Ritual and music system

The Chinese ritual and music system (Chinese: 礼乐制度; pinyin: Lǐ yuè zhìdù) is a social system that originated in the Zhou dynasty to maintain the social order. Together with the patriarchal system, it constituted the social system of the entire ancient China and had a great influence on the politics, culture, art and thought of later generations. The feudal system and the Well-field system were two other institutions that developed at that time. According to legend it was founded by the Duke of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou.

This article is about Chinese social system based around dance. For the dance itself, see Yayue.

The Ritual Music System is divided into two parts: ritual and music. The part of ritual mainly divides people's identity and social norms, and finally forms a hierarchy. The music part is mainly based on the hierarchical system of etiquette, using music to alleviate social conflicts.

The system developed from older shamanic traditions and was seen as having cosmological significance, it was seen as representing the balance between Yin and Yang and the Five Elements.

The regulations on ritual and music strengthened people's concept of hierarchy, played a symbolic role in establishing authority, alongside standardizing rule across the civilization.

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