Professor Xinzhong Yao is a lecturer, author and editor of the Encyclopaedia of Confucianism. He is currently director of the King's China Institute at King's College London. Prior to this appointment, Professor Yao was Professor of Religion and Ethics at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and a senior research fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre, University of Oxford.
Professor Yao has written a number of influential books and articles on the subject of Confucianism, including comparative studies with Christianity. In 1998, in recognition of his work promoting Confucianism in the UK, he was made honorary President of the Confucian Academy in Hong Kong.