In Ways of Heaven, Roel Sterckx, a professor of Chinese History, Science and Civilization at Cambridge University, has set out to produce an introduction to the world of ideas of early China, drawing heavily on the writings and teaching of China’s early great scholars Confucius, his disciple Laozi, Mencius, Mozi and others to produce a picture of the ideas that dominated the country from its earlier periods, starting with the Shang Dynasty (1600-1045 BCE) and working forward in detail through the centuries.