In love
Learning dominates: dare to say what you do not know, listen to the other, and move forward without claiming to understand everything.
Hexagram 4
I Ching hexagram 4: Youthful Folly (Meng)
Meng, Youthful Folly, is the hexagram of learning: you do not know yet, and that is where learning starts.
- learning
- sincerity
- teaching
The essentials
Meng at a glance
For you, Meng signals a time to learn: ask a frank question, listen to the answer, and do not ask it endlessly again.
A strength
The openness of someone who does not know yet and agrees to learn, with a beginner’s freshness.
Something to watch
Pressing the same question without putting the answer into practice: teaching wears out when it is not tried.
- What it advises
- Ask a frank question, listen, apply, and come back only with a new question.
- Its opposite
- 49. Revolution (Ge)
The situation
Meng stages inexperience. The ancient text puts it in the teacher’s voice: it is not the teacher who seeks the young student, it is the student who comes. A first sincere request is heard; if you come back a second and third time with the same one, it becomes tiresome.
The hexagram therefore speaks as much of the one who learns as of the one who passes knowledge on. It invites you to come with a real question, accept the answer, and put it into practice before asking another.
It reminds us that one leaves ignorance neither through coercion nor through indulgence, but through kind firmness.
The image: the Mountain above Water
- AboveMountain: the stillness that steadies
- BelowWater: the risky passage
Water beneath the Mountain: a spring wells up at the foot of a mount and does not know where to flow. For the ancient commentaries, it is a lesson in measured action: you form your character by acting with restraint.
Consult the I Ching
Throw three coins six times: your hexagram, the lines that change, and the direction they point to.
Free, no account · nothing is sent · no predictions
The six lines
- 1st line (bottom) · brokenOpening up ignorance through a firm rule, removing the shackles: this is useful. But relying on constraint alone leads to regret.
- 2nd line · solidBearing patiently with the inexperienced: the ancient text sees good fortune in it. A capable son carries the family; it is a supporting role.
- 3rd line · brokenDo not cling to the one who throws himself toward wealth and loses all self-control: nothing good comes of it.
- 4th line · brokenShut up in ignorance, with no teacher or counsel, you go in circles: this leads to regret, and you must come out of isolation.
- 5th line · brokenThe child without experience, open and unpretentious: a good omen, for simplicity lets teaching in.
- 6th line (top) · solidStriking the ignorant achieves nothing; it is better to protect them from outside harm, and not to punish for the sake of punishing.
Meng in your life
At work
Training and transmission are favored: learning a trade, asking for advice, or training someone with firmness and patience.
The I Ching helps you reflect on how to act: it does not say what is coming.
How is it built?
- Character
- 蒙 (méng)
- Number
- 4 in the King Wen sequence
- Trigrams
- Mountain (艮) above, Water (坎) below
- Inner hexagram
- 24. Return (Fu) (lines 2 to 4 and 3 to 5)
- Read upside down
- 3. Difficulty at the Beginning (Zhun)
- Symbol
- ䷃ (U+4DC3)
The English names are the usual renderings of the Chinese characters; the texts rely on the Chinese and on early public-domain translations (Legge, 1882; Philastre, 1885–1893).
Sources
- Wikipedia (English), “List of hexagrams of the I Ching,” read on October 15, 2026: numbers, characters, pinyin, lower and upper trigrams.
- Wikipedia (English), “Bagua,” read on October 15, 2026: lines of the eight trigrams, from bottom to top.
- James Legge (1815–1897), The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI, 1882 (Wikisource): public domain.
- Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre (1837–1902), Le Yi King ou Livre des changements de la dynastie des Tsheou, Annales du Musée Guimet, 1885–1893: public domain (the author died more than 70 years ago).
Frequently asked questions about hexagram 4
What does hexagram 4 of the I Ching mean?
Hexagram 4, Meng, means inexperience: a time of learning where you ask a sincere question and agree to be guided.
Why does the text speak of not asking again?
The ancient text says that the first sincere request is heard, while repetition tires. It invites you to put the answer you received into practice before coming back.