Dr. Margaret J. Pearson studied Chinese literature with Hellmut Wilhelm, and history with Jack Dull and Chan Hok-la. She has taught Chinese history and thought for over forty years at Skidmore College, the New School for Social Research, Pace University, State University of New York (Albany) and Marymount Manhattan College. She has been elected to life membership at Clare Hall, Cambridge University and to membership in the Early China Seminar at Columbia University.
Dr. John S. Major, formerly professor of Asian studies at Dartmouth College, is an independent scholar based in New York City. He has published extensively in the field of early Chinese intellectual history, including a translation of the Huainanzi.