第4卦
蒙
Méng
Youthful Folly
上卦
艮 Gèn
Mountain — Stillness
下卦
坎 Kǎn
Water — Abysmal
经典文本
彖辞
亨。匪我求童蒙。童蒙求我。初筮告。再三瀆。瀆則不告。利貞。
象辞
山下出泉，蒙。君子以果行育德。
爻辞
第初爻
初六 發蒙。利用刑人。用說桎梏。以往吝。
第二爻
九二 包蒙吉。納婦吉。子克家。
第三爻
六三 勿用取女。見金夫。不有躬。无攸利。
第四爻
六四 困蒙。吝。
第五爻
六五 童蒙。吉。
第上爻
上九 擊蒙。不利為寇。利禦寇。
The Astronomer
Vermeer, Unknown
Youthful Inexperience
In Vermeer's studio, an astronomer leans forward over a celestial globe, his right hand suspended mid-gesture above its painted surface. Geometric instruments catch the window light behind him—an astrolabe hangs on the wall, a compass rests nearby, books lie open with star charts visible on their pages. The man wears a richly patterned robe; his face concentrates on the sphere that maps the heavens. He sits at the threshold of understanding, surrounded by the tools of his craft but not yet master of the knowledge they encode. The globe shows constellations; his hand hovers as if to grasp them, to make them yield their secrets.
阅读完整论述 ↓
This is Méng (蒙), which combines Mountain (☶) above and Water (☵) below. The character 蒙 depicts plants covering or obscuring vision, the state of not-yet-knowing. Water flows at the mountain's base, hidden from view—the dangerous unknown beneath the stable boundary. Vermeer painted this exact configuration: the scholar's stillness (mountain) confronting the vast mystery of celestial mechanics (water in its depths). In divination practice, this hexagram appeared when someone stood before a master craft, when genuine questions formed but answers remained obscured. Vermeer painted this scholar studying a celestial globe, surrounded by instruments and books. The astronomer seeks knowledge of the heavens, representing youthful inexperience seeking instruction from a teacher or master. The Judgment speaks directly to Vermeer's scene: "Youthful folly has success. It is not I who seek the young fool; the young fool seeks me." The astronomer has positioned himself before the celestial sphere. He has gathered his instruments, opened his books. The teacher—whether human master or cosmic order—will not chase the student. Ancient texts warn against repeated shallow questioning: "If he asks two or three times, it is importunity." Genuine learning requires patient absorption, the willingness to sit with confusion as the astronomer sits with his globe's mysteries. The Image Text offers unexpected counsel about how learning actually occurs: "A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain: the image of youth. Thus the superior man fosters his character by thoroughness." Water gradually shaping stone, insight accumulating through sustained attention rather than forced revelation. In the I-Ching's sequence, Méng follows Zhūn: after the chaotic breakthrough comes the recognition of inexperience, the moment when one realizes how much remains unknown and positions oneself to learn.
焦氏易林
焦延寿《易林》——第4卦本卦之辞。西汉时期以四言诗阐释卦变，为最早的系统性易学占辞集。
何草不黃，至未盡玄。室家分離，悲愁於心。
山下出泉，蒙之自遇。
阅读完整注释 ↓
山下出泉，蒙之自遇。開篇引《詩經·小雅·何草不黃》：「何草不黃？何日不行？」——征夫之歌，萬物枯黃，疲憊至極。然「至未盡玄」，衰敗尚未至最深之暗。室家分離，悲愁入心。蒙遇蒙，無變化之卦，蒙昧不得開啟而自我加深。離散骨肉乃最深之迷惘——非不知事理，乃失去賦予知識以意義之人倫紐帶。草雖黃而未盡枯，暗示一線轉機，然此刻唯有深切之哀傷。
English commentary
A spring beneath the mountain returns to the mountain — folly encountering itself. The verse opens by quoting the Shijing soldiers' lament 'He Cao Bu Huang': 'What grass is not yellowed?' — an image of universal exhaustion under endless campaigning. But the withering has not yet reached its darkest extreme. Families are torn apart, grief filling the heart. When the source hexagram meets its own reflection, there is no transformation, only intensification: the naivety that might have been educated instead compounds into deeper confusion. Separation from home and kin is the cruelest form of bewilderment — not ignorance of facts, but loss of the relationships that give knowledge its meaning.