This term was first used by Laozi as a way to understand Dao. He believed

that one cannot understand Dao by calmly observing everything unless one

abandons all distracting thoughts and biases, and keeps one's mind as clear

as a mirror. Later literary critics believed that the state of mind as required

for xuanlan has similarities with the state of mind required for literary writing

and appreciation, thus they made it an important term to mean one's state

of mind must transcend all desires and personal gains in literary writing and

appreciation.