There is a record in the Book of Rites and Music in the Old Tang Dynasty: Li Longji, the Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, likes music, is proficient in temperament, and especially appreciates elegant "Dian", so he chose 300 musicians to teach them to play "Dian" in the Palace Liyuan, and Li Longji personally guided them, calling them "disciples of the Emperor Liyuan", which is the origin of the term "disciples of the Liyuan".
Later, people called musicians "Liyuan disciples". For example, the "Liyuan disciples" in Liu Yuxi's poem "Please, Qiongzhi Ignorance" refers to ordinary musicians.
With the development of the times, the meaning of "Liyuan disciple" has gradually shifted. Gao Zecheng, a famous playwright at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, had a prologue in Pipa Story: "The disciples in Liyuan sang Pipa Story today". It can be seen that the word at that time did not refer to musicians who played musical instruments, but to opera actors.
The origin of pear orchard
China also has another name for the opera world, called "Liyuan".
There is a story about the origin of this title: Tang Huangming, an emperor of the Tang Dynasty (6 18-907) in history, loved music, dance, opera and other arts. He keeps thousands of geisha and maiko in the palace. In the forbidden garden of the palace, there is a big garden with more than 100 pear trees, which is called "Pear Garden", but it is not a simple orchard.
There are palaces, wine kiosks, stadiums and other luxury facilities in the pear garden, which is a place for the royal family and dignitaries to entertain. Tang concentrated all these people in the "pear garden" to practice singing, dancing and drama, for the entertainment of court banquets and for the entertainment of Tang weekdays. He also personally served as Cui Gong of the "Liyuan" (equivalent to the current principal).
This "pear garden" is the largest actor training place in history. In addition to inviting special people to teach, we also invited famous literati at that time to compile programs for them, such as Li Bai and He, famous poets in the Tang Dynasty, who all wrote programs for Liyuan.
It has become a famous practice place integrating singing, dancing and drama in history. Therefore, people who have been trained in performing arts in the place of "Liyuan" are called "Liyuan Tour". Those who have studied here are all called "Liyuan disciples".