A Study on the System of Bronze Ritual Vessels and Musical Instruments During the Eastern Zhou Period in Southeastern Shandong

Abstract

The ritual and music system of Zhou Dynasty took bronze ritual instruments as the material carrier, and built a hierarchical order
framework that ran through social hierarchy, sacrificial ritual and banquet regulation. Under the background of the decline of royal power in
Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the core ritual and music system of Central Plains produced structural changes in the process of transmission to the
peripheral regions, which became the core motivation of regional bronze ritual and music instrument system differentiation. Southeastern
Shandong is located in the east of Haidai, including Ju, Tan, Xiang and other Dongyi vassal states and the marginal cultural circle of southern
Shandong. The transitional nature of geographical location and the complexity of ethnic groups make its bronze ritual musical instrument
system present a unique form that is different from the core area of Central Plains and the hinterland of central Shandong. Based on regional
archaeological remains and ethnic cultural genealogy, the relevant research clarifies the generation mechanism, institutional structure and
evolution path of bronze ritual musical instruments in Southeastern Shandong and Eastern Zhou Dynasty, dismantles the three core modules
of ritual instruments hierarchical regulation, musical instruments arrangement system and instrument combination paradigm, and analyzes the
logic of inheritance, transformation and localization reconstruction of regional ritual and music system to Zhou system, which provides a new
analysis perspective for exploring the differentiated development of regional ritual and music system in Pre-Qin Dynasty.