imagination, which led it to conceptual imagery.”

Upon its arrival in China in the 20th century, Western art became the center of broad and lasting controversy focused on the advantages and shortcomings of these two different aesthetic systems. The Western concept of landscape painting was no exception, but compared to the broadness of this topic, the debate that raged around it showed the narrowness and isolation of the times. In reality, Western landscape painting was quickly incorporated into the Chinese art system alongside traditional shanshui painting, and beyond the differences in tools and materials, there was no more discussion of the different expressive forms of realism and conceptual imagery.