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Lv Cai
Early Tang scholar and musician who, on imperial order, used Taizong's dance diagram to train 128 performers in the Qin Wang Po Zhen Yue, later the Qide Wu.
Mural of the cultural record “Tang Court Music and Dance”, which this person is tied to.
Lv Cai, from Qingping in Bozhou (present-day Gaotang, Shandong), was an early Tang scholar and musician. Recommended by Wen Yanbo, he entered the Hongwen Academy and served as erudite and assistant director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and was ordered to revise the Book of Yin and Yang. The New Book of Tang records that when Emperor Taizong drew up a battle-dance diagram, Lv Cai was ordered to use it to train 128 musicians, who danced in silver armour with halberds through three changes of four formations each; with new lyrics by Wei Zheng and others the piece became the Qide Wu (Dance of Seven Virtues). He also set music for court dances such as the Gongcheng Qingshan Wu, and several of his writings survive in the Complete Tang Prose.
Life and times
Dates 606–665 CE