King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Hexagram 30 離 changing to hexagram 4 蒙

lí
→
méng

Changing lines (counted from the bottom): 1, 2, 3, 4.

What to read

Four changing lines: read the two unchanged lines of the resulting hexagram; the lower one is the main one. (Rule set out by Zhu Xi in the Yixue qimeng.)

Hexagram 4 蒙, line 5

童蒙,吉。

The fifth line, divided, shows its subject as a simple lad without experience. There will be good fortune.

Hexagram 4 蒙, line 6

擊蒙,不利為寇,利禦寇。

In the topmost line, 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.

The two hexagrams

Hexagram 30 離 — judgment

利貞。亨。畜牝牛,吉。

Lî indicates that, (in regard to what it denotes), it will be advantageous to be firm and correct, and that thus there will be free course and success. Let (its subject) also nourish (a docility like that of) the cow, and there will be good fortune.

Hexagram 4 蒙 — judgment

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.

The changing lines of hexagram 30

LineChineseLegge
1履錯然,敬之无咎。The first line, undivided, shows one ready to move with confused steps. But he treads at the same time reverently, and there will be no mistake.
2黃離,元吉。The second line, divided, shows its subject in his place in yellow. There will be great good fortune.
3日昃之離,不鼓缶而歌,則大耋之差,凶。The third line, undivided, shows its subject in a position like that of the declining sun. Instead of playing on his instrument of earthenware, and singing to it, he utters the groans of an old man of eighty. There will be evil.
4突如其來如,焚如,死如,棄如。The fourth line, undivided, shows the manner of its subject's coming. How abrupt it is, as with fire, with death, to be rejected (by all)!

English: James Legge (1882), public domain. Chinese: Zhou Yi.

Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0); Chinese Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.