Robert L. Chard, PhD (1990, University of California, Berkeley) is University Lecturer/Associate Professor in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St Anne's College. He has published on the visible culture of Confucianism in China and Japan.

This book presents extensive primary sources to reveal how Confucians in Early China parlay their knowledge of ritual into political power, from the ancient aristocratic culture of the Spring and Autumn era to the state religion of the Han empire.