In the oracle inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty,collective names of many ancestors can be seen,each represents a distinct group of sacrifice accepters (ancestors). It is extremely important to identity the concrete meanings of these collective names. The identification of the connotation of Da Shi (Great Ancestors) is inspirational for us to detect the connotations of other collective names of ancestors. The results of the analyses to the oracle inscriptions about Da Shi and that of the researches done by the past scholars on the Da Shi issue showed that Da Shi means neither all of the lineal ancestors since King Shang Jia上甲 to the late father of the King who was making the divination,nor the six ancestors from King Shang Jia to King Shi Gui示癸 and Yuan Shi元示. "Zi Shang Jia Liu Da Shi自上甲六大示" was not equal to "Zi Shang Jia Liu Shi自上甲六示" ,while "Zi Shang Jia自上甲" was not equal to Da Shi. The collective name "Da Shi" did not only include the lineal ancestors whose name initiated with the character Da (大,or Tai); "Liu Da Shi (the Six Great Ancestors)" was the collective name of the five royal ancestors whose names were initiated with the character Da大,which were Da Yi大乙,Da Ding大丁,Da Jia大甲,Da Geng大庚 and Da Wu大戊 plus Shang Jia. Moreover,King Zhong Ding中丁 seems to ought to be included into Da Shi; the Qi Da Shi (the Seven Great Ancestors) would have been the five royal ancestors whose names were initiated with the character Da plus Kings Shang Jia and Zhong Ding.
