Rupture and Continuity: The Evolutionary Mapping from the Yayue System of the Tang and Song Periods to Contemporary Standards of Music Education

The subject of this study is the evolutionary transformation of the yayue (雅乐) system, a traditional Chinese ritual-musical practice formed during the Tang and Song dynasties, within the context of its adaptation to China’s modern educational standards. The object of the research is the cultural and institutional trajectory of yayue as a phenomenon that combines political-philosophical, educational, and aesthetic functions within the Confucian model of "ritual and music" (礼乐). The author examines the institutionalization of yayue in ancient China, its decline during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and its functional transformation in the sphere of aesthetic education and cultural pedagogy in 21st-century China. Special attention is given to the dialectics of rupture and continuity in the cultural transmission of yayue and its modernization mechanisms under the influence of digitalization and globalization. The research is based on cultural and historical-comparative methods, drawing upon theories of cultural translation, Bourdieu’s cultural capital, Foucault’s disciplinary power, Dawkins' memetics, and Yu Yingshi’s concept of institutional rupture. The scientific novelty lies in the substantiation of the "creative cultural transfer" model, whereby yayue, having lost its political-ritual function, has preserved and reactivated its core values: the aesthetics of harmony, educational potential, and systems of cultural meaning transmission. The study concludes that the development of music education in China is not a simple break with tradition but a complex adaptive renewal of cultural memory. Yayue transforms from a political instrument into a humanistic pedagogical practice, contributing to the formation of students' cultural identity. The research demonstrates yayue’s role in modern music pedagogy through the integration of cultural codes into aesthetic education standards, dual-interpretation practices, and the application of digital technologies.

Yayue, Ritual and music, Cultural continuity, Institutional rupture, Aesthetic education, Music pedagogy, Cultural identity, Digital transmission, Confucian philosophy, Chinese heritage