The Music in Western Zhou Dynasty and Its Aesthetics

The Western Zhou is the preliminary period of Chinese ritual and musical civilization,and also the period when poetry,rite and music begin to influence Chinese society comprehensively.Music not only concerns each aspect of the aristocratic life,but also the indispensible part in national ceremony.From professional musician,aristocratic off springs to rulers of the state,the metaphor of music as a technique,virtue to politics can be seen.The simultaneous promotion of rite and music transformed from the restriction of music on the part of rite to the fusion and transcendence of music of rite.The politics of rite and music in Western Zhou Dynasty is a metaphorical or symbolic politics by the adoption of poetry,rite and music.These three penetrate the political activity in their real form,acting as the political metaphor as well as method of realization of political aim.The hierarchy relation of the three leads man to a transcendental realm of aesthetics;the close relation between music and politics gives rise to the aesthetic charm of politics,which begins the excessiveness of poetic politics in China afterwards.