蒙 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4).
Line 1
初六 發蒙。利用刑人。用說桎梏。以往吝。
Six at the beginning means: To make a fool develop It furthers one to apply discipline. The fetters should be removed. To go on in this way bring humiliation.
Line 2
九二 包蒙吉。納婦吉。子克家。
Nine in the second place means: 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.
Line 4
六四 困蒙。吝。
Six in the fourth place means: Entangled folly bring humiliation.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
畫龍頭頸，文章不成。甘言善語，說辭無名。
Painting the dragon’s head and neck; the design is never completed. Sweet words and fine speech; eloquence without substance.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A spring beneath the mountain tries to paint a dragon but manages only the head and neck — the composition remains unfinished. Sweet words and clever speech offer persuasive arguments, yet the rhetoric achieves no lasting name. The proverb 'painting a dragon's head and neck' suggests ambitious beginnings that trail off before completion: all flourish, no substance. From Youthful Folly to Biting Through, the transformation is instructive. Lightning and thunder combine in decisive judicial action — biting through obstruction — yet the naif possesses only eloquence without the force to follow through. Where the hexagram demands clear penalties and firm law, this figure offers unfinished art and empty persuasion. Judgment requires more than a painted dragon.
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