This term referred originally to the music used by emperors, dukes and princes when they held rituals and feasts. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, it had come to refer to various kinds of popular music played during feasting and entertainment at court. The term “banquet music” was first seen in The Rites of Zhou, at which time such music generally drew on the music of the common folk and neighboring ethnic minority groups, and comprised both songs and dances. It can be said that outside influence is a characteristic of banquet music from the beginning. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, when there was a great influx of foreign music into China, the so-called Ten Types of Music for feasting and entertainment at court were identified and categorized, among which banquet music was placed at the top of the list. Later generations would refer to the music and dance of Sui and Tang comprising elements from China and abroad, singing and dancing, refined and popular, as banquet music. The folk music and dance of the Tang Dynasty were all categorized as banquet music. Such music was also sometimes used in large ceremonial activities such as ancestral rituals and royal meetings. Banquet music lasted through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and even today some folk music and traditional opera tunes can still be found to have elements of the banquet music of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

Banquet music: In the early years of the Wude period, Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty did not have time to produce new music, so when it came to banquets, he followed the Sui system and had the Nine Types of Music played. (Du You: An Encyclopedic History of Institutions）

During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Gaochang music was added, banquet music was created, and the ceremony-ending music was deleted. Ten types of music were explicitly incorporated... and together called banquet music. Their melodies and lyrics are too varied and complex to record here. Of the banquet music that was adopted during the Wude period of Emperor Gaozu and the Zhenguan period of Emperor Taizong, and continued to flourish in the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods of Emperor Xuanzong, a total of 14 kinds of music tunes and 222 songs were recorded. (Guo Maoqian: Collection of Yuefu Poems)