Hexagram 4 for love
Hexagram 4 Immaturity in love and relationships
Meng is a spring welling up at the foot of a mountain: water that does not yet know where it is going. In a relationship it is inexperience — one person, or both, not yet understanding what they feel or how to act on it. The judgment sets the rule: 'I do not seek the young fool, the young fool seeks me'; the one who knows does not chase, and the one who does not know must ask sincerely, once, rather than testing again and again.
The lines are mostly about who teaches whom. The second line, the hexagram's ruler, is the patient partner who makes room for the other's immaturity, and the text calls this a good marriage. The fifth line is the one who admits not knowing and asks. The warnings are the third line, which throws itself at the nearest strong attraction and loses itself, and the fourth, which stays shut in among its own kind and learns nothing. The counsel is to treat inexperience as a stage and be clear which of you is asking.
The hexagram in brief
A spring at the foot of a mountain: youthful ignorance that can be taught. Success comes to the learner who asks sincerely — the teacher does not chase the student.
Ask once, sincerely, and act on the answer; nourish correctness with patience and clear boundaries.
The judgment
蒙：亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告。利貞。Măng (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.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 蒙 Immaturity has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningdispelling ignorance · discipline · removing fetters
- 九二Nine in the second placeembracing the ignorant · taking a wife · the son runs the house
- 六三Six in the third placedo not take this woman · losing oneself · no benefit
- 六四Six in the fourth placetrapped in ignorance · isolated · far from substance
- 六五Six in the fifth placechildlike openness · good fortune · docile and humble
- 上九Nine at the topstriking ignorance · not as a robber · warding off robbers
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Is hexagram 4, Immaturity, a good sign for love?
- Meng is a spring welling up at the foot of a mountain: water that does not yet know where it is going. In a relationship it is inexperience — one person, or both, not yet understanding what they feel or how to act on it. The judgment sets the rule: 'I do not seek the young fool, the young fool seeks me'; the one who knows does not chase, and the one who does not know must ask sincerely, once, rather than testing again and again.
- What does Hexagram 4, 蒙 Immaturity, mean?
- A spring at the foot of a mountain: youthful ignorance that can be taught. Success comes to the learner who asks sincerely — the teacher does not chase the student.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).