The aristocracy ranks (juewei, 爵位) in the Zhou Dynasty were associated with the seating order (xici, 席次) and wine vessels (jiujue, 酒爵) used at a drinking ceremony. The Zhou aristocracy ranks were also linked with drinking ceremonies of merit-awarding like Yinzhi (饮至, a drinking ceremony of victory). Such systems as Cexun (策勋,recording one’s military merits on bamboo or wooden slips ), Dashang (大赏, bestowing great rewards), shuxun (书勋, conferring orders ), shufu (书服, conferring costumes), and shuming (书名, conferring aristocratic titles), which were all related to Yinzhi, giving a general picture of the development of the military merit system in the Zhou Dynasty. As there was an inner consistency among aristocratic orders (班位), bureaucratic orders (命数) and aristocracy ranks, a promotion caused by military merits actually meant a promotion of aristocracy ranks.