蒙 → 蠱
Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
Line 3
六三 勿用取女。見金夫。不有躬。无攸利。
Six in the third place means: Take not a maiden who, when she sees a man of bronze, Loses possession of herself. Nothing furthers.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
逐狐東山，水遏我前。深不可涉，失利後便。
Chasing a fox on the eastern mountain; water blocks my way. Too deep to wade across; profit is lost, advantage comes too late.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A spring beneath the mountain chases a fox across the eastern hills, but floodwater blocks the path. The river is too deep to wade; profit is lost and convenience forfeited. The fox — often a symbol of cunning or temptation in the Yilin — lures the pursuer into terrain where water halts all progress. From Youthful Folly to Work on the Decayed, the transformation reveals a deeper lesson: wind stirs beneath the mountain, exposing what has rotted. The naif who chases quick gains across unfamiliar ground discovers that the real obstacle is not the water but the decay within the situation itself. What seemed like a profitable hunt was already spoiled before the chase began.
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