King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Hexagram 4 蒙 changing to hexagram 15 謙

méng
→
qiān

Changing lines (counted from the bottom): 2, 3, 6.

What to read

Three changing lines: read the judgments of the original and the resulting hexagram; the original is the main one. (Rule set out by Zhu Xi in the Yixue qimeng.)

Judgment of hexagram 4 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.

Judgment of hexagram 15 謙

亨,君子有終。

Khien indicates progress and success. The superior man, (being humble as it implies), will have a (good) issue (to his undertakings).

The two hexagrams

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.

Hexagram 15 謙 — judgment

亨,君子有終。

Khien indicates progress and success. The superior man, (being humble as it implies), will have a (good) issue (to his undertakings).

The changing lines of hexagram 4

LineChineseLegge
2包蒙吉,納婦吉,子克家。The second line, 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.
3勿用取女,見金夫,不有躬,无攸利。The third line, 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.
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.

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.