Abstract: Society exists both in the human world and outside the human world. The existence of a civilization cannot be limited to the maintenance and development of realistic social elements but must have a transcendental spiritual world， which can be cultivated into concrete history and people, and constructed into a continuing life. Chinese civilization has always developed with the dual system of Zhengtong （official orthodoxy） and Daotong （Confucian orthodoxy）， and the shanlin （maintains and forests） culture system is the ontological structure bearing the Daotong. Compared with the normal society of cities and towns, shanlin and jianghu （rivers and lakes） constitute an abnormal ideal world. This world, which seems to have nothing to do with everyday society， infuses a kind of eternal spirit and holiness into the human mind and becomes a place where Daotong depends. Examining the evolution of Chinese civilization, it can be found that the shanlin culture system was formed in the Wei， Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties. Buddhism and Taoism had cultivated the inner spirit of Confucian scholar-officials and had creatively combined the view of seclusion in Confucianism with the view of nature in Laozi and Zhuangzi’s philosophy. Chinese civilization had thus entered a stage where poetry， calligraphy and painting were used as the carrier to inherit, preserve and cultivate. The literati transformed the principles of Daotong into concrete self-cultivation， into a fully presented worldview and cosmology， and applied them to all aspects of society. As another world center, shanlin did not exist in isolation from the society， but instead it always maintained multiple and multi-form interactions with the human world, the dynastic politics and the landscape. The discussion on shanlin and society is intended to reflect on the cosmology between people and their surroundings in modern society， showing another possible direction in the sense of our civilization.

Key words: shanlin, society, Daotong, civilization