The Zhou Dynasty was the first era to stipulate "rituals" (rituals such as sacrifices and court meals) and "yue" (music and dance accompanying "rituals"). This is the so-called formulation of rituals and music. It is said that this important measure was promulgated by Duke Zhou, a great statesman in the early Zhou Dynasty. The influence of the ritual and music system lasted for thousands of years until the end of the Qing Dynasty. The specific contents of each era were different, but in theory they were all based on the Zhou Dynasty. If people in the Shang Dynasty respected ghosts and gods, then people in the Zhou Dynasty respected etiquette and respected ghosts and gods but "kept them at a distance". The ritual and music system of the Zhou Dynasty had two basic contents. One was to stipulate the levels, and the other was to stipulate that the music and dance accompanying the rituals were basically elegant music.

Because rituals and music are completely limited to the activities of the upper class of society, in order to understand Zhou’s ritual and music system, it is necessary to first understand the structure of the upper class of society. From a historical perspective, the phenomenon of enfeoffing princes existed in the Shang Dynasty. Because the territory was large, enfeoffment made it easier to rule. But the Shang Dynasty did not grant people with the same surname to various places. The Zhou Dynasty also engaged in enfeoffment, which should be said to be based on the Shang method. However, most of the Zhou people enfeoffed people with the same surname. That is to say, the Zhou tribesmen were enfeoffed to various parts of the country to become local rulers. For example, in the early Zhou Dynasty, it was Zhou Gong's younger brother Shukang who was granted the title of Wei to the hometown of Shang. In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, it was the concubine friend of King Xuan of Zhou who was granted the title of Zheng Kingdom in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, the enfeoffment of princes in the Zhou Dynasty was a method of combining "clan clan" with "feudalism (feuding feudal lords and founding a country)", thus forming a strict hierarchical relationship of "large and small clans" surrounding the clan surnamed Ji. The princes had a relationship between small sects and large sects to the emperor of Zhou; the princes in turn divided their territories to the ministers and ministers, and these lords and ministers had another level of relationship between small sects and large sects to the princes; the lords and ministers then divided their territories to the lower-ranking nobles. Scholars, these scholars formed another layer of relationship between the small sect and the large sect for the ministers.

The ritual and music system emphasizes and fixes this strict patriarchal hierarchical network. Only people of a certain level can enjoy the rituals and music of this level. As far as music is concerned, the content of the level includes absolute restrictions on the types of music and dance, the types and quantities of musical instruments, the number of musicians, etc. Exceeding the specifications is a serious violation of law. Basically using the prescribed elegant music, that is, Qizhou music, in the activities of nobles of all levels and among them, will undoubtedly play a role in strengthening the clan view and forming the idea of ????"one world, one family" within a certain period of time.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the ritual and music system could still be maintained normally, which is not difficult to see from the unearthed regulations of the Western Zhou bells. The chimes of the Western Zhou Dynasty were inherited from the chimes of the Shang Dynasty, but they were hung upside down instead of being placed upright. (According to the practice of bell playing before the Shang Dynasty, the mouth of the bell is facing upward.) After the bell body is enlarged, this arrangement is undoubtedly much more secure, and the bell body can be lengthened (so after the Western Zhou Dynasty, the bell body is longer than the Shang bell). However, the chimes of the early Zhou Dynasty were still in groups of three like the chimes of the Shang Dynasty. The scales were different from the various forms of the chimes of the Shang Dynasty. They were all: Yu (la) Gong (do) Jiao (mi) Zheng (sol). Even though the chime bells were later increased to a group of eight, the scales were still the same as the above, which was also the same as the scale form of the typical elegant music described in the ancient book "Zhou Li". It can be seen that all the bells in this long period were used to play Zhou Ya music.

In Zhou Yayue, instrumental music, dance and singing are often performed separately and are not completely combined. The dance is accompanied by the flute, which is similar to the flute, and the singing is accompanied by the harp instrument or the reeded wind instrument sheng. Instrumental music is the so-called "golden music", which is an ensemble of bells, drums and chimes. The "Golden Memorial" was of very high standard and could only be used by the emperor and princes. Doctors and scholars could only use drums. The bells and chimes interweave into a solemn and majestic sound with their huge volume and unique timbre. Together with the cooperation of drums, they can indeed create the "supreme" and "majestic" effect of the emperor and the princes. The rapid development of this type of musical instrument should be recognized as an accurate choice made by aristocratic society.

A comprehensive analysis of many ancient literature materials tells us that the singing parts of the elegant music used in the Western Zhou Dynasty all belong to the "Zhou Song", "Daya" and "Xiaoya" in the "Book of Songs", and these , all are Qizhou music songs. As for "Guofeng", only the earlier "Zhou Nan" and "Zhao Nan" can be used for lower-level "rituals", and this is a phenomenon that only appeared in later times, because the second "Nan" is basically Works from the late Western Zhou Dynasty.

The Western Zhou Dynasty lasted for three hundred years. In fact, within such a long time, the original meaning of Yale’s Qizhou music was gradually forgotten. What's more, Qizhou is the political center of the country, so "Ya" naturally means "righteousness".

The meaning of "Yayan" has been equated with "standard language" ("Mandarin" at that time), and the meaning of "Yayue" has been equated with "formal music" and "ceremonial music". Zhou Yale's role in using Qizhou music to arouse and unify people's clan ideas has been unable to play its role, because music that cannot be changed according to the rules of the ritual music system, as time goes by, even the nobles have become increasingly alienated from it, and gradually regard it as They are regarded as just "ancient music"; the political role of Western Zhou Dynasty music will shrink and die together with its tasteless "ancient music", which is an inevitable historical fate.