A New Discussion on Shangshu Gaozong Rongri: Also on the Two Times Religious Reform in Shang and Zhou Dynasties and the Discovery of “the Subjects”

Gaozong Rongri（《高宗肜日》） aims at ' warning the subjects” instead of ' esteeming the subjects”. It emphasized that the task of the prince is to punishing and governing his subjects, and requires that all the previous princes are to be treated equal, which reflects recognition to the subjects by Shang Dynasty people differing from the Zhou people. Gaozong Rongri promotes Zhou people’s institution of sacrifices to ancestors in Shang Dynasty, and reflects two different forms of religious reform in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, although the chronicles are about events in Shang Dynasty. For the first time, it emphasized on the power of gods and the rules on the masses. For the second time, it discovered ' the subjects”, results in an unprecedented recognition and concern to the subjects as a whole force. The cultural difference between Shang and Zhou Dynasties should be understood in this point of view. The future studies on Shangshu（《尚书》） should attach importance to the difference of the ideas between Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and should probing the true ideas of Zhou people by avoiding ' explaining Shang with Zhou” fallacy.