Youthful Folly
- In Chinese
- 蒙 méng
- Above
- Keeping Still, mountain
- Below
- The Abysmal, water
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 4 means
Hexagram 4 is about youth that does not yet know, and about how it should be taught. Legge calls it “the symbol of youthful inexperience and ignorance”.
The judgment is favorable. In Legge's words “there will be progress and success”.
It also sets a condition. The one who needs to learn has to come and ask, and Wilhelm has “It is not I who seek the young fool”. The first asking is answered. A second and third asking is not.
The figure is a mountain over water. Two whole lines, the second and the top, stand among four broken ones, and Legge reads those two as the authority and duty of the parent and ruler.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
蒙亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告。利貞。
YOUTHFUL FOLLY has success. It is not I who seek the young fool; The young fool seeks me. At the first oracle I inform him. If he asks two or three times, it is importunity. If he importunes, I give him no information. Perseverance furthers.
success things flow and come throughit furthers it is favorable
The image
山下出泉，《蒙》。君子以果行育德。
A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain: The image Of YOUTH. Thus the superior man fosters his character By thoroughness in all that he does.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment starts from the figure. A mountain stands over “a rugged defile with a stream in it”, and the two together suggest “peril and arrest of progress”.
The same commentary explains why there is success all the same. It says “there is development at work in it, and its time of action is exactly what is right”.
On the learner who comes to ask, it is brief. In its words “so does will respond to will”. It gives the voice that answers to the second line, as one “possessing the qualities of the undivided line and being in the central place”.
It also says whose annoyance the repeated asking causes. It is “annoyance (he means) to the ignorant”. Then it ends with the method. Dealing with the young and ignorant “is to nourish the correct (nature belonging to them)”, and “this accomplishes the service of the sage”.
The image is a spring coming out under a mountain. From it the commentary draws a rule for a person, who “strives to be resolute in his conduct and nourishes his virtue”. Wilhelm has the superior man foster his character “By thoroughness in all that he does”.
Legge reads the judgment, apart from its first and last sentences, as the voice of the oracle. He says it “must be taken as an oracular response received by the party divining on the subject of enlightening the youthful ignorant”.
The six lines
First line
發蒙，利用刑人，用說桎梏，以往吝。
To make a fool develop It furthers one to apply discipline. The fetters should be removed. To go on in this way brings humiliation.
it furthers it is favorablehumiliation it leads to embarrassment
The first line is about dispelling ignorance. Legge places its subject “in the grossest ignorance”, and the text allows punishment. The commentary gives the aim, which is “to bring under the influence of correcting law”.
The line also sets a limit to that punishment. Wilhelm ends it with “To go on in this way brings humiliation.” Legge's note makes the punishment depend on its result. He writes “If punishment avail to loosen the shackles and manacles from the mind, well”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 41, Decrease
Second line
包蒙吉，納婦吉，子克家。
To bear with fools in kindliness brings good fortune. To know how to take women Brings good fortune. The son is capable of taking charge of the household.
good fortune it goes well
This is one of the two whole lines, and one of the two lines that speak of good fortune. Legge says that on its subject “devolves the task of enlightening the ignorant”, and that he carries it out “with forbearance and humility”.
The line ends with a son who can carry his family. The commentary ties this to “the reciprocation between this strong line and the weak (fifth line)”.
The line also speaks of women. Legge takes that part as a sign of generosity in the one who teaches, who learns “from, even weak and ignorant women”. He adds that the son appears “taking the place of his father”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 23, Splitting Apart
Third line
勿用取女，見金夫，不有躬。无攸利。
Take not a maiden who. When she sees a man of bronze, Loses possession of herself. Nothing furthers.
nothing that would further nothing is favorable
The third line advises against a marriage, and Wilhelm closes it with “Nothing furthers.” The commentary gives the reason in plain terms, “her conduct is not agreeable to what is right”.
Legge traces the bad character to the place of the line. It “is weak, and occupies an odd place belonging properly to an undivided line”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 18, Repairing What Was Spoiled
Fourth line
困蒙，吝。
Entangled folly brings humiliation.
humiliation it leads to embarrassment
Here ignorance is stuck. Legge's text shows its subject “bound in chains of ignorance”, and Wilhelm calls it “Entangled folly”.
The commentary explains the regret by how far this line stands from the two whole lines. Legge adds that it “can get no help from its correlate”, the first line, which is as weak as itself.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 64, Before Completion
Fifth line
童蒙，吉。
Childlike folly brings good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
The fifth line is the learner who is open to learning, and it has good fortune. Legge reads it as “a simple lad, willing to be taught”, and the commentary says the good fortune “comes from his docility going on to humility”.
Its position matters too. Legge notes that it is “in the place of honour”, and that it answers to the strong line in the second place.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 59, Dispersion
Sixth line
擊蒙，不利為寇，利禦寇。
In punishing folly It does not further one To commit transgressions. The only thing that furthers Is to prevent transgressions.
it does not further it is not favorableit furthers it is favorable
The top line is the other whole line, and it shows force used on the ignorant. Legge calls that use of violence “natural, but unwise”.
The text turns the force around. No advantage comes from doing harm, and in Wilhelm “The only thing that furthers Is to prevent transgressions.” Legge's text says the same of the ignorant youth, “Advantage would come from warding off injury from him.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 7, The Army
Hexagram 4 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 4 unchanging, what remains is the success of the judgment with its condition, that the first question is answered and repeated asking is not. The image adds the call to be resolute in conduct.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 4 mean?
It stands for youthful inexperience and for the right way to teach it. The judgment says “there will be progress and success”, on the condition that the learner comes to ask and does not keep repeating the question.
What does hexagram 4 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 4 that is success for the one who asks once and sincerely, and the call to be resolute in conduct.
What does hexagram 4 changing to 23 mean?
It is hexagram 4 with its second line moving. That line shows forbearance with the ignorant, “in which there will be good fortune”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 23.
What does hexagram 4 changing to 59 mean?
It is hexagram 4 with its fifth line moving. That line shows “a simple lad without experience” who has good fortune, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 59.
What does hexagram 4 say about asking the same question again?
The judgment answers the first asking and refuses the rest. Wilhelm has “If he importunes, I give him no information.”
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Măng in James Legge. Youthful Folly in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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