Quote by Zhuangzi: “Once you have the fish, you can forget the trap.”

Tools, words, and methods are only means to reach something beyond themselves. Once you have what you were really seeking — understanding, presence, a goal — you no longer need to cling to the way you got there. Let go of the vehicle once you've arrived.

Zhuangzi wrote during the Warring States period in China, when competing philosophical schools — Confucian, Mohist, Legalist, and Taoist — were all vying for influence at various courts. His approach was unique in using absurdist stories and jokes to make philosophical points, resisting the systematic style favored by his contemporaries.

Chinese Taoist philosopher of the fourth century BCE whose writings form the second major text of Taoism after the Tao Te Ching. Born in the state of Song, he rejected official positions and preferred parable and paradox to systematic argument. The Zhuangzi text, named after him, remains one of the most imaginative works in Chinese literature.