The invention provides a multilevel flow table-based Openflow message forwarding method and a multilevel flow table-based Openflow message forwarding system. The method comprises the following steps of: at least constructing a primary flow table, a secondary flow table and a tertiary flow table sequentially in series, wherein the primary and secondary flow tables are constructed in a ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) form, the tertiary flow table is constructed in a Hash table form, and the primary, secondary and tertiary flow tables can be used independently or in a combined way; searching for forwarding operation over a message on the basis of the primary, secondary and tertiary flow tables; and forwarding the message according to the forwarding operation. Particle sizes of the primary, secondary and tertiary flow tables are decreased, and the tertiary flow table is constructed in the Hash table form, so that the tertiary flow table can acquire more flow items, and the system cost is controlled.