Editor's note:

In collaboration with the popular game "Honor of Kings," CGTN has produced a special video featuring the lively and historical "Hu Xuan Dance" – a dazzling whirl born over a millennium ago along the Silk Road, which became a celebrated part of Tang-Dynasty court culture and a vivid symbol of China's long-standing artistic exchange and inclusive spirit. Ahead of its premiere during CGTN's overseas Spring Festival Gala Super Night on Chinese New Year's Eve, we are delighted to share two insightful articles by Dunhuang experts, exploring the cultural and historical roots of this vibrant dance from the Silk Road era. These pieces offer a deeper look into the artistry behind the upcoming visual showcase, blending traditional heritage with contemporary digital creativity. Stay tuned for the dance video – a festive fusion of past and present.

On February 15, 610, the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, the people of China celebrated the year's first full moon. In the ancient lunar calendar, governed by the waxing and waning of the moon, this night – the Lantern Festival, traditionally known as the Shangyuan Festival – held a unique magic.

Yet that year's celebration was unlike any before it. Emperor Yang Guang, the second ruler of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), staged a grand public carnival in the imperial capital, Luoyang.

The timing was no coincidence. Having reopened and secured the Silk Roads, Yang Guang saw envoys and even kings from kingdoms along the corridor journey to Luoyang, bearing tribute and acknowledging the Sui's rising power.

To showcase his dynasty's wealth and might, the emperor chose this lantern-lit night to mount a grand spectacle – one that served as both a diplomatic statement and a gift to the people.

In the 7th century, without electric lighting, cities were swallowed by profound darkness after sunset. Strict curfews also kept people indoors after dark. For this occasion, however, Yang Guang lifted the curfew, allowing the public to flood the streets and join the festivities.

In this sense, the 610 Luoyang event stands as China's first true public carnival, a rare fusion of imperial splendor, diplomacy and popular celebration.

The main stage was set outside Duanmen Gate in Luoyang. The programs were lavish beyond imagination. To create a feast for the senses, nearly 18,000 musicians were assembled in front of the gate – forming the largest orchestra in world history to date.

Yet the most distinctive attraction was the Hu Xuan Dance (literally "the whirling Hu dance"), an exotic art form brought to China by Sogdian traders and performers along the Silk Roads.

Sogdians began arriving in China as early as the 4th century. By the Sui Dynasty, the Hu Xuan Dance had become one of the most fashionable dances of the era.

Tens of thousands of acrobats and dancers formed massive performance troupes, presenting songs and dances across multiple venues throughout Luoyang.

The festivities ignited the city, which was then one of the world's largest metropolises.

To make movement and viewing easier, lanterns were lit along the streets, turning Luoyang into a "city that never sleeps."

Fourteen centuries later, it is difficult to picture the full grandeur of that night.

Fortunately, an exquisite mural in Mogao Cave 220 at Dunhuang offers precious visual testimony. Cave 220 is one of the most important early Tang caves at Mogao, excavated in 642 (the 16th year of the Zhenguan reign of Emperor Taizong).

Although it was several decades after the Luoyang carnival, the paintings provide invaluable evidence of what the Hu Xuan Dance looked like in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties.

In the mural, 28 musicians line both sides of the scene, their skin tones varied, playing instruments from both Chinese and Western traditions.

At the center, under brilliant lamplight, two groups of dancers perform atop round mats.

They spin with breathtaking speed, leaping and stamping in swift succession, their hair, long sleeves and flowing skirts flung outward by the motion – perfectly capturing the passionate and dynamic energy of the Hu Xuan Dance.

Between the musicians and dancers rise towering lamp stands. A single stand is estimated to hold close to a thousand oil lamps, a vivid emblem of the festival's blazing extravagance.

The carnivals of Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, also an imperial capital of the Tang Dynasty) and Luoyang naturally capture the imagination, but far away in Dunhuang, lantern celebrations were also famously vibrant.

The "Old Book of Tang" even records: "For Shangyuan lantern festivities, Chang'an ranks first, Dunhuang second, and Yangzhou third." (Yangzhou is present-day Yangzhou City in east China's Jiangsu Province.)

To catch a glimpse of that unprecedented night of celebration, let's turn to the mural in Mogao Cave 220. It carries us back 1,400 years to an evening alive with lantern-lit bustling streets.

About the Author

Xing Yaolong is a Dunhuang studies scholar and historical writer. He previously worked at the Dunhuang Academy and spent many years safeguarding the grottoes in Dunhuang. He is a specially appointed professor at Yunnan University, honorary director of the Xuanzang Culture Museum, a member of the Chinese Association of Dunhuang and Turfan Studies, a member of the expert committee of the Chinese Journey to the West Culture Research Association, and a visiting professor at the Jiuquan Silk Road Culture Research Center. His publications include academic monographs "A Grand History of Dunhuang," "The Yulin Caves," and "Xuanzang and the Silk Road;" the poetry collection "If Relics Could Write Poems: Gansu's History in Museums;" and children's books such as "Understanding Dunhuang" and the series "Visible Dunhuang." Some of his works have won the China Good Books Award and the Crystal Compass Award sponsored by the Russian Geographical Society.

Read more:

Hu Xuan Dance: The street dance of the Tang Dynasty

(Cover: A still from CGTN's video on Hu Xuan Dance. /Guo Huakang)