I'm not a professional historian myself, but the history of environmentalism and nature is important to me both as an environmental lawyer (pending bar passage) and as a conservation biologist.

In short, it's complicated and the answer is both yes and no. The word "wilderness" itself comes from Norse/Teutonic roots meaning self-willed or wild. Roderick Frazier Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind 2 (5th Ed. 2014). "One of the earliest uses [of wild animal] was in the eighth-century epic Beowulf, where [specific reference to a "wild" animal] appeared in reference to savage and fantastic beasts inhabiting a dismal region of forests, crags, and cliffs." Id. Nash traces this view of nature back to the Romans, where Nature was unkempt, beyond the control of man, and filled with strange and dangerous creatures of antiquity. Id. at 11. "Fantastic creatures of every description were thought to lurk in its depths. Whether propitiated with sacrifices as deities or regarded as devils, these forest beings were feared." Id. Whether it was the Hellenic Pan (i.e. the goat-man god of the woods) or the various Norse and Germanic gods and beasts, the wilderness during the Classical-era and the Dark Ages was a place to be feared. Id. at 11-13.

Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, the idea of "wilderness" was also tied to fear and danger. The first time that "wilderness" really entered the English language was in a 14th Century translation of the Bible from Latin. Id. at 3. John Wycliffe translated the arid land of the Middle East as wilderness and people afterward continued this association of wilderness with treeless wasteland. Id. Samuel Johnson, in 1755, would define wilderness as "a desert; a tract of solitude and savageness." Id. Think, for example, of the ancient Israelites escaping from Egypt and wandering around ... "wilderness." Id. at 13-15. Nash writes that:

Again and again "the great and terrible wilderness" was described as a "thirsty ground where there was no water." When the Lord of the Old Testament desired to threaten or punish a sinful people, he found the wilderness condition to be his most powerful weapons: "I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage; I will turn their rivers into islands, and dry up the pools." Id. at 14.

Yet, as with all things historical, the answer isn't easy and our understanding can't just stop here. The same story of the Israelites provides us with the earliest strands of a counter narrative: of wilderness as salvation. After all, God provided food and water for the people as they wandered around Mount Sinai and John the Baptist went to the Jordan River to pray and wait for the Messiah. Id. at 16-17.

So, we enter the Medieval era with both of these ideas floating around. Wilderness was both a site for salvation and for finding god while also being filled with heathen forest spirits that will turn you into strange animals and attack you in the night. Nash has this to say:

In early and medieval Christianity, wilderness kept its significance as the earthly realm of the powers of evil that the Church had to overcome. This was literally the case in the missionary efforts to the tribes of northern Europe. Christians judged their work to be successful when they cleared away the wild forests and cut down the sacred groves where the pagans held their rites. In a more figurative sense, wilderness represented the Christian conception of the situation man faced on earth. It was a compound of his natural inclination to sin, the temptation of the material world, and the forces of evil themselves. In this worldly chaos he wandered lost and forlorn, grasping at Christianity in the hope of delivery to the promised land that now was located in heaven.

Yet Christianity also retained the idea that wild country could be a place of refuge and religious purity. A succession of Christian hermits and monks ... found the solitude of the wilderness conducive to medication, spiritual insight, and moral perfection. ... On the whole the monks regarded wilderness as having value only for escaping corrupt society. It was the place in which they hoped to ignite the flame that would eventually transform all wilderness into a godly paradise. The tradition of fleeing into uninhabited country to obtain freedom of worship persisted strongly into the Middle Ages. Id. at 17-18.

As to China and India, Nash only spares like three pages. Id. at 20-22. He notes that "In the Far East, by way of contrast, the man-nature relationship was marked by respect, bordering on love, absent in the West." Id. at 20. I haven't read enough to speak on this further, so I'll leave that to someone else.

As for sources, I have relied heavily on the wonderful work of Roderick Frazier Nash in Wilderness and the American Mind. It was originally published in 1967, but page numbers here are from the 5th Edition (2014). It's an excellent read to understand "wilderness" in particular and how it has evolved in the American mind to be what it is today. I also would recommend After Nature by Jedediah Britton-Purdy (2018) as well. I also have to concede that my perspective is limited to European and U.S. views of nature--the scholarship about non-European views of nature is out there, but I haven't yet had the time to read it. For example, everyone has been getting on my case to read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Hope that helps!

Here's an earlier answer (edit: by /u/sunagainstgold) to a tangential question (specific to medieval perceptions of wolves) that I think you might find interesting and relevant while we wait for a better answer.

While I could not find a direct answer to your question in the archives, there are some answers that might help you further:

On encountering wildlife, answered by u/sunagainstgold

On communities living in the wilderness, answered by u/daedalus1570

On how populated European woods were, answered by u/bitparity

There's also this answer discussing the Christian view on the relation between man and nature by u/tannhauser_busch

Lastly, a discussion on if there was wilderness in Medieval Europe like you see in fantasy settings, with answers by u/Miles_Sine_Castrum and u/sunagainstgold

Here is an answer about beaches and the ocean (also by /u/sunagainstgold) that I feel is pretty similar to what you are interested in.