Elizabeth Childs-Johnson is a specialist in ancient Chinese art, archaeology, paleography, and religion. Her research focuses on a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to identifying belief systems in early China, specifically covering late Neolithic Jade Age through the Bronze Age, ca. 3500-3rd century BCE. She currently holds the position of Research Professor at the Institute of Asian Studies, Old Dominion University.

John S. Major taught at Dartmouth from 1971 to 1984, and since then has been an independent scholar based in New York. A leading authority on ancient Chinese religion and cosmology, he is also a highly regarded translator of classical texts. Much of his work, like the present volume, has been collaborative.