Continued from "Understanding the Western Zhou Dynasty: The Four Systems of Jingtian, Feudalism, Patriarchy, and Ritual Music (1)".
The patriarchal system was glued to the feudal system. It consists of three small systems, one is the patriarchal system;The second is monogamy and polygonal concubinage;The third is the primogeniture system. The core is the primogeniture system
The first estimate to be established was patriarchy。The patrilineal clan is this set, at home it is the father and the ancestor in a word, in the clan it is the patriarch, and in the country it is the monarch.
The person in power is determined, but the heir is not determined. Before the Zhou Dynasty, there were both fathers and sons (sons may not be the so-called eldest sons), and brothers and brothers, which were easy to cause conflicts in the transfer of power and cause the decline of the family and the country, and the rebellion of the Ninth Dynasty in the middle of the Shang Dynasty originated from this. Thus the primogeniture system was born.
When it comes to the primogeniture inheritance system, it can't bypass the husband and wife system of the Western Zhou Dynasty——— monogamy and multiple concubines, because the eldest son refers to the first son born to the wife。Regardless of whether there is a son in front of him, the first son born to the wife will be the eldest son.
The wife and the husband are comparable, as the so-called family is right, the wife has a considerable power and status, so there can only be one wife, that is, the wife. On the other hand, concubines, the most primitive concubines are female slaves, without status, and later evolved into commoner women, singing and dancing girls, maidservants, etc., although there are also large wives, but concubines can not have the status of more than the wife, just as the status of the concubine must be lower than the queen.
Such a difference has also caused the wife to be married to a large sedan chair, and the scenery is beautiful. The concubine is called Na, and the door to the house can only be a small door, a side door, and a back door. Therefore, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was stipulated that only one wife could be one, and the concubines could be many, and the lowest-ranking nobles could also have one wife and one concubine.
The wife's eldest son is called the eldest son, and the other sons are all called the second son, and the son born to the concubine can only be called the concubine。In terms of inheritance, the first in line is the eldest son, the second in line is the second son, and the last will be the turn of the concubine. The reason for the low status of the concubine comes from his mother, who has many concubines and low status.
Combined with the feudal system, the eldest son of the king of Zhou inherited the throne, power and territory, and the other sons were divided into vassals or ministers of the king of Zhou. The eldest son of the prince inherited the title, power and state of the prince, and the other sons were divided into princes to become doctors, or to be the princes' retainers. The eldest son of the doctor inherited the position and the estate, and the other sons could only be called nobles with noble status and no aristocratic power, and became the retainers of the doctor.
In addition,In the patriarchal system, there are also large and small sects。The large sect refers to the clan where the eldest son of the eldest son belongs, and the small sect is the clan where the second son and concubine are separated from the large sect. The large sect has the right to manage the small sect, and the small sect must obey the authority of the large sect. For example, the major sect of the Zhou Dynasty is the Zhou clan, the patriarch is the king of Zhou, and the eldest son inherits it after his death, and the other sons are divided and can set up their own clans, and such clans are small clans.
That is to say, the king of Zhou is the patriarch of the large sect of the Zhou clan, and the princes are the patriarchs of the small sect of the Zhou clan;The small sect of the princes is a large sect in the country, and the clan established by the son who is divided into a doctor is a small sect;The doctor's small clan is a large clan within the caiyi, and those sons who have not inherited the caiyi to establish a small clan are small clans. Large and small sects are wrapped layer by layer to build the clan level of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The ritual system is a symbol of status, and those who have status have corresponding ritual treatment, and those who have no status have nothing. Rite is ritual and utensils, music is ** and dance. Lile is a set of standards for thoughts, words and deeds, and all people are the product of standardization.
For example, the ritual utensils used in sacrifices, the Son of Heaven nine tripods and eight tripods (guǐ), the princes seven tripods and six tripods, the doctors five tripods and four tripods, and the scholars three tripods and two tripods, all of which are odd tripods and even numbers. The music and dance during the sacrifice, the Son of Heaven eight 佾 (yì, the number of dancing girls), the princes six hundred, the doctor four hundred, and the scholar two 佾. The ceremonial clothes worn by the sacrificial priests are the twelve (liú, which is a string of beads hanging in front of the crown), the princes are nine, the upper doctor is seven, and the lower doctor is five.
One of the important points of the ritual system is that it is possible to distinguish the difference in status and rank at a glance, and in the aristocratic era, the difference in rank means everything。The same clothes, the same words and deeds, the same rituals, and the same utensils are unacceptable to the natural aristocracy. So there has to be a conspicuous difference, a distinctive difference, to separate the nobility from the crowd.
In the later evolution, Lile gradually became synonymous with wisdom and morality。Those who enjoy the pleasures are not only noble, but also full of wisdom and high morals. Therefore, Confucius and his hometown emphasize etiquette and music the most.
The Jingtian system was the foundation of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the feudal system and the patriarchal system constructed the rule of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the ritual music was the means by which the Western Zhou Dynasty governed the world. The four major systems taken together are the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty. The abandonment of the Ida system led to the burial of the feudal system, the collapse of patriarchy and ritual music, and a series of chemical reactions occurred in the great changes of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.