Abstract: Duotai huangu(lit. grabbing the embryo and changing the bones) is an important proposition in classical Chinese poetics. However, in the process of transmission, some recipients are haunted by misunderstandings about its conceptual expression, connotation, and poetic value. These misunderstandings are mainly manifested in five aspects. First, the essence of the method of duotai is "to imitate" rather than "to see through" the original poems. Second,duotaiis often erroneously referred to as "tuotai", the meaning of which is fundamentally different from that ofduotai. Third, duotai and huangu are two correlated poetic methods separated by the degree of innovation. The conflation of duotai and huangu in fact blurs the boundary between them. Fourth, duotai huangu is neither a thorough plagiarism nor a real innovation, but an astute imitation. Fifth, duotai huanguis not the ultimate way to learn poetic writing, but simply a preliminary technique.

Key words: Night Talks in the Cold Study, Duotai, Huangu, the Jiangxi School of poetry