Farming Poems In The Book Of Songs And The Agricultural Society Of West Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou nationality is mainly based on agriculture, which support the strong power of the West Zhou Dynasty. So we find that some poems in part of Book of Poetry note lots of grand cropping occasions of the working people. Firstly, from a deep study on these farming poems we can realize that the rapid development of the West Zhou Dynasty’s agriculture depends on the favorable natural and geographical environment greatly. The plant species are very rich. They also have adopted the mode of producing such as "Pair Ploughing" and "Zi Xin Yu". On the other hand, we can also find that the feudal serfs are the main agricultural producers. Serfs are not allowed to leave the land without permission, and they are forced to take a lot of heavy labour. But they also hold a certain enthusiasm for production, because they could own their personal means of livelihood. The ruler of the West Zhou Dynasty exploit serfs through the method of "Ji". The serfs have to sell the labour power on the land of nobles. Therefore, the serfs of West Zhou Dynasty are exploited by the labour rent. In addition, farming poems have completely recorded lots of ceremonys such as "Ji Tian","She Ji","Ji Ji","La Ji","Han Ji" and so on. It not only shows the ceremony of West Zhou Dynasty, but also affords the plentiful and precious historical data to study these decree、regulation and culture of sacrifice.