"Zhou Li, Diguan, Da Situ" wrote:

The earth is used to measure the shadow of the sun to measure the distance of the four directions of the land, and the shadow of the sun is corrected to find the position in the center of the earth. The location is southerly, and the shadow of the sun is shorter, indicating that the climate of this place is hot; The location is northerly, and the shadow of the sun is long, indicating that the climate of this place is cold; If the location is easterly, it means that the sun is already westward at noon, and the climate here is dry and windy; The location is westerly, and the sun should be easterly at noon, indicating that the climate here is humid and rainy.

If the shadow of the sun at noon on the day of the summer solstice is measured to be one foot five inches long, this place is called the middle of the earth, which is the place where the qi of heaven and earth are in harmony, the place where the qi of the four seasons alternate, the place where the wind and rain come at the right time, and the place where the two qi of yin and yang are in harmony. Because this place will be rich and healthy, he established a kingdom in this place, established a place of Wanggi for thousands of miles, and dug ditches and planted plants in Wanggi's territory to strengthen Wanggi.

In the "Zhou Li", the use of Tugui to measure the shadow of the sun and build a royal city in the earth is not only the need of philosophical allegory, but also the need to govern the country. The capital of the Zhou Dynasty is called the middle of the country, the suburbs within a hundred miles from the city, and the wild within three hundred miles. The king divided the country and the wild land, and all of them were centered on the royal city. Wanggi, which is thousands of miles away, was established with Wangcheng as the center, and there is also the so-called Jiugi in addition to Wangji.

"Zhou Li, Xia Guan, Da Sima" wrote the distribution of Jiugi, which is centered on Wanggi with a radius of thousands of miles and spreads out from all sides to 5,000 li, which is divided into nine layers: Hougi, Diangi, Nangi, Caigi, Weigi, Mangi, Yigi, Zhengi, and Fangi, with the size of each other, and the territory is getting farther and farther away, and the adjacent Qi regions are all 500 li. It is true that there are names of the clothes worn outside such as Hou, Dian, Male, Wei, Cai, etc., but there is no such distribution that resembles concentric circles.

In terms of residents' organizations, the "Zhouli" divides residents' organizations into two categories: the suburbs outside the national capital are called townships, and the suburbs are called Sui. The township is subdivided into five levels of administrative organizations, including prefecture, party, clan, lu, and bi, and then it is subdivided into five levels of administrative organizations, including county, disdain, zàn, li, and neighbor. According to the records of "Da Situ" and "Sui Ren" in "Zhou Li Diguan", the composition of the residents of the township and Sui is as follows: 5 families in one ratio and 5 families in one neighborhood; There are 25 in one lu and 25 in one mile; 100 families for one family, 100 families for one family; 500 for one party and 500 for one party; 2,500 in one state and 2,500 in a county; There are 12,500 in one township and 12,500 in another.

The establishment of organizations at all levels in townships and Sui is also extremely neat, and the number of townships and Sui is six. The number of inhabitants of 6 townships and 6 Suis seems to be just right, and there is neither shortage nor spare. If there is a natural disaster**, the number of households changes, and the above requirements cannot be met, what should be done? There is no solution in the "Rites of the Week".

The planning of farmland in "Zhou Li" is also uniform. There are two systems recorded in the "Diguan Suiren", one is the farmland system and the other is the ditch system. At that time, farmland was based on "husband" as the basic unit, one husband was 400 acres, and there was a canal called "Sui" between the futian and the futian, and there was a road called "path" on the top of the futian. Between every 10 husbands of farmland, there is a ditch called a ditch, and there is a road called a ditch in the ditch. Between every 100 acres of farmland, there is a canal called "Tsuru", and there is a road called "Tu" on the Tsuki. For every 1,000 pounds of farmland, there is a canal called "Hu", and there is a road called "Road" on the Hu. For every 10,000 mu of farmland, there is a canal called "river", and there is a road called "road" on the river.

Whether it is the ditch system or the road system mentioned in the "Zhou Li", there are strict regulations on the ruler. According to Zheng Xuan's annotation, the width and depth are 2 feet in circumference, of which one foot is about 23 centimeters; The ditch is 4 feet wide and deep; The width and depth are 8 feet; Hu, the width and depth are 16 feet. The width of the road on the ditch is that the diameter can be passed by cattle and horses, the road can be passed by large cars, the tu can be passed by one car, the road can be passed by two cars, and the road can be passed by three cars.

The system of the "Zhou Li" has a rather idealized component. The establishment of the national capital in the middle of the earth, the theoretical color is very distinct, and in fact it is impossible to operate. The uniform Jiugi system, the residents' organization, and the ditch road system cannot be completed today when the level of science and technology is very developed. Therefore, it can be said that "Zhou Li" is the blueprint of the ideal country.

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The intention of the author of "Zhou Li" is not to record the canonical system of a certain dynasty, but to establish a good law for thousands of generations. The author hopes that through the book "Zhou Li", he can express his philosophical thinking on society and the relationship between heaven and man. The layout of the whole book reflects the philosophy of heaven and man everywhere. According to Confucianism, both man and society are nothing more than copies of the spirit of nature. During the Warring States Period, with the rise of the idea of yin and yang and the five elements, the academic world prevailed in the academic world to imitate the heavenly style of learning, emphasizing the relationship between man and nature, and advocating that social organizations should imitate the laws of nature. Therefore, there is a saying that "man is the law of the earth, the earth is the law of the sky, the heaven is the law, and the Tao is the law". The author of "Zhou Li" can be said to be an active practitioner of the idea of "human law and heaven".

"Zhou Li" uses six articles, including heavenly officials, earth officials, spring officials, summer officials, autumn officials, and winter officials, as the skeleton, and heaven, earth, spring, summer, autumn, and winter are the upper and lower parts of heaven and earth, which is what the ancients called the universe. The six senses in "Zhou Li" are the six qing. According to the author's arrangement, each secretary was in charge of 60 official positions. Therefore, the total number of officials in Liuqing is 360, and 360 is the degree of Zhou Tian.

The original name of "Zhou Li" was "Zhou Guan", what is the origin of the title of this book? There have been many speculations in the past, the so-called "Zhou Guan", probably the meaning of "Zhou Tian's official", the author used "Zhou Guan" as the title of the book, implying the cosmic framework of the book and the layout of Zhou Tian's degrees, as well as the principle of "human law and heaven". Later, Liu Xin renamed "Zhou Guan" to "Zhou Li", which did elevate its status, but it seems to have somewhat distorted the author's original intention.

In the traditional Confucian theory, "yin and yang" are the most basic philosophical categories, and everything in the world is either yin or yang. The author of "Zhou Li" fully applied this concept, which originally belonged to the ideological field, to the political mechanism. The yin and yang in "Zhou Li" are almost ubiquitous, "Tianguan Nei Xiaochen" says that the government decree has yang and yin orders, "Tianguan Neizai" says that there are yang and yin rituals in rituals, and "Diguan Shepherd" says that there are yang and yin rituals in sacrifices, and so on. The layout of the royal city, with the imperial court dormitory in front, the market and residents in the back, the ancestral temple in the east, and the Sheji altar in the west, is also the embodiment of yin and yang thought.