Peter Nancarrow is an English writer and polymath. He is a scientist, linguist, expert in software development and the application of information technology, and teacher of Mandarin Chinese and Chinese calligraphy. After graduating in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, he practised for six years as a Chartered Patent Agent before returning to Cambridge to study modern and Classical Chinese. While working there as a research associate he invented a device for entering Chinese character texts into data systems, later using this as a "keyboard" for a computer terminal in computational linguistic research. For most of this period he also taught Classical Chinese in the University. He speaks fluent French, Scandinavian languages, and Italian, and has a good knowledge of German and Russian. His other interests range from photography and music to dry-stone walling, with a view to maintaining the walls in his garden. The author of Early China and the Wall, published by Cambridge University Press, Peter Nancarrow has also written widely for journals and international conference papers. This lucid introduction to Chinese philosophy is a distillation of his great fund of knowledge of Chinese thought and civilization.