Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly → Hexagram 49: Revolution

Youthful Folly
Mountain / Water
Revolution
Lake / Fire
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 6 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

Line 1

初六 發蒙。利用刑人。用說桎梏。以往吝。

educating
méngthe inexperienced
worthwhile
yòngand useful
xíngto sanction
rénanother
yòngif used
shuōto remove
zhìshackles
handcuffs
but for this
wǎngto continue
lìndisgrace

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。

bāoincluding
méngthe inexperienced
promising
accepting
woman
promising
young one
can manage
jiāfamily

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 3

六三 勿用取女。見金夫。不有躬。无攸利。

it is not at all
yònguseful
to pair
maiden
jiànwho sees
jīnof
gentleman
and does not
yǒuown
gōngher
this is no
yōudirection
with merit

Six in the third place means: Take not a maiden who, when she sees a man of bronze, Loses possession of herself. Nothing furthers.

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 FireThe Deep → The Clinging

Yilin Verse

愆淫旱疾,傷害稼穡。喪制病來,農人無食。

Excessive rain and drought and disease; they harm the planting and harvesting. Mourning rites, illness arrives; the farmer has nothing to eat.

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

Commentary

A spring beneath the mountain dries as the sky turns hostile. Excessive rain and drought alternate as disease strikes the crops. Mourning ceremonies coincide with illness; farmers have nothing to eat. The verse catalogs agrarian catastrophe in its fullest form — weather, pestilence, and human sorrow converging on the same harvest. When heaven's rhythms go wrong, the entire cycle of planting and reaping collapses. From Youthful Folly to Revolution, the transformation carries a dual edge. Fire within the lake signals the need for radical change — reforming the calendar, correcting the seasons. The naif confronts a broken world where mere endurance is insufficient; only a fundamental restructuring of the order can restore the cycle of growth.

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