Acknowledgements
I have worked on the translation presented in the present book within a research stay at Nanjing University in 2013/14. For insightful advice regarding difficult passages in the text I am deeply grateful and indebted to Prof. Yang Weizhong and his Ph.D. student Xie Fei. For further insightful advice I wish to express my gratitude to James A. Benn (McMaster University), Chan Wai Keung (Hong Kong Baptist University), Chien Li-kuei (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University), Daniel Getz (Bradley University), Hu Qiulei (Whitman College), Huang Chi-chiang (Hobart and William Smith Colleges), Jun Fang (Huron College), Edmund Lien (University of Washington), Richard John Lynn (University of Toronto), Meir Shahar (Tel Aviv University), Paul L. Swanson (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture), Albert Welter (University of Arizona), Wu Jiang (The University of Arizona), Xiong Cunrui (Western Michigan University), Yang Shao-yun (Denison University), Zhang Dewei (Sun Yat-sen University). For the competent proof reading of the entire translation I thank Li Helian (Guizhou Zhongyiyao daxue).