Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly → Hexagram 47: Oppression

Youthful Folly
Mountain / Water
Oppression
Lake / Water
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).

Line 4

六四 困蒙。吝。

kùnsurrounded
méngimmaturity
lìnembarrassment

Six in the fourth place means: Entangled folly bring humiliation.

Line 5

六五 童蒙。吉。

tóngyoung
ménginexperienced
promising

Six in the fifth place means: Childlike folly brings good fortune.

Line 6

上九 擊蒙。不利為寇。利禦寇。

striking
ménginexperience
not
worthwhile
wéito be
kòuassailant
worthwhile
to defend against
kòuassailant

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

Upper TrigramMountain LakeKeeping Still → The Joyous
Lower TrigramWater Water

Yilin Verse

氓伯以婚,抱布自媒。棄禮急情,卒罹悔憂。

The simple man comes to marry, carrying cloth as his own matchmaker. Abandoning ritual, rushing with desire; in the end he suffers regret and sorrow.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

A spring beneath the mountain is dammed by impetuous desire. The Shijing's 'Mang' ode tells of a young man who comes carrying cloth, ostensibly to trade for silk, but really to court a girl. He urges her to elope, abandoning proper matchmaking rites. The verse warns: casting aside ritual propriety in the heat of passion leads inevitably to regret and sorrow. From Youthful Folly to Oppression, the transformation tightens the trap. The lake's water has drained away, leaving only dry constraint. The lover who bypassed ceremony finds himself in a marriage without social support — oppressed not by enemies but by the consequences of his own haste. Folly that rejects form discovers that form was the only protection.

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