空灵是中国诗学理论的一个重要范畴,它源自佛教,最早由密宗提出,并在推崇自性的佛教禅门广泛运用。佛教空灵的概念包含三个层面的意旨:空寂而有灵圣、空寂而灵动、空寂而灵现。空灵这一概念进入诗学领域后,在实际运用中承续了佛教的意蕴,诗学的空灵蕴含三个层面的意义:虚空中有神灵并有作者的主观精神、诗境虚空中变化自在而又万象森罗。从空灵这一概念的佛教来源进行义项梳罗,使得诗学领域中空灵这一范畴成为可以进行理论阐释与分析、可以进行理性把握与运用的概念。

Ethereality is an important category of Chinese poetic theory, which comes from Buddhism, first proposed by Tantric, and widely used in the Buddhist Zen which particularly emphasizes on the original nature. Ethereality has three levels in the Buddhism: 1) the holy spirit in the emptiness; 2) the lively and holy spirit in the emptiness; and 3) the appearance of holy spirit in the emptiness. When this concept enters the field of poetics, practically inheriting the implications of Buddhism, so that three poetic meanings have come into being: 1) the holy spirit and the author's subjective spirit in the emptiness; 2) the poetic realm of freely change in the emptiness; and 3) the poetic realm naturally presented in the Vientiane world. The combination with the ethereality originated from Buddhism, poetic ethereality becomes a category which can be explained, analyzed, rationally grasped and used.