升 → 蒙
Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 6).
Line 3
九三 升虛邑。
Nine in the third place means: One pushes upward into an empty city.
Line 6
上六 冥升。利于不息之貞。
Six at the top means: Pushing upward in darkness. It furthers one To be unremittingly persevering.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
畫龍頭頸，文章不成。所求不得，失利後時。
Painting the dragon's head and neck, the pattern remains unfinished. What is sought cannot be obtained; profit is lost, the hour has passed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wood grows within the earth, but a painted dragon lacks its head and neck — the composition remains forever unfinished. What is sought cannot be obtained; profit is lost and the right moment missed. The image of an incomplete dragon — body sketched but vital parts absent — speaks to ambition that cannot cohere into a finished form. Without the head, the dragon has no direction; without the neck, no connection between vision and body. Mountain over water, the image of Youthful Folly, suggests effort shrouded in immaturity and confusion. From Pushing Upward to Youthful Folly, steady growth falters when ambition outpaces competence. The ascending impulse enters fog: a half-formed vision that cannot complete itself.
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