China Traditional Culture and Sacrificial Knowledge

These are very early people. They believe that the soul of their ancestors is still there, and they want to worship and pay attention to the ancestral graves after death. This is called the root cause, so it has been passed down to the present.

Zhou people first lived in the Loess Plateau north of Weishui and had a long tradition of agricultural life. Clan relations played a prominent role in Zhou people's social life and became the basis for Zhou people to establish a country with patriarchal clan system. The founder of the patriarchal clan system in the Western Zhou Dynasty was Duke Zhou. The Duke of Zhou published "Rites and Music", which China people have always attached great importance to. The most important content of ritual and music system is to establish patriarchal clan system.

In Shang dynasty, brotherhood was the main practice, that is, the first heir after the death of the eldest brother was the younger brother, which reflected that the influence of matriarchal clan society still existed in Shang dynasty. After all, it was not until the Five Kings after Kangding in Shang Dynasty that the father-son communication mode was stabilized. Following Zhou Chengwang, the son of Zhou Wuwang, the Duke of Zhou put forward and implemented a fixed eldest son inheritance system in the Zhou Dynasty. The ancients said, "Yin and Tao kiss each other, and Zhou and Tao respect each other". Kissing is to build a younger brother, and respect is to build a position.

And this successor is the Lord of the world and the highest political ruler. From the clan point of view, he is also the largest patriarch in the world. The rulers of the Western Zhou Dynasty were divided into four grades: emperor, vassal, doctor and scholar. The eldest son of the Emperor inherited the status of the Emperor and became the largest clan leader, while the sons of the other concubines were made princes and small clans.

Because the patriarchal clan system distinguishes the hierarchical relationship between the descendants of the same clan by blood relationship, so as to maintain the unity of the clan, it attaches great importance to respecting ancestors. Sacrifice in ancestral temple is an important means to maintain clan unity. The development of ancestral temple sacrifice has formed the traditional ritual and music culture in China.

At the same time, the strict ancestral temple sacrifice system in the Zhou Dynasty also played an important role in maintaining the patriarchal clan system with the family as the core and consolidating the ruling regime. After entering the feudal society, this tradition was inherited by the rulers of past dynasties, and it has a developing trend. The construction of the palace also followed the system of "the left is always right" and continued until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

This kind of culture has not only shaped China people from generation to generation, but also influenced the countries around China, becoming a national spirit and feelings of home and country in the bones of China people.