EN (English)
䷃
Hexagram 4 of 64
Youthful Folly
蒙 · Méng
A spring at the foot of a mountain, water that has emerged without yet finding its channel. The hexagram is about inexperience, and about how instruction actually works.
inexperience
teaching
questions
discipline
- King Wen number
- 4 of 64
- Above
- ☶ Gèn · Mountain
- Below
- ☵ Kǎn · Water
- Composition
- Mountain over Water
- Lines, bottom to top
- Broken · solid · broken · broken · broken · solid
- Chinese
- 蒙 · Méng
The Judgment
Success. It is not I who seek the young fool; the young fool seeks me. At the first casting I answer. Ask a second and a third time and that is pestering, and pestering gets no answer. It rewards holding to the course.
The only place the oracle describes its own etiquette. Ask once, in earnest, and accept what comes; asking repeatedly is a way of not listening.
The Image
A spring wells up below the mountain. So the noble person acts decisively and nurtures character.
Water that has just emerged has no course yet. Decisiveness gives it one, and character is what the channel is made of.
What it means
Meng is the classic's hexagram about learning, and it takes both roles seriously: the person who does not know, and the person being asked.
Its Judgment is the most self-referential passage in the book. The oracle states that it does not chase students, that it answers a sincere question once, and that repeated asking is a form of pressure it will not reward. Anyone who has cast the same question three times hoping for a better answer has met this text personally.
The line texts sort inexperience into kinds. There is folly that can be opened with discipline, folly that has to be borne with patiently, folly that chases whatever glitters, folly trapped with no way out, and childlike folly which the classic likes best of all, because it is honest and therefore teachable. The top line closes with a warning to the teacher rather than the student: correction turns into aggression easily, and at that point it stops working.
Structurally the water is below and the mountain above, so the situation is one where energy exists and is contained. What it needs is a channel, which is what teaching provides.
In a reading
Youthful Folly as an answer usually means someone in the matter does not know what they are doing, and the hexagram is fairly gentle about it. Inexperience is a stage, not a verdict.
If you are the one who does not know, ask plainly, once, and take the answer seriously. If you are the one who does, the counsel is patience with a limit: teach, do not punish, and release the constraint as soon as it has done its work.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Nine at the top
Striking at folly. It does not help to be the aggressor; it helps to fend off aggression.
Correction that becomes punishment. The line permits defence and forbids attack.
-
Six in the fifth place
Childlike folly. Good fortune.
Not knowing, and being straightforward about not knowing. The classic rates this above any amount of pretended competence.
-
Six in the fourth place
Trapped in folly. Regret.
Ignorance with no teacher and no contact with anyone who knows. The only unhappy line in the hexagram.
-
Six in the third place
Do not take this woman. She sees a man of bronze and loses herself. Nothing furthers.
Attachment to whatever is shiniest. The line is about being led by display rather than judgement.
-
Nine in the second place
Bearing with fools brings good fortune. Taking a wife brings good fortune. The son runs the household.
Tolerance as competence. The person who can carry other people's ignorance without contempt is the one fit to be trusted.
-
Six at the beginning
To open up folly, discipline is useful, and so is taking the shackles off afterwards. Going on that way brings regret.
Correction has a beginning and an end. Discipline that never releases stops being teaching.
Related figures
Latest Posts
Discover the ancient wisdom of tarot cards and unlock the mysteries of your spiritual journey. Our blog is your gateway to understanding the rich symbolism, meanings, and practical applications of tarot reading.
