This chapter introduces the aim and scope of the book as well as its guiding theoretical framework. Although Confucian political theory has emerged as an important field in political theory, it has been propelled by contemporary Confucian political theory and the classical Confucian theory of Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi, largely sidelining Neo-Confucianism, which profoundly affected East Asian politics and society since the twelfth century. This chapter shows the critical importance of filling this gap by providing an overview of the rise and development of Neo-Confucian politics and political theory in traditional Korea, with a special focus on how Korean Neo-Confucians struggled to maintain the Public Way, predicated on the principle of righteousness, against all sorts of contingencies. This chapter also provides a theoretical framework – composed of “moral economy” and “contingency” – to shed new light on the unfolding of Korean Neo-Confucian politics in both domestic and interstate contexts.