Abstract: From the mid- to late Goryeo Dynasty to the early Joseon Dynasty, the poetry circle mainly advocated Song poetry. With the extensive exchanges between Chinese and Korean literati, Korean scholars reflected upon the shortcomings of Song poetry, but still enthusiastically accepted the theory, “Poetry must conform to the style of Tang Dynasty,” proposed by the Seven scholars in the early Ming Dynasty and the Seven scholars in the late Ming Dynasty. What's more, as Tang poetry anthologies and classic works of Chinese poetics circulated in Korea, the style of Korean poetry gradually conformed to the tradition of Tang poetry. By the mid-Joseon Dynasty, “the dispute between Tang and Song poetry” was formally under way. Scholars established the structure of the poetry circle that was keen on advocating Tang poetry as a main learning model not only by demonstrating the authentic status of Tang poetry and the sin of transforming Song poetry to Tang poetry, but also proving the naturalness of Tang poetry, the contrivance of Song poetry, and writers' aesthetic orientation towards Tang Dynasty. Looking at the poems written in the mid-Joseon Dynasty, however, one may discover a phenomenon that no poet learned from a single model in using rhyme, analogy, poetic style or learning object. The reason behind this is that, as a foreign country, the core of “the dispute between Tang and Song poetry” in Korea is whether to learn from Tang poetry or Song poetry. That's the reason why there was a contradictory phenomenon that writers advocated Tang poetry in theory but integrated elements from both Tang and Song poetry in creative practice simultaneously.

Key words: the mid-Joseon Dynasty, "the dispute between Tang and Song Poetry", views on poetry in Tang and Song Dynasties