Abstract: Figure of speech is the linguistic artistic method resulting from a kind of association occurring in the recognition process of depiction. The association is the psychological basis of figure of speech. The establishment of the structure of figure of speech and the realization of the function should be on the basis of analogical association. The appearance of the association is influenced by cultural context that people are in, thus figure of speech is also a cultural phenomenon. We can better know its cultural features, if we can observe and analyze Chinese figure of speech from the angle of the broad cultural context.

Key words: figure of speech, psychological basis, analogical association, cultural philosophy