桐城詩派始於明朝末年的方以智、錢澄之，而以姚鼐與方東樹為中心。桐城詩派以宗法儒家思想、重視學問人品及主張詩文無異為其理論特色，尤其尊崇杜甫詩歌的價值。他們的杜詩批評可以視為是詩歌理論的直接呈現。 在他們的杜詩批評中，一方面呈現了杜甫詩章法細密的詩歌特色，另一方面也建立了一套以杜甫詩為核心的詩歌史，對杜詩研究頗有貢獻。而桐城詩派也將杜甫詩引以為典範，透過杜甫詩來證明他們的理論有所憑藉。相對於清代其他各家，我們可以發現這些詩派雖然審美情懷有異，但皆於杜甫詩中各取一味以成家數，這種批評現象，更加鞏固了我國詩學以杜詩為中心的結構。

The T'ung-Ch'eng School, which revolved around Yao Nai and Fang Dong-Shu, originated from Fang Yi-Zhi and Quian Cheng-Zhi in the last few years of the Ming Dynasty. Their theory featured an imitation of the Confucian thoughts, placing importance on learning and morality, and claiming an identical nature of poetry and prose; in particular, they venerated the poetry of Du Fu. Their commentaries on his poetry can be regarded as the direct presentation in the poetic theory. One aspect of their criticism discusses the finely woven texture of Du Fu's poetry. Another aspect centers on the poetic history of Du Fu's work. Their criticism had a significant contribution to the study of his poetry. In addition, they took his poetry to the T'ung-Ch'eng school, utilizing it to prove their theories about the influence of Du Fu's work. When comparing the T'ung-Ch'eng school with other schools of the Qing Dynasty, we can discover that the other schools' poetry, despite having different interpretations of aesthetics, all took some elements from Du Fu's poetry and transformed them into their own style. This kind of critical phenomenon strengthened our country's understanding of poetry, with Du Fu's poetry at the centre.