蒙 → 萃
Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly → Hexagram 45: Gathering Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5, 6).
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.
Line 5
六五 童蒙。吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Childlike folly brings good fortune.
Line 6
上九 擊蒙。不利為寇。利禦寇。
Nine at the top means: In punishing folly It does not further one To commit transgressions. The only thing that furthers Is to prevent transgressions.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
黿羹芬香，染指弗嘗。口飢於手，子公恨饞。
Soft-shell turtle soup, fragrant and rich; one dips a finger but does not taste. The mouth hungers at the hand; Lord Zigong regrets his greed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A spring beneath the mountain smells the fragrance of turtle stew but cannot taste it. According to the Zuo Zhuan, when Chu presented a great turtle to Duke Ling of Zheng, the minister Zigong's finger twitched — a bodily omen that he would taste a rare delicacy. But the Duke, toying with him, served the soup to everyone except Zigong. Humiliated, Zigong strode forward, dipped his finger into the cauldron, and left. The idiom 'ran zhi' — 'to dip one's finger' — originates here, meaning to seize a taste of what one has been denied. From Youthful Folly to Gathering, the transformation exposes the dangerous politics of inclusion and exclusion. The lake gathers upon the earth, but not everyone is invited to drink.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store