The origin of rites and music

China's culture attaches great importance to rites and music. Rites refer to various etiquette norms, while music includes music and dance. The origin of rites and music is synchronous with the evolution of human civilization. The formation background of China's "Rite and Music Culture" is the spirit of "Music" represented by the harmony between heaven and earth, and the natural order of heaven and earth is the most basic. "Harmony" (the spirit of music), so everything can be transformed. "Order" (the spirit of ceremony), so everything can have its own characteristics. It can be seen that "music" is masculinity formed in "heaven". And "ceremony" is formed by the feminine flexibility of "earth". Judging from the development of human history and civilization, we didn't pay equal attention to "ceremony and music" from the beginning, or ceremony was more important than music. Instead, there was "music" first, and then with the development of history, it gradually developed into "both ceremony and music". The ceremony known to the people is the Zhou ceremony, which was formulated by the Duke of Zhou. Rites and music culture developed from sacrificial culture. The original meaning of "Li" is based on Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Li is also, so it is the blessing of God. Follow the instructions. " The so-called "curse" is "a salute, from beans to pictographs." Wang Guowei, a close friend, made textual research and said that Sui was a ritual vessel, but it was not a bean, but a jade shaped like two vessels. The ancients saluted with jade, and the so-called "jade is a shell jade" in Shangshu Pan Geng means to salute the gods with jade. Judging from the structure of the word "wai" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it means to put two pieces of jade in one vessel to serve God. On this basis, the king came to the conclusion that he was surrounded by God, pushed by God's wine bowl and pushed by God's cause. Therefore, the original meaning of "ceremony" refers to the instruments for offering sacrifices to gods, and later it is quoted as a religious ceremony for offering sacrifices to gods, and then it refers to various behavioral ceremonies in daily life of human society. As for its origin, it belongs to the ancient sacrificial culture. Book of Changes Yu Gua: The former king respected morality with pleasure and praised God for matching his ancestors. "Rites and Music" said: Rites and music follow the sincerity of heaven and earth, achieve the virtue of the gods, and prosper the gods. He also said: "Musicians are in harmony and lead God from heaven; Rites are divided into rituals, ghosts, and places. Therefore, the saints and the heavens are in harmony, and the ceremony is matched with the ground. " "The Book of Rites" said: "Every way to govern the people is not in a hurry to be polite; There are five rituals, don't rush to sacrifice. " Liang Qichao's Three Generations of Religious Rites once said: Rites are also the norms of all human behaviors. Some people are so adult gifts, if crown gifts; The gift of meeting a person is the gift of meeting a scholar. Some people are confused about the ceremony of clan family, if the funeral is; Courtesy between clans, if the countryside drinks, courtesy is; There is a gift of receiving the country. If you hire Yan Xiangli, it is; There is a ceremony in which people are associated with God and heaven, so this ceremony is. Therefore, as the saying goes, "courtesy is the way to inherit heaven and treat others with affection." In the Zhou Dynasty, emperors of all dynasties attached great importance to the cultivation of music and dance and formulated the system of rites and music. From the age of 13, the children of Zhou royal family should gradually learn to master all kinds of etiquette music and dance, and by the age of 20, they should fully master the six dynasties dance and six small dances. In the aristocratic class, music and dance cultivation is a part of life. The implementation of "Six-Generation Dance" is to achieve the goal of governing the country and reassuring the people, and to urge people to improve their inner cultivation and consciously abide by social order through music and dance, so as to achieve the stability of the whole society. Professor Peng Lin, Tsinghua University, believes that the cultivation of morality is mainly through emotional "ritual and music education" rather than rational cognitive training, which should be an important aspect that distinguishes Chinese civilization from western civilization. He believes that "ceremony is formulated from the perspective of human emotions, but its purpose is to correct human emotions" and "music is the voice of human emotions from the heart". Professor Peng believes that "the teaching of etiquette must focus on humanistic spirit", and there are two key points: "First,' virtue' is the soul of etiquette." "Second,' respect' is the core of the ceremony."