Abstract
The article is based on an exhaustive analysis of a vast majority of the ancient Chinese texts composed in the Warring States period. It aims at characterization of the role that the forest and the tree, or the particular kinds of trees attested, could play in the elite culture.
As a result, it proves on a specific example the thesis that the view of traditional Chinese culture as inherenlty environment-friendly is merely an orientalistic projection of the West's own anti-image on the exotic "Eastern wisdom."