This book is about the interaction of history, theology and art and the iconography of the Virgin Mary in China from the Yuan dynasty to the early 20th century. The Catholic Church has a long history in China punctuated by societal and political upheavals.

Wang Gungwu is a successful, honoured educator and public servant who has lived through the remarkable transformation of Asian economies and polities since the end of the second world war.

Professor Wang Gungwu surveys the main threads of China's long history, particularly the Confucian concept of tianxia ("all under heaven"), a universalistic notion for good governance.