The main purpose of this institution was to teach the heirs apparent proper conduct and harmony (in both sense of the word), and as such it served as a mythological model for both the future Music Bureau and the imperial education system.
According to legend (or Zhou propaganda from the succeeding dynasty) his reign was characterized by drinking, women, sex, and lack of morals, activities which Di Xin was said to prefer at this point in his career to spending his time in properly governing his country; he ignored almost all affairs of state, and was often too besotted even to keep track of what day it was.
According to Sima Qian, Di Xin with his concubines (especially Daji) developed the habit of hosting festive orgies where many people engaged in sex at the same time and created songs with crude erotic lyrics and allegedly poor rhythm.
However, after the Zhou dynasty army defeated the Shang military power at the Battle of Muye, in 1046 BCE, Di Xin gathered up his treasures in his expensively-built palace and set a huge fire, burning himself up together with his luxurious possessions.
[8] The emperor Wu has been widely cited to have created the Music Bureau in 120 BCE,[9] however it seems most likely that there was a long-standing office of music and that as part of his governmental reorganization Wu enlarged its size, changed its scope and function, as well as possibly renaming it –– thus seeming and being credited with establishing a new institution, the stated tasks of which were apparently to collect popular songs from various areas within the Han Empire, as well as external sources and to adapt and orchestrate these, as well as to develop new material.
[10] The historian Ban Gu states in his Book of Han that the Music Bureau was subordinate to the shaofu, or Lesser Treasury, which was responsible for the emperor's personal needs.
[11] Sima Qian in his Records of the Grand Historian states that the early Han emperors retained the Music Bureau, continuing it the same as it had been since ancient times.
[12] In any case, Wudi is widely held to have used the Music Bureau as an important part of his religious innovations and to have specifically commissioned Sima Xiangru to write poetry.
Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty also temporarily established the Great Splendour Music Bureau (Dasheng Yuefu) that had 785 musicians and dancers in 1102.