The monograph is a collection of essays read in the 1992 Heidelberg Conference on Rhetorical Analysis of Biblical Documents, and is dedicated to Professor Wilhelm Wuellner, who has internationally promoted the rhetorical reading of Scripture since the 1970s.

美國歷史學家史景遷（Jonathan Spence)在北京大學的一次演講裡指出，打從十六世紀以還，在中西文化交流的過程中，西方對中國形象的塑造，往往建基於西方本身的需要和問題，而非中國的客觀現實。