The invention discloses a system and method for pyrolyzing coal. The system comprises a moving bed pyrolysis reactor and a spray tower; the reactor comprises a coal material inlet, a semicoke outlet, regenerative radiant tubes, oil gas exporting pipelines, a stirring device and gas collecting tubes; the regenerative radiant tubes are arranged in the reactor in the height direction of the reactor for multiple layers, and multiple regenerative radiant tubes which are parallel to one another in the horizontal direction are arranged on each layer; through holes are formed in the pipe walls of the oil gas exporting pipelines; the stirring device comprises a stirring shaft and multiple stirring rods connected to the stirring shaft; the gas collecting tubes comprise the gas collecting header tube and the gas collecting branch tubes, and the gas collecting header tube is connected with the spray tower. According to the system, powdered coal can be effectively treated, and the treatment efficiency is high; meanwhile, oil gas resources generated through pyrolysis can be quickly exported, secondary reactions are few, the tar oil quality is high, and the content of light components in tar oil is high; in addition, due to the fact that the regenerative radiant tubes are adopted in the pyrolysis reactor and rotatable inner elements are arranged in the regenerative radiant tubes, heat transfer among particles and between the particles and the radiant tubes is increased, and the heat transfer efficiency is high.