Feast Poem Of "the Book Of Songs" With The Zhou Dynasty Ritual Culture Changes

The Book of Songs is the first ancient poem collection in our country, which is rich in terms of contents and colorful in terms of themes. Poems of wining and dining are one of the important parts in The Book of Songs. Poems of wining and dining are the ones to describe the happy occasions of drinking and dining among the monarch and the ministers, among the relatives, and among the close friends, which shows the solemn courtesy, the harmony of the patriarchal clan, and reveals the development and changes in terms of the cultures of courtesy and music in Zhou Dysnasty.At the beginning of Zhou Dynasty, Duke of Zhou prescribed the courtesy and music which laid the foundation for the size of the cultures of courtesy and music in Zhou Dynasty. In the middle of Western Zhou Dynasty, the cultures of courtesy and music flourished, which was reflected by the poems of describing the ceremonies. The activities of wining and dining became the themes of poems writing, but the primarily written poems were nonindependent in which the activities of wining and dining were integrated with hunting ceremonies and memorial ceremonies. At that time the number of the poems of wining and dining was small. According to the content, the wining and dining can be divided into two types: banquet of entertaining the dead bodies on funerals and banquet in the patriarchal clan. Banquet of entertaining the dead bodies on funerals is colored by religion with the respect and worship for the Gods and spirits. The poems reflecting banquet of entertaining the dead bodies on funerals are Zhou Song Si Yi ,Da Ya Ji Zui, Da ya Fu Yi and so on. They are all the poems describing banquets on the funerals when offering sacrifices to gods or ancestors. Wining and dining and respecting the dead bodies which are related to the gods means the worship to the gods and belief in the gods, but the emphasis on the activities of wining and dining reflects the fact that the activities of human being begin to be concerned, which indicates that when people respect the gods and entertain thegods, they also demand the bestowal and reward from the gods. Xiao Ya Chu Ci describes the process of offering sacrifices for gods or ancestors, which is complete and detailed, bustling and order, in which the scene of dining together in the patriarchal clan is most exciting and the scene of harmony of the patriarchal clan is reproduced.At the end of Western Zhou Dynasty, the culture of courtesy and music continued to develop, the courtesy and music flourishing, the regulations complete, and many poems with the characters of courtesy and ceremony coming into being. Many poems had the characters of courtesy and ceremony. The poems of wining and dining had developed greatly, and appeared the pure and independent poems of wining and dining which was large in the number and rich in terms of contents, and at the same time the deep emotion merged into them. A large number of poems of wining and dining reflect the flourishing of the culture of courtesy and music in Zhou Dynasty, and we can see the "letter flourishing" of the cultures of courtesy and music in Zhou Dynasty with the help of these poems. For example, Xiao Ya Tong Gong, which is marvelous and spectacular, is the poem entertaining the meritorious dukes. While Xiao Ya Zhan Lu describes the entertaining, extremely generous, of the patriarchal clan from day to night. The poems of wining and dining at that time was released from the religion, reflecting the system of courtesy and the human feelings in the real society, with political and ethical conception attached to it.At the same time, there are other poems of wining and dining changing, reflecting the faintness of the culture of courtesy and music in Zhou Dynasty. Xiao Ya Fa Mu, Xiao Ya Chang Di and other poems call for the emotional attachment among family members and friendship, and long for the harmony of patriarchal clan, reflecting from one side the collapse of the ethical relationship in Zhou Dynasty and reality of popular anxiety. The authors of the poems were...