The article traces the role and image of the wood and the tree in the culture of Ancient China as emerging from the transmitted literature of the Warring States period. Although this topic has already been touched upon in some previous studies, such as Mark Elvin's The Retreat of the Elephants, no comprehensive description based on at least nearly exhaustive systematization of respective data available to us in primary sources has been presented yet, especially for trees. In this paper, virtually all recorded modes of approaching the phenomena by the learned men of the Warring States are summarized and supplied with extensive reference to ancient texts. Apart from other issues, it clearly demonstrates that the skeptical stance to ancient Chinese love for nature and to the ecological ethos of traditional Chinese culture is highly justified., Lukáš Zádrapa., and Obsahuje bibliografii