The prosperity of music culture in the Tang Dynasty occurred in the flourishing age of the dynasty, so the academic world has always valued highly the music at this age but showed little concern with the music in the middle and late dynasty. In fact, however, the development of music in the different phases of the dynasty presented different features. Compared with the flourishing age, the music in the middle and late phases had its leading distinctions of transformation, including the fall and reconstruction of court music, opening and rise of folk music and spread of scholastic music, private musicians and barracks music. Although the prosperity of music in the middle and late phases of the dynasty was not comparable with that in the flourishing phase either in scale or in artistic accomplishment, it made certain contributions to the development of music culture in the Tang Dynasty as a whole.

music in the Tang Dynasty; music in the middle and late phases of the Tang Dynasty; music culture