Clayton Ashton is researching the concept of ritual in early Chinese ethics, religion and political thought. Focusing on the writings of pre-Qin and Early Imperial China, he is currently exploring how the idea of ritual was combined with developing ideas about the body, emotions and human nature to create a nuanced system of ethics. His interests include ritual theory, virtue ethics, moral psychology and embodied cognition, with a particular interest in discovering meaningful points of intersection between these fields of study. His M.A. in Asian Studies was earned at UBC, and focused on the translation of archaeological texts from pre-Qin China.