The "contestation between the Tang and the Song poetry" in the Qing dynasty is commonly viewed dualistically as a rivalry between the pro-Tang poetry group and the pro-Song poetry group. However, the said contestation was not an dispute over learning from the Tang poetry or the Song poetry in poetry writing practice, because their theoretical footings of the two groups do not cover the same ground to form a dualist opposition. At the core of the contestation are the dispute over the value of the Song poetry, and the discussions of traditional poetical concepts such as "poetry expressing ideals," temperament of decency, style differentiation, and so forth, and therefore the above-said contestation could be rephrased as the dispute  over the core concepts of traditional poetics. The contestation was concluded from two theoretical paths which explored the continuity of the Tang poetry and invalidated the rationality of the opposition between the Tang and the Song poetry, and from this perspective it can be seen that the contestation had a reflective nature. In this way, the intensions and extensions of the "contestation between the Tang poetry and the Song poetry" can be clarified.