Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Youthful Folly
Hexagram 4 of the Yi Jing · 蒙 Méng
The figure
Mountain above Water: stillness set over danger, the spring welling at the foot of the mountain. The image of what does not yet know — and can learn.
What this figure illuminates
Youthful Folly lights up inexperience: not a fault, but a state to pass through. You don't learn by pretending to know, but by accepting not to know and seeking the right question.
For a decision, the figure invites you to recognize where you lack experience, and to seek counsel without dissolving into it. “What do I not yet know, and from whom can I truly learn?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
Inexperience can still succeed. I do not chase the young seeker — he comes to me. Ask once, sincerely, and the answer is given; ask again and again, and you only cloud it.
The Image
A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain, not yet knowing its course. Seeing this, the noble person is firm in each act and lets their virtue ripen.
The Six Lines
- First line
To dispel folly, some discipline helps — the mind's shackles must be loosened. But held too long, correction itself brings regret.
- Second line
Bear with the inexperienced, and good fortune follows. One who welcomes what is still unformed can hold a household together.
- Third line
Do not bind yourself to what has no self-command — like one who loses herself at the sight of wealth. Nothing here furthers.
- Fourth line
Shut inside your own ignorance, cut off from counsel. There will be cause for regret.
- Fifth line
The openness of a child who does not yet pretend to know. Good fortune.
- Sixth line
Folly may be struck down — but not to wound. Force here should only guard against harm, never inflict it.
Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).
A question to keep
Where would you gain by admitting you don't yet know?
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