This book is an introduction in the very best sense of the word It provides the beginner with an accurate sophisticated yet accessible account & offers new insights & challenging perspectives to those who have more specialized knowledge Focusing on the period in Chinese philosophy that is surely most easily approachable & perhaps is most important it ranges over of rich set of competing options It also with admirable self-consciousness presents a number of daring attempts to relate those options to philosophical figures & movements from the West I recommend it very highly--Lee H Yearley Walter Y Evans-Wentz Professor Religious Studies Stanford University