《文選》五臣注針對李善注不言「述作之由」，力圖「洞究」作者的「秘旨」，後世亦多批評其穿鑿臆測。但五臣注受到唐玄宗（712-756）的肯定，在唐代影響巨大。五臣注所體現的政治化比興寄託的詩學觀念，與初唐陳子昂以來意欲復興「興寄」傳統的詩學思潮有關，然有別於陳子昂等批評魏晉以後詩歌缺乏興寄，五臣注則確認漢魏以後詩歌史的興寄傳統；五臣注詩吸收並擴展了王逸《楚辭章句》的「引類譬諭」的詩學觀念及詮釋傳統，建立了一套詩歌比興政治化的詮釋模式；興寄詩學觀念在唐代詩歌史上得以延續，五臣注所代表的詮釋傳統作為詩歌詮釋傳統的重要一環，在中晚唐詩格中得到了理論上的繼承與總結，而對宋以後詩學也產生了重要影響。

Aiming at Li Shan’s annotations which did not reveal the objectives of the literary works in Wen xuan, the five ministers attempted to understand the poets’ hidden intentions. Later critics viewed their annotations as strained. However, the five minsters’ annotations were approved by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang (712-756) and had a large influence throughout the Tang dynasty. While revealing the poetic ideas of politicized “biand xing” (explicit comparisons and metaphor), the five minsters’ annotations showed the trend of thought advocated by Chen Zi’ang to revive the xingji (the poetic device to express emotions and thoughts) tradition. Different from the criticism proposed by Cheng Zi’ang, that xingji tradition was lost in poetry after Wei and Jing dynasties, the five ministers tried to prove that there still existed a xingji tradition after Han and Wei dynasties. Their annotations absorbed Wang Yi’s interpretation system of yinleipiyu (categorical analogy), and built a mode to explain poetry from the point of view of politicized biand xing. The idea of xingji poetics thus continued. The interpreting tradition represented by the five ministers’ annotations was developed in some poetic theories in the late Tang and had an important influence on poetics after the Song dynasty.