Cultural Integration on the Silk Road: A Study of the Tang Dynasty’s Horse-Dancing Art

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_50How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Dancing Horses; Silk Road; The Upturned Cup; Cultural Integration

Abstract

The art of dancing horses in the Tang Dynasty was rooted in the context of cross-civilizational exchanges along the Silk Road. Relying on the tribute and trade networks of the Silk Road, fine horse breeds from regions such as Dayuan, Tuyuhun, and Daqin converged in the Central Plains, forming the exotic material foundation. In terms of training techniques, the tradition of taming horses through rhythm among nomadic peoples of the Western Regions spread eastward via the Silk Road, integrating with the stylized norms of ritual music in the Central Plains to form a unique performance paradigm. The management and inheritance mechanism not only continued the administrative traditions of the Central Plains but also absorbed the management experience of the Western Regions. Moreover, the Hu ethnic horse trainers and Han literati formed a complementary chain for technical and cultural inheritance, epitomizing the mutual learning of talents and knowledge along the Silk Road. The Upturned Cup, the core music, which incorporated musical instruments from the Western Regions, underwent localized transformation after being transmitted eastward to Japan via the Silk Road. This further confirms the developmental law of inheritance and innovation in Silk Road cultural communication. As a crystallization of the integration of diverse civilizations along the Silk Road, the art of dancing horses in the Tang Dynasty provides a typical model for understanding cross-civilizational exchanges in the Tang Dynasty.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sinuo Sun
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - Cultural Integration on the Silk Road: A Study of the Tang Dynasty’s Horse-Dancing Art
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 443
EP  - 453
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_50
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_50
ID  - Sun2025
ER  -