《周礼》所载大师礼有自成体系的祭祀内容。按照时序,这些祭祀可分为出军前、军中和还师后的祭祀三个部分,包含祭社、告庙、设军社、齐车载主(军社和迁庙主)、祭行神、祭上帝、祭山川、献捷礼等。祭祀对象上,天神、地祇、人鬼皆有,涵盖了国家祭祀系统主要的神灵。这些祭祀本质上是社会控制的一种方式,祭祀神灵以获得福佑是人为建立的因果关系,这种关系是通过国家的权威和军队的威严来构筑和解释的,它为提高军队的战斗力提供了重要保证,也有利于巩固天子与诸侯的政治地位。
There is a self-contained system of sacrificial rituals in Dashi ceremonies recorded in Zhou Li.The sacrificial rituals can be divided into three parts according to the time,which performed before the armed forces' setting out,while in the war and after their returning back,including offering sacrifices to the Sheshen,to the ancestral temple,to the Xingshen,to the god and to the mountains,setting up Junshe,putting zhu in Zhaiche(Junshe and Qianmiao zhu)and the performing Xianjie ceremonies.The ritual objects include not only the celestial immortals and the immortals of the land,but also the ghosts,covering all the main immortals within the national system of offering sacrifices.Offering sacrifices as a ceremony was a kind of social control in nature.Offering sacrifices to the immortals and bringing blessing constituted a relationship of cause and effect artificially,which was consolidated and interpreted by national authority and the majesty of the armed force.It played a significant role in improving the fighting capacity of the armed forces and strengthening the political position of the monarchs,the dukes and princes.