The south is the sun, so the Son of Heaven listens to the court in the south; The north is yin, so to the north is the market and the inhabitants behind the royal city. The east is yang, which is the direction of humanity, so the ancestral temple is set up in the east; The west is yin, which is the location of the tunnel, so the Sheji altar is built on the west side. In "Zhou Li", the location of the royal city should be in the middle of yin and yang.

The Warring States period was an era when the Five Elements thought prevailed. The interaction of yin and yang will produce the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and everything in the world can be incorporated into the system of five elements of scaffolding, such as the five directions of east, west, north, south, and middle, the five tones of the palace and the corner of the palace, the five colors such as black, white, yellow, green, and red, and the five flavors of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty, and so on. The idea of the five elements has also been important in the "Zhou Li". Among the major national sacrifices recorded in the "Zhou Li", the local officials used cattle and sheep as sacrifices, the spring officials used chickens as sacrifices, the summer officials used cattle as sacrifices, the autumn officials used dogs as sacrifices, and the winter officials used pigs as sacrifices. In the system of the five elements, chickens are wooden animals, sheep are fire animals, dogs are golden animals, pigs are water animals, and cattle are earth animals.

The five kinds of livestock used as sacrifices by the five senses in the "Zhou Li" happen to have a corresponding relationship with the five elements thought. Echoing this, the local officials have positions like "cattle people", spring officials have positions like "chicken people", summer officials have positions like "sheep people", autumn officials have positions like "dog people", and winter officials have positions like "pig people".

It should be said that "Zhou Li" is a blueprint for an ideal country based on human law, but this does not mean that "Zhou Li" has not been influenced by the pre-Qin ritual system, from the whole book, the author has done a lot of absorption of the historical materials of the previous generation, but this is not a simple transfer, but according to the author's own philosophical theory has been slightly transformed, and finally constitutes a new system.

The ideological system contained in "Zhou Li" has obvious characteristics of the times. In the Warring States Period, there were hundreds of schools of thought, and each school had a relatively obvious boundary in thought, "I Ching" talked about yin and yang without mentioning the five elements, and "Shangshu Hongfan" only talked about the five elements without involving yin and yang; Confucianism rarely discusses the legal system, and Legalists are slightly ridiculed about Confucianism. Yin and Yang and the Five Elements were combined by Zou Yan, the founder of the Yin and Yang School and the representative of the Five Elements Doctrine during the Warring States Period; Confucianism and Legalism, when they arrived at Xunzi, they were melted. And the combination of Confucianism, Legalism, yin and yang, and the five elements. Began at the end of the Warring States period with "Lü's Spring and Autumn".

"Zhou Li" is based on Confucianism, integrating the ideas of Legalism, Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements Schools, showing the characteristics of pluralism and unity. The sophistication of this book has surpassed that of "Lü's Spring and Autumn", so the writing age of "Zhou Li" may be after "Lü's Spring and Autumn", and at the latest in the early Western Han Dynasty.

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The book "Zhou Li" has a huge system and precise thinking, and it contains learning and statecraft, so it has been valued by scholars of all generations, and the Confucian scholars of later generations sighed, "If you are not a sage, you can't write such a work." As a program for governing the country, "Zhou Li" has become a model for politicians of all dynasties to learn the law, and the perfect official system and rich ideas of governing the country in the book have become an inexhaustible humanistic treasure for emperors and literati. Many of the ritual systems in the "Zhou Li" have influenced the "three provinces and six ministries" implemented from the Sui Dynasty, and the "six departments" are modeled after the six officials of the "Zhou Li". During the Tang Dynasty, the names of the six departments were set as the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Soldiers, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Industry, as the main body of the central bureaucracy, which was followed by later generations and continued to be used until the Qing Dynasty did not fall out.

The revised canonical system of the past dynasties is based on the "Zhou Li" and is completed after considering profit and loss. Moreover, the pattern of the capital described in the "Zhou Li" has also become a model for the emperors of all dynasties. Most of the capitals of previous dynasties follow the old sites of the previous dynasties, and it is still relatively difficult to refresh in terms of pattern. When Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, established the capital in Beijing, he got a new plan, which was to use the "Zhou Li" as a model to establish a pattern facing the future market and the left ancestor and the right society. Later, the Ming and Qing dynasties not only continued to use it, but also imitated the "Zhou Li" and established the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Earth, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Moon, the Temple of the First Farmers, etc., forming the layout we see today.

The book "Zhou Li" contains a wealth of ideas for governing the country, and the content in "Tianguan" can be summarized as "six classics", "eight laws", "eight rules", "eight handles", "eight unifications", "nine positions", "nine fu", "nine styles", "nine tributes", "nine taels" and other ten ** rules, and in the description of the local officials, spring officials, summer officials, and autumn officials have been further elaborated, detailed and close, rigorous and magnificent, and have a profound impact on the promotion of administrative management ideas in later generations.

"Zhou Li" adopted the policy of integrating Confucianism and law for officials and ordinary people, focusing on morality and supplemented by punishment, which showed that the political ideology was quite mature at that time. The measures for managing the finances of the government treasury are strict and meticulous, and they are mutually restrictive, reflecting superb operational wisdom. Historically, whenever there was a major change, most politicians used the "Zhou Li" as an important ideological resource to find the ideological weapon of law change or reform, such as Wang Mang's reform in the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Anshi in the Northern Song Dynasty, and so on. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, when China was in internal and external troubles, in order to save China's declining situation, the master of scripture Sun Yirang wrote "Zhou Officials and Political Leaders", proving that the way of governing the country contained in "Zhou Officials" was not inferior to that of the West.

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It can be said that the "Zhou Li" is a classic work that indicates the hierarchical code system and the rules on etiquette. It has many names, the most important ones are the five rites, which are auspicious rites, jia rites, fierce rites, guest rites, and military rites. The auspicious rite is the first of the five rites, mainly the sacrifice ceremony to the gods, earth, people and ghosts; Jiali is a ritual in terms of drinking banquets, wedding crowns, and festival activities; Murder rites are a series of rituals related to funeral, which not only includes funeral content, but also some other understandings related to disasters. Bingli is a ritual for the Son of Heaven to entertain the princes of the four directions who come to the court and the princes send envoys to greet the king of Zhou; The military salute is used for conquest and is a ceremonial ritual in military activities.

In a way, the Zhou Rites are a tool for maintaining the hierarchy and preventing acts that exceed one's duty. In the "Zhou Li", the number of nobles feasting and drinking and the types of meat in the tripod are specified, which records: the king used 9 tripods, which were respectively placed beef, mutton, suckling pig, dried fish, dried meat, livestock belly, pork, fresh fish, fresh meat jerky; The princes used 7 tripods, in which were placed beef, mutton, suckling pig, dried fish, dried meat, tripe, and pork; Doctor Qing uses 5 tripods, which contain mutton, suckling pig, dried fish, dried meat, and livestock belly; The scholar used 3 tripods, which contained suckling pig, dried fish and dried meat. In addition to the difference in the number of Liedin and the type of meat, there is also a difference in the number of music and dance. Since the establishment of the ritual system by the Duke of Zhou, no one can modify it, and the King of Zhou has the right to punish the nobles who violate the etiquette law.