Characteristics of Ritual Rule

The basic feature of the Western Zhou's "rule of etiquette" was that "etiquette did not go down to the common people, and punishment did not go down to the great masters. The main meaning of "the rites are not inferior to the common people" is that the hereditary privileges granted by the rites to the nobles at all levels are not enjoyed by the commoners and slaves. Commoners and slaves had no rights, but had to bear all kinds of obligations imposed by the rites. Slaves, in particular, were only the objects of rights and could be slaughtered at will by the slave-owning aristocracy. According to the Inscription of the Tripod of the Zhou Dynasty, the price of five slaves was only "a horse and a bundle of silk". The main meaning of the phrase "the punishment is not for the great masters" is that it is not aimed at the aristocracy above the great masters, but at the working people in general. This division between rites and penalties fully demonstrated that the Western Zhou practiced a kind of openly unequal privilege law, i.e., the slavery law in which the slave owners enjoyed privileges. The "hierarchical division" of the Western Zhou was firstly manifested in the distinction between the two major classes of the exploiter and the working people, which was fixed and absolutely not to be transgressed: the nobles were always noble, the lowly were always lowly, and the gentleman was always in charge of the rule while the little man was in charge of the force. Within the aristocracy, the treatment varied according to the different ranks. Therefore, in the Western Zhou "rule of etiquette", the hierarchy is very strict, "the sky has ten days, there are ten people"; "different names, etiquette is not the same".