Hexagram 4 蒙 changing to hexagram 34 大壯
Changing lines (counted from the bottom): 1, 3, 4, 6.
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 34 大壯, line 2
貞吉。
The second line, undivided, shows that with firm correctness there will be good fortune.
Hexagram 34 大壯, line 5
喪羊于易，无悔。
The fifth line, divided, shows one who loses his ram(-like strength) in the ease of his position. (But) there will be no occasion for repentance.
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 34 大壯 — judgment
利貞。
Ta Kwang indicates that (under the conditions which it symbolises) it will be advantageous to be firm and correct.
The changing lines of hexagram 4
| Line | Chinese | Legge |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 發蒙，利用刑人，用說桎梏，以往吝。 | The first line, 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. |
| 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. |
| 4 | 困蒙，吝。 | The fourth line, divided, (shows its subject as if) bound in chains of ignorance. There will be occasion for regret. |
| 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.