本文寫作的主旨，即在考證商代的「母」與「女」這兩個親屬稱謂的內涵及其相關的問題。作者在早年曾發表有關商代宗族、宗廟、傳宗法、傳位法，及婚制等方面的論文多種。近年來則開始對商代個別的親屬稱謂如：父、子、婦作出了研討。本文係就此一工作方向，再往前推進。 作者首先著手釐清母女二字異字同形的現象，及其相關的各種音假、音變的關係；此為第一節。然後作者開始討論女字作一般語詞，及作親屬稱謂的詞義、詞用及其所指稱的對象。在第三、四節中，作者將研討母字與其前後綴所組成的三種詞型，及其前後綴的功能，從而整理出商代母者的制度，及其與周代承先啟後的關係。在第五節中，作者論及商代的母者同時為人「婦」時之角色內涵。在結語中，作者將以上各部分的研究結果作了一個摘要。

The author makes new inquires into the Shang kinship systems here, as the published a series of papers before with regard to the Shang descent, inheritance, marriage, lineage organizations, ancestral temples as well as to the father and son relationship in the Shang dynasty. The first problem the author has to deal with is the polysemous phenomenon of the Shang inscription niu, which was used to denote both mother (母 mu) and daughter (女 niu). He elucidates the process of phonological and etymological changes of niu and explains how the inscription mu derived from niu. He also points out that during the Shang dynasty niu like tze (子 son) was classificatory when used as a kinship appellation, and that when niu was not used as a kinship terminology, it meant “female” or “feminine”. Niu could also feminize the word by using it as the word's side radical. Because Shang people were usually called by the place name of one's residence, and when the character niu was added to such a place name as its side radical, it indicated that the name bearer was a female. These feminized names were the predecessors of ancient Chinese hsing (姓). By studynig the different types of suffix and prefix of mu, the author points out that Shang people used ssu (司), ta (大), chung (中), hsiao (小) etc. to distinguish mu's ranks in their families, as they were polygamous. Usually a Shang mu would carry both her father's family name and her husbanad's name to show where she came from and where she went to. Her name revealed her position in the society of that time. During the late Shang period, not only husband's name but also husband's father's family name might appear together in a mu's name. This type of naming system helped to form the practice of carrying hsing by women and shih (氏) by men in the Chou times. Finally, the author points out that during the Shang dynasty only two celestial stems were used to name female ancestors' temples. Perhaps, it had certain connection with the binary phenomenon of Shang kings' posthumous names and with the Shang fu-ku (祔姑 deceased daughter-in-law's tablet placed into deceased mother-in-law's temple) tradition.