Legitimizing the Regime through Appropriating Central Asian Music: The Three Dances of Yayue in the Early Tang

The three dances discussed in this article refer to three pieces that were performed both as state ritual music and entertainment court banquet music: The Dance of Seven Virtues (七德舞, qide wu) originally named Prince Qin Destroys Military Formation (秦王破陣樂, qinwang pozhen yue); The Dance of Nine Successes (九功舞, jiugong wu), also named Achieving Success and Celebrating Goodness (功成慶善樂, gongcheng qingshan yue), and The Superior Vitality (上元樂, shangyuan yue). All three dances attributed to the two Tang emperors were newly composed music and dance with undeniable elements of Central Asian music. Through analyzing the waxing and waning of the three dances as state ritual music, this article reveals the tensions and changing balance between employing the three dances as a political gesture to legitimize imperial power and the Confucian concepts that justified the gesture itself. Because according to the Confucian musical concepts, the ruler who ascends the throne and is a benevolent, just, and accomplished leader will create proper music that can be incorporated into the repertory of state ritual music. However, Central Asian music as a part of foreign music is criticized for not meeting the criteria of proper music according to Confucian musical concepts. Thus, using music that absorbed foreign musical elements as a political gesture to present legitimacy is fundamentally contradictory to the cultural concepts that justify the gesture itself. As a result of these tensions, the performance of three dances as state ritual music did not endure, rather, their qualification as state ritual music was seriously questioned, and their performance occasions were reduced in the middle 7th century.