About
筌 refers to a bamboo fish trap. Structurally, it is a phono-semantic compound: the upper radical 竹 (bamboo) indicates the material, while the lower component 全 (quán) provides the pronunciation. The character is best known from a Daoist parable in the Zhuangzi, which states that once the fish is caught, the trap (筌) is forgotten. This metaphor, discarding tools after achieving a goal, elevates 筌 from a simple object to a symbol of conceptual transcendence.