Youthful Folly
Hexagram 4 · Mountain over Water
Published July 8, 2026 · By Oriens
亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告。利貞。
Youthful Folly has success. It is not I who seek the young fool; the young fool seeks me. If asked twice or three times, I do not inform the importunate.
— I Ching, 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。
Youthful Folly has success. It is not I who seek the young fool; the young fool seeks me. If asked twice or three times, I do not inform the importunate.
There is a kind of ignorance that is not stupidity but readiness — the openness of someone who knows they do not know. The I Ching calls this 'youthful folly' and treats it with respect. The teacher does not chase the student. The student must come with genuine questions. If you ask the same question repeatedly, hoping for a different answer, you are not ready to learn.
Hexagram 4, Meng, represents the relationship between teacher and student, wisdom and ignorance. The lower trigram is Water (the abyss, the unknown) and the upper is Mountain (stillness, the teacher). The image is a spring at the foot of a mountain — knowledge emerging from a deep source, available to those who seek it. The text is unusually clear about boundaries: the teacher does not pursue the student. If the student asks frivolously or repeatedly, the teacher withdraws. This is a teaching about the sacredness of genuine inquiry — wisdom cannot be forced on anyone.. The I Ching teaches that understanding the pattern of change is the foundation of wise action.