In the second hypothetical stage of the tipping-zhi or is substantiated by early Chinese texts. Rulers adopted the intriguing irrigation device for its symbolic meaning that warned against excess. By the late Warring States period (c. 475–221 BCE), this seemingly "automated" tilting vessel was credited with enough cultural significance, or at least "value as a curiosity", to be displayed in the ancestral shrine of Duke Huan of Lu (d. 694 BCE), which seemed plausible to the redactors of both Daoist and Confucian classics. Although Confucius (d. 479 BCE) had previously heard of the tipping-zhi, he had never seen one until visiting Huan's shrine, which implies that they had not been in common use for centuries during the Eastern Zhou period. This point is confirmed by the (, "urging goblet") that the version describes as a possession of the mythological kings, indicating that Duke Huan was not considered ancient enough to be associated with the uncommon tipping-zhi. Around the time when popular usage of the tipping-zhi was dying out, Zhuangzi (d. c. 286) metaphorically described his own style of speech with signifying both instability and timelessness.
