The book arose from Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-Djen's contribution to the Conference on Early Civilizations in Asia and Mesoamerica, Mexico, 1977. It was originally intended for publication in a conference volume entitled 'The Smoking Mirror; Early Asian and Amerindian Civilisations' However, due to the delay in publication of the book, Needham and Lu offered the work various journals for publication. It was eventually published in 1985 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., Singapore.