"Competition": The song of sacrificing the ancestral industry

This poem recounts the exploits of King Wu, King Cheng, and King Kang, praises their great achievements in founding the country and expanding the territory, and prays for them to bless future generations with longevity, health and eternal prosperity. In front of the ancestral gods, the worshippers couldn't help but recall the difficulties of King Wu's founding of the country, and the images of generations of ancestors were heroic and wise. Defeat the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and establish a state of King Wu, King Cheng and King Kang who conquered the east and west, and expanded the territory. This is not only the remembrance, reverence, and praise of ancestors; It is also a psychological reflection of touting ancestors, showing off the court, and being complacent.

The bells are ringing, the drums are ringing, the chimes are loud, the wind music is melodious, and it is a happy and harmonious scene. The music played by these four musical instruments triggers a wealth of associations: on the flat and vast earth, there are towering ancestral temples, like temples of the gods in the sky, with high roofs and deep walls, and palaces; In the inner hall of the sacrifice, there are the gods of each ancestor, and on the altar in front of them are displayed all kinds of carefully prepared sacrifices, including cows, sheep, pigs and sacrificial wine, which makes people awe-inspiring; On both sides stood many servants who accompanied the sacrifice, they held their breath, and the main priest, King Zhou, was meticulously carrying out the sacrificial ceremony. The bells and drums are ringing in unison, the music is harmonious, and the reciting of the sacrificial words are straight and simple, but in the specific place of worshipping ancestors, reminiscing about the past and reminiscing about the past, can still let the human body taste the wisp of meditation hidden behind the rational words.

Brave and strong, several martial kings, and no one can compare with their achievements. The two kings of Chengkang are really prominent, and God appreciates life for a long time. Since the Chengkang era, he has the world to occupy all directions, and he is wise and good at observing good vision.

The sound of bells and drums is loud, and the chime and wind music are melodious. Heaven descended on the emperor's blessings, and the emperor's great blessings fell from the sky. The demeanor is cautious and generous, the wine is enough to fill the stomach, and the blessing is to give back.

"Siwen": A musical song to worship the former king

This is another poem to worship the first king of the Zhou Dynasty, this one is to worship the god of agriculture Houji, Houji is the aforementioned abandonment. This poem is only eight lines of poetry, which is very short, and the reason for this is because the great achievements of the previous kings of the Zhou Dynasty have become well-known and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and there is no need to say too many details and make superfluous narratives. Houji's experience is legendary, he received God's care, endowed him with agricultural skills, and let the people taste the joy of a hundred grains, which is immeasurable.

"Song of Zhou" are all works of the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and in such a specific historical period, the praise of the first kings of the Zhou Dynasty is very warm. King Wu of Zhou used 300 chariots and 300 warriors to destroy the tyrannical treatment of the common people in the Battle of Muye, and established the Western Zhou Dynasty to save the people from fire and water. The royal family is glorifying the ancestors, and the people are grateful for the liberation, which has led to a grand occasion of enthusiastic eulogy for the ancestors of the new regime.

The ancients sacrificed to the emperor of heaven, often with the first king as a supporting sacrifice, because the king of man was regarded as the son of heaven, and the communication between heaven and man was realized in the matching sacrifice, and it was further confirmed that the royal power was granted by God, so the original empty sacrifice to heaven had the concrete implementation of the content of consolidating political power, and became a political activity of great significance. Although this kind of effort to communicate between heaven and man is primitive and rigid today, in ancient times, especially in the period when politics was relatively clear and economic development was smooth, its role in unifying thinking and uniting people's hearts should not be underestimated.

The ritual proceeds slowly with the rhythm of the music, and the short lyrics are repeated again and again, and the atmosphere is so solemn that people feel that they are under the control of magical powers, and the pride and honor of participating in the festival and the devotion to the mission of Heaven are intimately blended here.

Because of this, Houji's merits in pioneering agriculture and raising all the people were also completed under the instruction of God, and the mandate of Heaven was used to ensure the continuity of the hundred tribes. At that time, the Western Zhou Dynasty was already the power of the world, and agriculture did not have to divide the boundaries of each other, and the whole country promoted agriculture and politics to build a paradise. This is a declaration of authority, and it is also a kind of tenderness that upholds the mandate of heaven to nurture all people. A prosperous and upward regime would not forget to establish virtue while establishing authority, and the Western Zhou regime also maintained this wisdom.

Remembering the merits of the ancestors and Houji is worthy of enjoying the heavens.

Who has nurtured hundreds of millions of our people and is incomparably gracious?

Leave us excellent wheat seeds, and the mandate of heaven is used to ensure the continuation of all ethnic groups.

Farming does not have to divide the boundaries of each other, and the whole country promotes agriculture and politics to build a paradise.

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Zhou Song, the minister's work

There are a total of 10 poems in "The Minister's Worker", they are "The Minister", "Hee", "Zhenlu", "Fengnian", "Youjing", "Diving", "Yun", "Zaijian", "Youke" and "Wu". Let's take a look.

"Ministers": King Zhou's emphasis on agriculture

"Song of Zhou" is a sacrificial song of the temple, which compares and praises the appearance of grand virtue, and tells the gods reverently that all things in the world have their own place.

This poem is probably a work of King Cheng of Zhou, in which it is written that the king of Zhou taught his ministers to work diligently and study the laws of production that had been given to them. King Zhou instructed the agricultural officials: In the late spring, the wheat is almost ripe, and it is necessary to quickly plan how to remediate all kinds of fields after the wheat harvest. King Zhou also praised this year's abundant wheat and good harvest, and thanked the Emperor for giving him a good year. He ordered the peasants to prepare for the wheat harvest because he would go and inspect the harvest. The king of Zhou cared about agricultural production, exhorted his ministers to work diligently, implement the country's policy of developing agriculture, and thanked God for a bumper harvest.

King Zhou attached great importance to the development of agricultural production and took agriculture as the foundation of the country. The Zhou people were an agricultural nation that relied on agriculture that was in an advanced position at that time to rejuvenate the country. After the establishment of the dynasty, the Zhou king further adopted measures such as liberating the productive forces and popularizing agricultural technology, vigorously developed agricultural production, and took agricultural production as the basic national policy. In the system of the Zhou dynasty, the king of Zhou directly owned large tracts of land, which were cultivated by serfs. Every spring, the king of Zhou would lead his ministers and hundreds of officials to personally cultivate and hold a grand ceremony to borrow the land to show that the king of Zhou had set an example. During the field ceremony, the king of Zhou would also pray to the gods and sing musical songs.

At the beginning of the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, specific regulations on land distribution, land management, and farming systems were formulated, including variety improvement, soil improvement, water conservancy construction, and farming techniques such as crop rotation. This set of laws is what the poem calls the law. At that time, land reclamation was encouraged, and soil improvement was emphasized, and the fields were graded, and those that had been cultivated for two years were called new fields, and those that had been cultivated for three years were called she(shē) fields.

In order to maintain and improve the fertility of the soil, the imperial court prescribed remediation methods according to local conditions, such as crop rotation, deep ploughing, leveling, irrigation, fertilization, etc., and also considered how to remediate the Xintian Shetian, and the king of Zhou required his subjects to follow the promulgated law. The Zhou Dynasty attached great importance to sacrifices, and there were many rituals about sacrifices, not only to pray to the gods before ploughing, but also to thank the gods after harvesting.