ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book began in the fall of 2013 as a workshop on Li Zhi titled “Writing, Virtues, and Social Change in Sixteenth-Century China.” We gratefully acknowledge the friends and colleagues who participated; their ideas can be found everywhere in these pages. We thank the Division of the Humanities at the University of Chicago for generously sponsoring the workshop. During the long journey between that gathering and the shaping of this book’s chapters, we benefited from the comments and criticism of our external reviewers. We are grateful to Yuhang Li for suggesting the cover image, Li Haiyang for granting us permission to use his artwork, and Katrina Noble for designing a cover that so aptly expresses Li Zhi’s impishness. Cho-Chien Feng provided thoughtful and meticulous assistance on the glossary and bibliography. The project would not have been possible without the encouraging guidance of our editor, Lorri Hagman, and the skill of our copyeditor, Judith Hoover. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Department of Theological Studies at St. Louis University, the Division of the Humanities at the University of Chicago, and the Wallace Scholarly Activities Fund at Macalester College, the Joseph and Lauren Allen Fund, and the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

This book is dedicated to provocative intellectuals the world over, in gratitude for the bold intellectual exchanges they engage in and inspire.