籍田礼作为农业社会生活中十分重要的仪式，在王朝政治中一直被纳入核心的天子礼制而历代延续，这一方面有赖于其本身所具有的古老渊源与文献材料中强调的政治意涵，另一方面也有赖于历代学者围绕文献中的籍田典礼所展开的有关其现实价值的讨论。正是在经学兴盛的汉代，学者进行了广泛的“以《诗》证礼”的实践；郑玄更是通释《三礼》，在形成完善的礼学思想后，依托《毛诗》系统开始了“以礼解《诗》”的过程。而籍田典礼，由于其兼有与祭祀、农事相关联的意义，在郑玄关于理想的王朝礼制建构中，具有突出的地位。

“籍田之谷”所具有的作为“上帝之粢盛”的神圣性作用已为诸多文献所证实，而郑玄在《诗序》“刺幽王”的基础上，选择将《信南山》《甫田》等诗篇的内容理解为可以与《周礼》井田制相对应的描述，和学界将之与籍田联系的普遍认知不同。这首先来自于其笺《诗》时对于王道政教的关注，因而希望在诗篇的解释中融入其依照《周礼》所构建的井田制理论：其以乡遂田制通于公邑，直接打破了《司马法》以三百里为国野分界的一般认知；并通过对乡遂、都鄙贡赋制度的明确，将畿内都鄙、乡遂共同纳入统一的管理体制当中；联系汉代土地兼并问题日益突出的现实因素，郑玄大体承接王莽主张，以田租、即土地税为“九贡”之一，以“九赋”为人口税，增强了井田制征收的规范性。其次，郑笺既已明确畿内行贡法，不存在行助法的“公田”，“借民力而耕”的“籍田”在制度层面得与一般的田地相区别。

在《月令》及《左传》的记述中，籍田典礼是直承郊祀仪式而下的，郑玄依照此种仪式顺序，在《毛诗笺》中通过对籍田仪式所祭对象及举行时间的强调，赋予了籍田典礼得以与祭天的郊祀相匹配的政治内涵。在秦汉以来神农信仰的不断发展之下，郑玄一方面在礼书注中构建了“田祖—先啬—神农”与“司啬—后稷”这两个对等关系，另一方面又对《閟宫》《思文》《生民》三篇进行通贯解释，使得原本具备成为农神条件的后稷逐步被排除在农祀活动的核心地位之外；同时，他在对《甫田》的笺释中明确了籍田礼祭祀对象应为先啬神农，并视后稷为禹“家天下”之后周家的受命始祖，借助配祀制度将之框定在了祭天的郊祀礼之下。后稷在郊祀环节中的配祀身份对于塑造周王朝正统性及合法性有着重要的作用，这也使得“郊祀—籍田”这一祭祀典礼呈现出由祭天至祈农事、由天神至人鬼的尊天尊祖重农的完整结构。

此外，对于籍田典礼具体举行时间的说明也是郑玄籍田礼论说中的重要一环。他在《毛诗笺》中，将《左传》所说“郊而后耕”更改为“郊后始耕”，强调籍礼的“始耕”意涵。按礼书的相关讨论，于夏正建寅之月，郊祀用辛日，是为显示人君齊戒自新的尊天之意；而籍礼则用亥辰，这是为将籍田礼和此月发生于“亥”辰的日月相会勾连起来，天子于此“可耕之候”，顺应阴阳、天地法则行亲耕仪式，并进而令田官开启农事活动，正体现对于天道自然、阴阳时序的遵循，此即“始耕”之第一义。同时，在郑笺的论述中，周王朝既已通过郊天配祀制度明确天命在周，当施政令于诸侯国以示君臣之义；郑笺《臣工》，即是将诗篇所记理解为周王在籍田亲耕之后、诸侯将归之时，对于诸侯之官的直接敕戒，天子的籍田亲耕因而在仪式层面具备了“申饬王章”于诸侯国的指令性意义，此为“始耕”之第二义。

As a very important ceremony in agricultural life, the Jietian Ceremony has been included in the core of the ritual system of the Emperor in dynastic politics and continued through the generations, which on the one hand depends on its own ancient origin and political significance emphasized in literature materials, on the other hand depends on the scholars of all ages around the discussion of the practical value of the Jietian Ceremony in literature. It was in the Han Dynasty when the study of Confucian classics flourished that scholars carried out extensive practice of "testifying rites with Poems". Zheng Xuan also supplied annotations to the three books of rites, and then started a practice known as “testifying Poems with rites” in his Explanations of Maoshi. The Jietian Ceremony, because of its related significance to sacrificial practices and farming, has a prominent position in Zheng Xuan's construction of the ideal dynasty ritual system.

