Continuing Tradition in Invention——Take Contemporary Revival of Music and Dance Performance in Memorial Ceremony for Confucius as Case Study

Based on the fieldwork in The Temple of Confucius, Qufu, Shandong Province, the process of continuation and invention of the Confucius Memorial Ceremony and its affiliated music and dance performance were presented. Before the year of 1957, the music and dance performance in the ceremony still followed the performance norms issued in the Qianlong 8th year of the Qing Dynasty. In 1980s, the revived music and dance performance in the ceremony for Confucius has shifted its focus onto the emphasizing of audience orientation. Although the traditional element of the Ming Dynasty’s Ceremony for Confucius has been adopted in the public memorial ceremony (Gongji) since the year of 2004, the music and dance performance in the ceremony was totally invented by people in modern times and it could be called new music and dance performance in the Ceremony for Confucius. Traditional symbols in private memorial ceremony (Siji) are obviously more than those in the public memorial ceremony. The essential characteristics of the invention of the tradition of the Memorial Ceremony for Confucius in modern times are repeat, inventor-dependence and continuation linked with the traditional ceremony.