Choose a line to preview its one-line change.
Hexagram 4
蒙Méng
Inexperience in need of instruction and a willingness to learn.
Success. I do not seek the inexperienced youth; the inexperienced youth seeks me. At the first divination I answer. Repeating it a second or third time is disrespectful; no answer is given to such repetition. Constancy is beneficial.
亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告。利貞。
A spring emerges below the mountain: Youthful Folly. The exemplary person acts with resolve and nourishes character.
山下出泉，蒙。君子以果行育德。
Bottom to top
Line 1
發蒙，利用刑人，用說桎梏，以往吝。
To dispel ignorance, punishment is beneficial, followed by release from the shackles. Continuing the punishment brings difficulty.
The opening line joins punishment with release: instruction cannot remain an endless act of restraint. Changing Line 1 from yielding to firm produces Hexagram 41.
Read Line 1 in contextLine 2
包蒙吉，納婦吉，子克家。
Showing patience with the inexperienced is favorable. Taking a wife is favorable. The son can manage the household.
Firm Line 2 bears responsibility for the inexperienced while allowing for their differences. If it yields, Hexagram 23 remains with only the top line firm.
Read Line 2 in contextLine 3
勿用取女。見金夫，不有躬，无攸利。
Do not marry a woman who loses her self-restraint at the sight of a wealthy man. Nothing is beneficial.
Loss of self-possession is assigned to Line 3, the outer edge of the lower water trigram. Making this line firm changes that trigram to wind and produces Hexagram 18.
Read Line 3 in contextLine 4
困蒙，吝。
Trapped in ignorance. Difficulty.
Confined understanding occupies the yielding fourth line, with no adjacent firm support. A firm line here turns the upper mountain trigram into fire and yields Hexagram 64.
Read Line 4 in contextLine 5
童蒙吉。
Childlike inexperience. Favorable.
Childlike openness stands at the yielding center of the upper trigram; when Line 5 becomes firm, mountain changes to wind and the figure is Hexagram 59.
Read Line 5 in contextLine 6
擊蒙，不利為寇，利禦寇。
Correcting ignorance by force. Acting as an aggressor is not beneficial; resisting aggression is beneficial.
The distinction between striking and defending appears at the firm top line. Changing it to yielding makes the entire upper trigram earth and produces Hexagram 7.
Read Line 6 in contextOne line away
One classical protocol
A cast determines which part of a hexagram governs the reading. When one line moves, that line is read as the focus; other moving-line counts use different focus rules.
Read the changing-line protocol
Cast this properly