整理/沈杰群 制图/李晗

　　随物赋形

　　原意指水流无常形，随地理形貌或自然物而呈现千变万化的形态。宋代文学家苏轼用它来形容文艺创作应像水流一样流畅自然而又灵活多变，既遵循客观事物的规律，又体现作家自由创作意志，从而达到立意与表现技巧自在圆融，情、景、事、理妙合无间的审美境界。这一术语可能受了道家“上善若水”、水“几于道”的影响，也是艺术家人格、学养、技艺的综合体现。

　　Writing That Flows like Water

　　This term originally referred to water, which, without a fixed shape, flows along the contours of objects or land. Song Dynasty writer Su Shi used it to describe literary writing that was smooth and free like water, showing both the writer's creative power and his adherence to the laws of nature and human society. This style of writing endeavors to achieve harmony between a motif and expressive techniques and to merge emotion, landscapes, events and moral lessons into an aesthetic whole. This term may have been influenced by the Daoist beliefs that "great virtue is like water" and that "water is the most exact equivalent of the way". It also gives expression to an artist's personality, artistic attainment and capability.

　　引例

　　天下之至信者，唯水而已。江河之大与海之深，而可以意揣。唯其不自为形，而因物以赋形，是故千变万化而有必然之理。（苏轼《滟滪堆赋》）（天下最有诚信的，只有水罢了。江河之大与海洋之深，都可以凭想象揣测。只因为水没有自己固定的形态，只是凭借自然物而获得形态，所以水虽然千变万化但有其必然如此的道理。）

　　The most honorable thing in the world is definitely water. The mightiness of a river and the depth of the sea can be envisaged through imagination. As water has no fixed shape of its own, it assumes different shapes when passing over various landforms. So, though the flow of water varies miraculously, it follows an inherent law of nature. (Su Shi: Ode to the Yanyu Rock at the Qutang Gorge of the Yangtze River)

　　来源：中国青年报

　　2026年05月17日 01版