本文借助於現代音樂考古學的發展成果以及古文字資料，試圖以宗周「雅」樂的名實制度的形成與嬗變為個案，從而作一嘗試性的探索。以音樂考古資料與現有文獻資料相印證，本文認為商周音樂文化的分布，特別是西周時期，基本上呈現了比較鮮明的地方性和民族性的差異。而這種地方或民族差異，以及文化交融所帶來歷史變化，並非簡單地直線型發展，相反，在兩種文化交織、衝突、整合之際，呈現了階段性的暫時倒退。 所謂「雅」就是「夏」，雅樂是先周時期周民族繼承夏文化逐漸發展形成的一種樂舞樂歌形式。「雅」樂從先周到春秋戰國之交經歷了三次比較重大的歷史性變化。第一次是在武王滅商以後，周初所制的「雅」樂已經接受了河洛地區殷人音樂文化，以及殷人在江漢一帶的音樂文化的影響。平王的東遷為「雅」樂帶來了第二次變化，此時，「雅」和「夏」的地理概念已由關中周王畿一帶擴大到中原地區，而「雅」樂同時也與中原諸夏音樂交相影響，熔鑄出新的「雅」樂體制。到了春秋中晚期，「雅」樂的泛化流布也為「雅」樂帶來新的發展，隨著周室的衰弱，王權的式微，晚商的餘韻，各諸侯國的民間世俗之樂，以及諸夏以外的四夷之樂逐漸取代了「雅」樂的位置，成為各國君卿士夫的好尚所在。這期間，不但源自世俗之樂與四夷之樂的新聲開始雅化，而「雅」樂也接受了新聲的部分影響，有一些俗化的痕跡，這可以說是「雅」樂的三變。從「雅」樂的三變可以看出，「雅」這個概念和樂制本身從先周時期，中經周初周公「制禮作樂」和平王的東遷，至戰國，伴隨著周代禮制的嬗代流變，也經歷了源、流、變三個階段的發展變化。然而，對於「雅」樂內容、制度及其作用，我們目前所知主要是戰國前後的文獻所描述的。其中尤以三《禮》──《周禮》、《儀禮》和《禮記》中的描述較為詳盡。而關於《周禮》和小戴《禮記》的成書年代，目前大多數學者的說法是從戰國到西漢初這一段時間內。三《禮》本出於七十子後學，故本文認為《周禮》和《禮記》中所描述的樂制並不完全是當時樂制的真實反映，乃是以春秋時期融會了世俗之樂的影響的「雅」樂為本加以理想化而形成的。因此，《周禮》與《禮記》中所描述樂制既含有歷史所賦予的名實變異，又摻加了作者以儒者的角度對理想樂制的想像。它與宗周「雅」樂之間當然是同中有異，有相當的距離。

　　　　　Historical records passed down to us from the pre-Han times ascribe unanimously the establishment of ya music and its institutional definitions to the Duke of Chou, one of the founders of the Chou dynasty. In fact, our knowledge of the contents, institutions, and functions of ya music has been influenced and limited by the depictions preserved in Warring States and later documentary sources, such as the ceremonial books and other philosophical works composed between early Warring States and the late Han. It is conceivable that these works include the conjectures of their authors. Two types of falsification may be involved in the formation of the so-called ya musical institutions depicted in these early documentary sources. First of all, the authors and compilers of these works may have reconstructed diachronic variations, such as the standardization and refinement of musical institutions other than ya music and the partial secularization of earlier ya music. Secondly, they may also have idealized and consciously re-invented ya music in accordance with their own Confucian values and ritualistic codes. The present paper seeks to explore the formative reality of the ritual music of Chou in light of archeo-musical evidence and paleographic analysis. It argues that ya music was by no means created single-handedly in a short span of time, as conventionally held by scholars, but that it was rather a creation, with all its institutional definition and refinement, forged during a much longer period of time by generations of the Chou rulers and musicians. This study also questions the extent of the sphere of influence of the ya musical institution. The conventional theory holds that it was widely spread in the entire domain of the Western Chou, including the heartland of the former Shang dynasty and other feudal states subject to the Chou. Archeo-musical investigation of the regional features of the central domain of Chou musical culture, however, proves that musical abundance and refinement, differing typologically from other areas of the Western Chou domain, characterized the Kuan-chung area where Tsung-Chou was seated. It is therefore plausible that musical contacts between the Shang and Chou resulted in two different paths of transformation. On the one hand, in the immediate domain of the Chou, ya music emerged, gradually developed, and became systematized as time went by. Institutionalization of ya music, however, took two centuries to reach maturity. On the other hand, in the Central Plains (the former Shang domain), ya music did not spread successfully anywhere other than in Kuan-chung until the dynastic transition between the Western Chou and the Eastern Chou.