益 → 蒙
Hexagram 42: Increase → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5).
Line 1
初九 利用為大作。元吉无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: It furthers one to accomplish great deeds. Supreme good fortune. No blame.
Line 2
六二 或益之十朋之龜。弗克違。永貞吉。王用享于帝吉。
Six in the second place means: Someone does indeed increase him; Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Constant perseverance brings good fortune. The king presents him before God. Good fortune.
Line 5
九五 有孚惠心。勿問元吉。有孚惠我德。
Nine in the fifth place means: If in truth you have a kind heart, ask not. Supreme good fortune. Truly, kindness will be recognized as your virtue.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
飲酒醉酣，跳起爭鬭。手足紛挐，伯傷仲僵，東家治喪。
Drinking wine in drunken abandon, they leap up to brawl. Hands and feet flail in tangled fury; the eldest is wounded, the second collapses. The eastern household prepares for mourning.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind and thunder bestow increase, but the transformation leads to the mountain spring of youthful folly, where ignorance breeds disaster. Men drink themselves into a stupor, then leap up to brawl. Fists and feet fly in confusion — the eldest is wounded, the second collapses, and the neighbor's household prepares a funeral. What begins as festive abundance descends into lethal foolishness. The verse captures the archetype of a feast turned fatal, where wine unlocks violence that reason would have restrained. From Increase to Youthful Folly, the dynamic is sharp: resources poured into an undisciplined vessel produce not growth but reckless self-destruction. The mountain spring of Meng flows clear, but those who refuse its teaching drown in their own excess.
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