Original, sound, and stimulating...Scholars of classical Chinese value systems will be especially interested in Powers’ animadversions on such abstract notions as “Natural Order” (ziran: tzu-jan), “dialectics of agency” (wuwei: sic), and “Dao and Public Policy”...[Pattern and Person] is of broad interdisciplinary interest to scholars of Asian thought and religion and the cross-cultural study of civilizations.
   --Russell Kirkland, Religious Studies Review

This book is an elegant and scholarly monograph...Powers, a distinguished art historian, has impeccable credentials in his field and is at his best when dealing directly with his data. These include both a comprehensive selection of classical texts and specific graphic motifs that appear on a variety of artifacts including vehicles, utensils, caskets, and personal furnishings...Powers’s arguments are sound, his scholarship excellent, and his examples persuasive...Pattern and Person is an excellent resource for all students of Chinese art history and premodern Chinese history in general, and should also serve as a valuable reader’s guide to the field of critical theory in art history.
   --Eric Cunningham, The Historian

Martin J. Powers is Professor of Art History, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.