《中論》引《詩》約47次，以《雅》、《頌》爲主。徐幹在書中發揚了荀子等儒家諸子“以《詩》爲教”的傳統，體現了他在漢魏之際的亂世中企圖借助《詩經》的美刺作用來光大自己傾注到《中論》中的經世致用理想。據今傳文本看，《中論》所用詩説以毛爲主，輔以韓、魯及其他雜説。《中論》引詩不主一家詩説，而陳喬樅、王先謙都以《中論》證《魯詩》義，馬瑞辰以爲《中論》引詩多出韓説，都不免失之偏頗。諸家詩説並用的現象也出現在東漢末年的其他幾部子書當中，既可見出諸子引詩用詩的開放態度，也可見漢魏之際《詩經》傳授的百家争鳴盛況之一斑。

Zhonglun 中論 (Balanced Discourses) quoted Shijing 詩經 (Book of Songs) about forty-seven times, mainly from Ya 雅 (hymns) and Song 頌 (eulogies). Xu Gan 徐幹, the author of Balanced Discourses, developed the tradition from Xunzi 荀子 and other Confucian thinkers in putting Confucian ideas into practice particularly during turbulent years. According to texts passed on to today, the study of poetry in Balanced Discourses mainly focused on Mao Commentary, accompanied by Han 韓, Lu 魯, and other texts. Previous studies, including Chen Qiaozong’s 陳喬樅 and Wang Xianqian’s 王先謙 examinations of Balanced Discourses for the meaning of Lu, and Ma Ruichen’s 馬瑞辰 assertion that the poetry quotations in Balanced Discourses exceed those in Han, are all inevitably biased. The coexisting phenomenon of different commentary texts also appeared in several other masters-texts in the late Eastern Han dynasty, which shows the open attitude of Confucian masters in terms of poetry quotations, and further illustrates the diverse scholarship on Book of Songs in Wei and Han dynasties.