"This excellent work deals with a critical issue of our time, the understanding of authority in culture. The topic is of great importance to every one of us, particularly in the context of the globalization of culture. To understand the processes going on around us, we must be able to understand the nature of authority as it is understood historically, within a multiplicity of cultures, and contemporarily, within a world of both diminishing and increasing boundaries. The topic itself stretches across our own disciplinary boundaries, marking its relevancy for philosophy, religion, political science, and history. What is addressed here is crosscutting and cutting edge in its significance." — Rodney L. Taylor, author of The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Confucianism"A rich and diverse introduction to how Confucians have thought about their tradition and lives for more than twenty-five hundred years, this fine book will certainly provoke thought in those who believe that they know something already about the topic of the formation of Confucian self-identity."— John H. Berthrong, coauthor of Confucianism: A Short Introduction