What is knowledge, why is it valuable, and how might it be cultivated? Barry Allen’s new book carefully considers the problem of knowledge in a range of Chinese philosophical discourses. Taking on the work of Confucians, Daoists, military theorists, Chan Buddhists, Neo-Confucian philosophers, and others, Vanishing into Things: Knowledge in Chinese Tradition (Harvard University Press, 2015) looks at the common threads and important differences in the ways that scholars have attempted to conceptualize and articulate what it is to be a knowing being in the world. We had a chance to talk about the book for the New Books in East Asian Studies podcast, and you can listen to our conversation here.