The Creation And Spread Of’the Book Of Songs’—Under The Ceremony-Music System In Zhou Dynasty

In Zhou Dynasty(1046-256BC) the social rules for etiquette and harmony is the soil of The book of songs. The political system religion, culture, ideology, social life, etc of this historical period are all part of the social rules and civilization of the Zhou Dynasty. They all had an important impact upon The Book of Songs’creation.The Western Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century-771B.C.) After long periods of operation, a comprehensive social rule for etiquette and harmony was gradually built up with the sound of music institutions. The royal chamber of Zhou’s Music officer is under the Da Si Yue, and a senior official, bachelor and other staff, and then the government, petty official.The music staff of the Zhou dynasty, including76local officials in drum and dance instructor, Among the Chun officer, from the Da Si Yue to Si Gan totally1463people, both accumulated a total of1539people. The four aspects of the main functions of the Zhou Dynasty music institutions, including the administration of the music and musical talent training, music education, music and dance play, musical instrument making and management.At the beginning of Zhou Dynasty, a series of songs used for sacrifice to gods or ancestors was created. The king of Kang went further to enrich rituals&music system and manage rituals&music culture. Though no history records of revising and adding songs after the king of Kang, according to the different poems involved in the rituals&music system, songs in Zhou Dynasty have been added and completed from Xizhou Dynasty to Chunqiu Dynasty.Songs in the rituals&music system are not only played various sacrifices, but also used in meeting the emperor, paying reciprocal visits, holding conferences and making alliances. Besides, songs are also played on occasions of banquet, archery and wedding. Different feudatory nations have corresponding ranks and content and playing patterns of songs are varied. A great number of poems are created to meet different need of rituals&music system. These poems got involved in the rituals&music system of Zhou Dynasty and spread permanently by way of rituals&music.It is worthwhile to explore whether the traditional "collecting poetry theory" is true or not. If the dynasty has no the officer to collect poems, and then how the poems of all kingdoms were collected and eventually came together to the musical officer of Zhou dynasty? We consider that in order to meet the demands of music or entertainment, the vassal states also use their own music except Zhou royal court music, and to compose music, the musical officers of all the vassal states collect consciously the poems from literati and folk within their own territory, compile into sets and then finally offer to Prince Zhou. On the basis of poetry contributed by every vassal state, Prince Zhou do the further selection, integration and processing to form a book of poems of Zhou dynasty. Because the vassal states in poetry collection and editing are not synchronous, a lot of them at that time have no acquisition officials or even after the acquisition of poetry, have not to offer to Zhou dynasty. So these poems of some vassal states can not compile into the book of songs. These states include some influential ones, such as Cai, Xu, Guo, Hu and so on.The book of songs in the spring and autumn period mainly spread through playing, singing, spreading education and chanting songs in the banquet ceremonies. The book of songs in the communication process has an obviously political and moral orientation, which services for the musical culture and musical politics of the western Zhou dynasty. Creation and spreading of the book of songs are the need of reality, and its spirit of facing to the social life makes it has a wide range of social adaptability. As one of the carrier of culture of Zhou dynasty Confucian thought, the book of songs continues to bear the society responsibility of the music cultural inheritance, the dissemination of Confucian thought, strengthen ethical and moral concept, and the civilization of human beings in the later social history. It also plays an important role in maintaining the traditional social morality, protecting autocratic society of Confucian and order, and strengthening social stability. Therefore, the spreading of the book of songs has become particularly important for it is the carrier of culture of Zhou dynasty music in the music system civilization and Confucian thought, servicing in the Zhou dynasty palace.