The holiness of the grain of Jietian as a tribute to God is confirmed by many books of literature. On the basic understanding of "to Satirize King You" in Shi Xu, Zheng Xuan construed the poems of Xinnanshan and Futian as being compatible with the well field system in Zhou Li, which is different from the common understanding that those are linked to Jietian. This kind of opinion first came from his attention to the benevolent government in the poems, so he hoped to integrate his theory of well field system in the interpretation of the poems according to Zhou Li. He directly broke the general cognition of the Sima Law that the three hundred miles away from the heartland of the state was the boundary between the state and the field. With the clear tribute system of Xiangsui and Dubi, both are put into the unified management system; And in connection with the increasingly prominent practical factors of land annexation in the Han Dynasty, Zheng Xuan generally followed Wang Mang's proposition, taking the land rent as one of the "Jiu Gong" and the population tax as the "Jiu Fu", which enhanced the normative role of the well field system. Secondly, Zheng xuan has already made it clear in his Explanations of Maoshi that there is no "public field" that practices tribute law, and thus the "Jietian" that "cultivates with the help of the people" has to be different from ordinary fields at the institutional level.

The Jietian Ceremony was set after the Suburb Ritual in Yueling and Zuozhuan. According to this order, Zheng Xuan emphasised the sacrificial object and the time of the Jietian Ceremony to make it important enough to well match the Suburb Ritual. With the continuous development of the faith of Shen Nong since the Qin and Han dynasties, Zheng Xuan on the one hand, built up two equivalence relations, "Tian Zu - Xian Se - Shen Nong" and "Si Se - Hou Ji", in his notes of the books of rites. On the other hand, using the special interpretations of three poems, Bigong, Siwen and Shengmin, he made Hou Ji gradually be left out of the core of the agricultural worship activities. At the same time, in his interpretation of Futian, he made it clear that the sacrificial object of the Jietian ceremony should be Shen Nong, and regarded Hou Ji as the Ancestor of the Zhou family since Xia Yu had made his own family dominate the world. With the help of the sacrificial system, he defined Hou Ji as the one who was sacrificed within the Suburb Ritual of God. This sacrificial status of Hou Ji in the Suburb Ritual played an important role in shaping the legitimacy and legitimacy of the Zhou dynasty, which also made the order of "the Suburb Ritual - the Jietian Ceremony" present a complete structure from offering sacrifices to God to praying for a good harvest, from God to ghost, which shows the attitude of respecting God, ancestors and agriculture.

The explanation of the specific time of the Jietian Ceremony is also an important part of Zheng Xuan's theory of the Jietian Ceremony. He changed the expression of the Jietian Ceremony from “to cultivate after the Suburb Ritual” in Zuozhuan to “to start cultivating after the Suburb Ritual” in his explanations of Maoshi, which clarifies its meaning of "the beginning to cultivate". According to the related discussion in the books of rites, the Suburb Ritual is held on the day of Xin, the month of Jianyin in the lunar calendar, which requires the Emperor to fast for a brand-new-self and show his godliness. And the Jietian Ceremony should be held on the day of Hai, which helps to connect the Jietian Ceremony with the meeting of the Sun and the Moon occurring in Hai Chen in this month. In this "cultivable time", the Emperor complies with the movement of Yin and Yang, and also the natural law of heaven and earth, to do farming himeself, and then makes the officials carry out farming activities. That reflected the obeyance of the natural laws, which is its first meaning of "the beginning to cultivate". At the same time, in Zheng Xuan's opinion, after announcing that their rule was ordained by God through the system of sacrifice in the Suburb Ritual, the Zhou dynasty should issue decrees in all the states to suggest the righteousness between the monarch and his ministers. He regarded the poem of Chengong as a record of the direct commend towards the Dukes’ officials issued by the Emperor after the Jietian Ceremony, when Dukes were about to return to their fields. Therefore, the Jietian Ceremony has got the prescriptive significance of "declaring the Emperor's order" to the vassal states at the ceremonial level, which was its second meaning of "the beginning to cultivate".