蒙
“Enveloping” — King Wen #4
Inexperience and immaturity. The way forward is to seek clear guidance from a true teacher, not to press ahead blindly.
The Judgment 卦辞
亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告。利貞。
Meng (indicates that in the case which it presupposes) there will be progress and success. I do not (go and) seek the youthful and inexperienced, but he comes and seeks me. When he shows (the sincerity that marks) the first recourse to divination, I instruct him. If he apply a second and third time, that is troublesome; and I do not instruct the troublesome. There will be advantage in being firm and correct.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
發矇，利用刑人，用說桎梏；以往吝。
The first SIX, divided, (has respect to) the dispelling of ignorance. It will be advantageous to use punishment (for that purpose), and to remove the shackles (from the mind). But going on in that way (of punishment) will give occasion for regret.
包蒙，吉。納婦，吉；子克家。
The second NINE, undivided, (shows its subject) exercising forbearance with the ignorant, in which there will be good fortune; and admitting (even the goodness of women, which will also be fortunate. (He may be described also as) a son able to (sustain the burden of) his family.
勿用取女，見金夫，不有躬，無攸利。
The third SIX, divided, (seems to say) that one should not marry a woman whose emblem it might be, for that, when she sees a man of wealth, she will not keep her person from him, and in no wise will advantage come from her.
困蒙，吝。
The fourth SIX, divided, (shows its subject as if) bound in chains of ignorance. There will be occasion for regret.
童蒙，吉。
The fifth SIX, divided, shows its subject as a simple lad without experience. There will be good fortune.
擊蒙；不利為寇，利禦寇。
In the topmost NINE, undivided, we see one smiting the ignorant (youth). But no advantage will come from doing him an injury. Advantage would come from warding off injury from him.
Reading the Picture
Hexagram 4 places water (坎) beneath mountain (艮) —water finding its way through hard gaps below, stillness holding its ground above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Enveloping”:inexperience and immaturity. The way forward is to seek clear guidance from a true teacher, not to press ahead blindly Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
Questions About Hexagram 4
What does 蒙 (méng) mean?
Hexagram 4 of the I Ching is named 蒙 (méng), usually rendered "Enveloping" in English editions. Its figure pairs water (坎) below with mountain (艮) above.
Which trigrams form hexagram 4?
艮 (Mountain) sits above and 坎 (Water) sits below — the classical picture is water finding its way through hard gaps beneath stillness holding its ground.
How is hexagram 4 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 4 gives hexagram 49 — 革 (Skinning). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 3 — 屯 (Sprouting). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 24 — 復 (Returning).
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1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.