Youthful folly — inexperience seeking guidance, the springtime of learning.
Like a youth, you must admit what you do not yet know and seek a teacher sincerely. Ask once with trust; repeated pestering clouds the answer. Humility opens the way to wisdom.
learninginexperienceguidancehumility
Youthful Folly places Mountain (still, resting) above Water (abysmal, dangerous). The interplay of these two trigrams gives the hexagram its character.
The Classical Textoriginal Chinese
The Judgment · 卦辞
亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三渎，渎则不告。利贞。
The Image · 大象
山下出泉，蒙；君子以果行育德。
The Six Lines · 爻辞
- 初六发蒙，利用刑人，用说桎梏，以往吝。象曰：利用刑人，以正法也。
- 九二包蒙吉；纳妇吉；子克家。象曰：子克家，刚柔接也。
- 六三勿用取女，见金夫，不有躬，无攸利。象曰：勿用取女，行不顺也。
- 六四困蒙，吝。象曰：困蒙之吝，独远实也。
- 六五童蒙，吉。象曰：童蒙之吉，顺以巽也。
- 上九击蒙，不利为寇，利御寇。象曰：利用御寇，上下顺也。
The judgment, image and line texts above are quoted from the original Zhou Yi. A modern Chinese translation of the full classic is available on the original-text page.