父與子是商代一對主要的親屬稱謂，迄今依然使用不輟。 商代的父常在祭祀卜辭中出現；商代的子則是一群在當時政壇上相當活躍的人物。以往學者對甲骨文和殷金文中的父與子多有所探討。而近年來又出土一批「子卜辭」，更擴大了「子」的研究範圍。為進一步揭示父與子及父子關係的真相，作者擬從親屬稱謂制度的角度，來進行分析；作者將特別注意父與子在商代不同的語文層次，包括父子分別作為詞素、詞或字形素，及其在親屬稱謂系統中，因各種組合或聯想關係而產生的義涵上的變化。全文共分八節，前二節討論父，後六節討論子，並從子的身上看商代的父子關係。

　　　　　During the Shang dynasty, the term for father (fu 父) was classificatory, reffering not only to noe's own father but also to all one's father's brothers. Likewise, the term zi 子 could refer to one's brothers' sons. Concomitant with such a father-son relationship was the Shang system of descent and inheritance, in which direct and lateral lines were not distinguished. According to the Book of History 史記, between the sixth to the tenth generation, the royal Shang house experience succession disputes nine times, with brothers and sons struggling against one another for the throne. Thus the Shang king of the eleventh generation decided to end the traditional system and undertook reforms. He first granted the title Di 帝 to the deceased kings who had enthroned sons. From the title Di, the royal house had developed the concept of di 嫡, i.e., direct (descent) and established a contrast with the concept of jie 介, i.e., lateral (descent). The Shang people also gave new meaning to the the work kao 考, and turned it into a descriptive kinship term able to distinguish direct and lateral lines) for "father" (deceased only). It took three generations and five kings to complete the reform. As a result, the descent and inheritance (succession) systems of the royal Shang no longer vacillated between brothers and sons. In comparison with the term fu, the term zi 子 is harder to comprehend. This because at the time the word was coined, the values for distinguishing between direct and lateral, male and female, son and daughter, young and adult were not given. Thus it is necessary to examine the word's syntagmatic as well as paradigmatic relationships with other words at different levels of lauguage including at least the word, the morphene, and the formant levels. The author takes the words zi and n[] 女 in a binary relation, for example, and discusses whether and when the word zi refers to an adult or a youngster, a male or a female, a son or a daughter. The author also analyzes zi's direct or lateral values in relations to the term duozi 多子 or jiezi 介子, and zi's recognition and naming procedures, zi's seniority arrangement, lord and servant relations, and zi's becoming an honorable appellation as well as a title of rank the feudal lords. Indeed, the changes in zi's referents enhanced the word's significance.