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villages,” as Thomas Jefferson would phrase it. I would like to express my profoundest gratitude to Jonathan Chaves of George Washington University. It is with him that I began the serious and concerted study of Chinese literature and thought. He agreed to take me on as an after-hours student in 1995, while I was studying Russian at the Foreign Service Institute in Virginia in preparation for my posting to the American Consulate in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Ever since that time, I have been the beneficiary of his vast mind and endless generosity. Thanks also go to my colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for their friendship and support, especially Timothy Lang for his very helpful comments on portions of the manuscript, Amanda Seaman for her encouragement and wise counsel, and Zhongwei Shen for his strong support and crucial advice; to Toni Tan, David Armstrong, and Michelle Wright at Cambria Press for their encouragement and support; to Paul W. Kroll for helpful comments on an early version of a portion of the manuscript; and finally to Sean Gilsdorf for some very helpful advice. Carol Schneider generously offered her time and a great number of helpful editorial suggestions for which I am most thankful. My daughter Sarah deserves high praise for the stoic good cheer with which she endured frequent moves around the world during our years in diplomatic service and during my academic career. Finally, I would like to thank most deeply my wife, Tomi. Without her constant, indefatigable confidence and support over the course of the many phases of our life together, no accomplishment such as this would ever have been possible. It is to her that I dedicate this book.