Book excerpt: The political and cultural power of Confucianism is nowhere more apparent than in ritual. Confucian-educated officials proficient in Ritual Learning shape the ritual institutions that express dynastic legitimacy. This book follows the workings of Ritual Learning during the first three centuries of the Common Era, a time marked by three dynastic changes and difficult recovery of the ritual order under new regimes. Contrary to common understanding, the Eastern Han is a time of flux, uncertainty, and neglect in Confucian ritual forms, and the following third century is an era when Confucian dominance over imperial ritual crystallized as never before.