The Image of Music and Sound in Xunzi's 'On Music': A Study of Character, Cosmos, and the Cultivation of Rites and Music

Section 11: "Dance Combines the Intent of the Dao of Heaven" ($\text{wǔ yì tiān dào jiān}$) — The Comprehensiveness of Dance

"Dance combines the intent of the Dao of Heaven" ($\text{wǔ yì tiān dào jiān}$)—These five characters describe the quality of dance as "combining" ($\text{jiān}$) the "intent" ($\text{yì}$) of the "Dao of Heaven" ($\text{tiān dào}$). This sentence is the summary and climax of the entire passage, and also the most difficult to interpret.

"Intent" ($\text{yì}$) here should be understood as "purpose" or "meaning." "Dao of Heaven" ($\text{tiān dào}$) refers to the Great Dao of Heaven. "Combine" ($\text{jiān}$) means to possess or encompass both. Taken together, it means that the purpose of dance is to encompass the Dao of Heaven—dance uses the human body as a medium to express the entirety of the Dao’s meaning, encompassing the principles of Heaven and Earth and the myriad things.

Why can dance "combine the intent of the Dao of Heaven"$3 This is the core question of this section, which Master Xunzi answers profoundly in the following passage ("How is the intent of dance known$4"), detailed in the next chapter. Here, we offer only a preliminary analysis of the five characters themselves.

The status of dance in pre-Qin ritual music was the highest. The Rites of Zhou, Office of Music: Grand Master ($\text{Chūn Guān: Dà Sī Yuè}$), records:

"Using music and dance to instruct the nobility of the state, they dance the Yunmen, Da Juan, Da Xian, Da Ao, Da Xia, Da Huo, and Da Wu."

All Six Dynasties' Music is named after its "dance" ($\text{wǔ}$), indicating that "dance" was the highest form of music. Why$5 Because dance is the only art form that utilizes the entire human body as its medium: the drum is struck with a mallet, the bell struck with a rod, the qín plucked with fingers, song sung with the mouth—all use only a part of the body as a tool. Only dance uses the entirety of the person—head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, waist, legs, feet—to express meaning.

The use of "combine" ($\text{jiān}$) lies precisely here. Each instrument/activity captures one aspect of the Dao: the drum for "grandness," the bell for "substantiality," the chime stone for "purity," and so on; song for "purity and exhaustion," which is close to completeness but still limited to the auditory realm. Only dance, using the entire body, combining sight and kinesthesia, and encompassing rhythm and melody (moving in time with the bell and drum), combines both hardness and softness (the alternation of rising/falling, bending/stretching, advancing/retreating, slow/fast), and thus can "combine the intent of the Dao of Heaven" ($\text{yì tiān dào jiān}$) by embodying the Dao’s totality through the body’s complete movement and comprehensive meaning.

The Philosopher Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals ($\text{Lǚ Shì Chūn Qiū}$), in the section Ancient Music ($\text{Gǔ Yuè}$), records:

"In the time of Lord Getian, the music involved three men holding ox tails and stamping their feet while singing eight movements."

Ancient music was intrinsically integrated with song and dance—"holding ox tails, stamping their feet while singing"—involving the entire body. This was the most primal form of music and also its highest form.

The phrase "Dao of Heaven" ($\text{tiān dào}$) here also holds deep meaning. Xunzi’s concept of the Dao of Heaven differs from that of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Xunzi: On Heaven ($\text{Tiān Lùn}$) states:

"The movements of Heaven possess constancy; they do not stop for Yao, nor do they cease for Jie."

Xunzi’s Dao of Heaven refers to the regular order of natural operation. The "combining the intent of the Dao of Heaven" ($\text{yì tiān dào jiān}$) in dance means using the ordered movement of the human body to simulate and correspond to the ordered operation of the Dao of Heaven. Heaven has the alternation of day and night (like the alternation of rising and falling), the cycle of four seasons (like the coming and going of advancing and retreating), and the waxing and waning of Yin and Yang (like the variation in speed). The dancer uses bodily movements to "interpret" the operation of the Dao of Heaven—this is the profound meaning of "combining the intent of the Dao of Heaven."