Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly山水蒙 · Méng

• Upper trigram　Gèn, Mountain: stillness, steadiness and stopping at the right time.
• Lower trigram　Kǎn, Water: danger, flow and keeping faith through difficulty.

The Judgment

Success. It is not I who seek the young learner; the learner seeks me. The first asking is answered; asking again and again is disrespect, and is not answered. Perseverance furthers.

亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告。利貞。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

Learning and awakening. Today suits asking sincerely and learning with an open mind; getting one question answered clearly gains more than hesitating over and over.

Something to do today

• Prepare one specific question, ask someone who knows, and take notes.

How a hexagram is cast

The three-coin method: toss three coins together, counting heads as 3 and tails as 2. The total, 6, 7, 8 or 9, gives one line; six tosses, recorded from the bottom up, make a hexagram. A 6 (old yin) or 9 (old yang) is a changing line, which turns this hexagram into another and shows where things are heading.