Abstract:Dianchi Lake in Kunming is the largest highland lake in Yunnan Province. For centuries, ancient Chinese literati were deeply inspired by its clear waters, vast mist-covered surface, and fantastical cloud reflections, leaving behind a large body of poetry and prose during their visits. These texts depict the restorative landscape characteristics of Dianchi Lake and implicitly reveal the restorative psychological processes associated with blue space in ancient Chinese literary experience. To explore these processes, this study applies theories of restorative environments and environmental psychology to the restorative experience of ancient landscape appreciation. Using NVivo for qualitative analysis, 211 literary works on Dianchi Lake produced over 640 years, from the Yuan to the Qing dynasties (1271–1911), were coded according to the four dimensions of restorative environments. The results show that: highland lakes constitute highly restorative blue spaces, with 85%, 82%, 71%, and 23% of the texts reflecting fascination, extent, compatibility, and being-away, respectively; as a blue space, the restorative landscape characteristics of Dianchi Lake differ from those of green spaces, primarily in the fascination generated by water reflections, waves, and clouds and mist; the extent conveyed by openness, haziness, fantasy, and wholeness of the water surface; and the compatibility that provides emotional, cognitive, and behavioral support for visitors. Based on these findings, the study proposes a restorative experience model of ancient landscape appreciation, suggesting that mountain-and-water appreciation is a psychological and behavioral process grounded in restorative environments, implicitly following a pattern of compatibility - being-away - fascination - extent - compatibility.
