International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2026

The Cultural Sphere of Yayue in East Asia and the Northern Indochina Peninsula—An Examination from a Genetic Perspective

(Abstract)

Wang Xiaodun

Yayue (elegant music) is a system of court ritual music closely integrated with the ritual institutions of an agrarian society. It spread alongside the Chinese character culture and the Ritsu-ryō system, covering several countries in East Asia and the northern Indochina Peninsula. In the course of its transmission, the yayue of various countries remained highly consistent at the theoretical level, demonstrating recognition of the Chinese conception of order. At the level of practice, however, it responded to regional social structures, religious traditions, and aesthetic preferences, thereby displaying tendencies toward indigenization and popularization. As a result, it not only embodied the diversity of yayue forms, but also reflected multiple paths through which ritual-music culture underwent local transformation. Examined from a genetic perspective, the diffusion process of yayue from the Central Plains to the Korean Peninsula, the Indochina Peninsula, the Japanese Archipelago, and the Ryukyu Islands helps deepen our understanding of the transmission and transformation patterns of the genes of Chinese civilization, as well as the influence of geographical factors on civilizational forms, and further reveals the logic underlying the formation of the Sinosphere.