Ming lyrics is a trough in the history of Chinese lyrics, yet it becomes a “new developing field” of lyrics studies in the recent twenty years, which is, to a certain degree, a result of the consistent scholarly interest in the Tang-Song lyrics. This is a reflection of the restraint of the Tang-Song lyrics studies in the new century: the limited texts, well-understood knowledge, solidified classics, and matured methodologies. These were to become the obstacles of the vitality of the Tang-Song lyrics studies, so that the scholars move their focus to the Ming-Qing lyrics studies, which is still underdeveloped in regards of the texts, knowledge, classics, and methodologies. Nevertheless, any transformation or adjustment of a scholarly focus does not necessarily indicate a simple pursuit of a new field and a disregard of an old one; it should be a reconsideration how the existing and matured field can be reformed through the pursuit of a new one. In this case, the Ming lyrics, as a continuation of the Tang-Song and Jin-Yuan lyrics, becomes an important factor of reference when we revisit the Tang-Song lyrics from a dynastic perspective. Earlier studies commonly pay attention to the topic of “the decline of the Ming lyrics”; however, the complexity and inclusiveness of the Ming lyrics in its “stylistic characteristics” are the foundations of the Ming lyrical world, and they are also useful in completing our comprehension of the Tang-Song lyrics. On the one hand, from the perspective of the forming of a literary type, the origin of the Tang-Song lyrics can be observed in the Ming lyrics; on the other, from the perspective of development, the vice of Tang-Song lyrics can also be perceived. After twenty-years of development, the Ming lyrics studies has accumulated resources and perspectives, which will facilitate us in changing our ways of thinking, and to re-explore those difficult issues that were not easily understandable based solely on the Tang-Song texts. It will also help us to readjust the position of the Tang-Song lyrics in the entire history of lyrics, evaluating somewhat “common” problems within the Tang-Song lyrics. It is essential to bear in mind that the current understanding of the Tang-Song lyrics are a result of a layered overlapping of the original view of the Tang-Song lyrics, the self-conscious view of the Ming-Qing lyrics, and the modern view of lyrics passed down from the Republican Period. This is to better understand the Ming-Qing lyrical elements embedded in the Tang-Song lyrics studies, and to rediscover the vitality of the Tang-Song lyrics studies.