Tang Yue System Research

The highly prosperous musical culture in Tang Dynasty was closely associated with its perfect official conservatory system. The purpose of this article is to give detailed description of the conservatory system in the Tang Dynasty via combing through the relevant historical data, on the base of which to reveal the relationship between the conservatory system and the poems in the Tang Dynasty.Currently there are not many significant achievements concerning the conservatory system in the Tang Dynasty. It remains some uncertainties concerning the crucial issues associated with the conservatory system in the Tang Dynasty. There were three parts in the conservatory organization of the imperial government in Tang Dynasty: the Taichang House (Taiyue Dept. and Drum Beating & Instrument Play Dept), Liyuan, and the Imperial Music Office. This article provides description and demonstration about the relationship between the conservatory system and the poems in the Tang Dynasty based on these three parts.The predecessors had some vague knowledge about the functions of the musical officials in the Taichang House. This article makes detailed research into the life stories and the conditions for their appointments. According to this article, Xielvlang, the name for a kind of officers, had a number of functions. Some of the people perfect at music were acting as the Xielvlangs. However, not all the Xielvlangs had musical talent. Some of the Xielvlangs took the office because of their literature abilities. Sometimes Xielvlang was only a kind of void title after the middle period of the Tang Dynasty. The officers for the Taiyue and Drum Beating & Instrument Play must have good knowledge of music. The conclusion is that the senior officials in Taichang House were not required to have musical knowledge, while the junior officials must be perfect at music. In the past, people normally thought that the music players had little cultural background. This article, however, researched the events for the people who were registered and confiscated in the Tang Dynasty. It finds that a lot of them had high cultural levels. So it is assumed that many players in the Taichang House had received good education. What's more, this article also investigates the social status of the players, which proves to be complicated. It also investigates the legal status and the social positions of the players in order to show their double faces, i.e., they are of low legal status but high social status. This article also explored other issues, such as the service means of the players as well as the activities besides their service to the senior officials and authorities.This article reviews the music management in the Taichang House. For the first time it...