蒙
GUA 04 · MENG
INEXPERIENCE
Overall Image (大象)
At the foot of the mountain emerges a spring
Inexperience
The noble young one, accordingly, proceeds to fruition
by nourishing character▼
Overall Image (大象)
At the foot of the mountain emerges a spring
Inexperience
The noble young one, accordingly, proceeds to fruition
by nourishing character
They gurgle and burble and babble at first. In time the small pits and pools will fill, questions are answered and needs are met. The fulfillment of first things comes first, and each new rim is a threshold, and then a moving on, over those mocking depths, under those frowning heights. The spring and the springtime of life is the watershed, the headwaters of a being. It is still too far away to begin to search for great streams, but not too far away to learn how to think of searching. The things that are lacking, the gaps in the understanding, the unmet primary needs, the why’s and why not’s, are what appetites are for. It’s the hunger, not the meal, that moves the youth along.
Main Judgment (Inexperience) (卦辞)
Fulfillment
It is not I who seeks the young and inexperienced
The young and inexperienced seek me
The first consultation informs
The second and third show disrespect
Disrespect deserves no information
It is worthwhile to be dedicated▼
Main Judgment (Inexperience) (卦辞)
Fulfillment
It is not I who seeks the young and inexperienced
The young and inexperienced seek me
The first consultation informs
The second and third show disrespect
Disrespect deserves no information
It is worthwhile to be dedicated
It is not the duty or function of oracles to chase a young fool around with advice. Nor is it wisdom to give or seek answers. Wisdom lies in the way one questions, the say one has in the way that one hungers, the taste that one has in one’s wants. Pointless, inane and importune questions get no information at all, but not because they irk Teacher. There is just nothing there to receive or contain information, and no way to process the changes. You do not need the answer to question, but this will shape the response with language and context. To learn is to change oneself, from an earlier state to a later. The young one is born with half of what is needed and half of what must be lost. Too much of potential is there in the being at birth, to go to half of anywhere, and do half of any thing, but half of which are danger and trouble. To this end the young one begins his life as a halfwit. The other half is the culture, tempered by family and friends, with two tools: for all there is to be lost there is no, for all to be won there is yes. The child is blessed who has both in good measure. To grow in every direction is no direction at all. Being specific means boundaries.
Key Words (关键词)
Early development, education, guidance; differentiating, specifying, personalizing▼
Key Words (关键词)
Early development, education, guidance; differentiating, specifying, personalizing
Inquiry, questioning, questing, discovery; fulfilling potentials, talents, aptitudes Foolishness, folly, ignorance; a childlike hunger to know, untrained green vines To be covered, blinded, immature, obscure, obtuse, uncultivated, inexperienced Making connections and pruning, learning and unlearning, training the mind Educate as to lead out; instruction; importance of questions in framing answers
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Kan-Li Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Sixth House, Mutable Earth, Virgo
element:Earth
Tarot
card:The Hermit
suit:Trump
Qabalah
note:Yod; Path between Malkuth and Hod (Trad: Tp-Cd)
The Lines
11st • YangDelivering the inexperienced
It is worthwhile and useful to discipline another
If practiced to remove the shackles and cuffs
But for this to continue is a disgrace▼
1
1st • YangDelivering the inexperienced
It is worthwhile and useful to discipline another
If practiced to remove the shackles and cuffs
But for this to continue is a disgrace
04.1x Worthwhile (and) useful to discipline another:
For the sake of ethical standards
The wild and unruly behavior of lively young fools poses a serious question or two: How much is mine to do? And: How much can I get away with? And this deserves a serious answer: about half of what you might do, but not to include that tantrum, or playing under the wagon, or biting your little friend’s nose off. There is so much to unlearn, even right at the start. Some of the lessons won’t wait : the need for them must be assumed, maybe restraint in the form of restraints. But the object is making these a part of the subject, discipline grows into self-discipline. Somebody’s ethical program becomes the child’s second nature. All vines need some structure to climb. But culture too can unlearn, when tools for this process, like shame, pain and guilt, fail us all. Consequences can diminish the options and still not diminish the child.
22nd • YangEmbracing the inexperienced is promising
Involving the women is promising
The young one can manage the household▼
2
2nd • YangEmbracing the inexperienced is promising
Involving the women is promising
The young one can manage the household
04.2x The young one can manage the household:
The firm (and) the flexible interrelate
Old master keeps a vigil as a young son is apprenticed to life, learning how to live. Loosed among the other young fools, he learns to share and play, fight and retreat. Loosed among the women he learns to mistrust expectations, and of the family life, with its palette of diverse points of view. Among his daily duties he learns to trade effort for value, and thus to weigh value itself against effort. There can be no better teacher of duty than freedom, or teacher of freedom than duty. He will slowly add real context, training in safe environs as consequence is slowly stepped up. Learning how to learn and why will precede what to learn and when. Education is backwards if the object is to teach someone a subject. The subject will learn when his mind has objectives. The subject best taught is the student himself, and relevance is the bait.
33rd • YangNot at all useful to court the woman
Who encounters a man with money
And loses self-possession
Not a direction with merit▼
3
3rd • YangNot at all useful to court the woman
Who encounters a man with money
And loses self-possession
Not a direction with merit
04.3x Not at all useful to court (this) woman:
(Her) behavior (is) less than responsive
A young fool is being given some fatherly advice, a sample of the way things work, but artfully lit and properly timed, and before the hormones take over. Too soon will waste teacher’s time, too late could waste the young man’s whole life, as well as the whole family fortune. Models of the world and how it should be compete like weeds to root themselves in young and impressionable minds. Some models invade whole cultures, and when they do they begin to look like rules. Someone is always needed to stand outside, look in and share observations. A cultural alpha male might mimic a natural alpha and go to great lengths to buy up the highest priced brides, not with strength and character, but with a symbolic merit. Who has the job then to stand up and say what else this behavior is called? One who does not deserve to be enslaved.
44th • YangAfflicted by ignorance
A shame▼
4
4th • YangAfflicted by ignorance
A shame
04.4x The affliction (of) ignorance leads to shame:
Abandoned (and) far from reality
A sure sign of one of two problems: too little guidance is one, too much is the other. In either case, there is now just one solution. The wise ones ought not to spare fools the lessons that follow their folly, as long as the fools do not thereby incur lasting damage or perish, though much can also be said for letting the fools perish young, denying the world their offspring - for the future of the breed, sooner is often better, so cultures that survive a long time have more serious rites of passage. But if, for some silly reason, you happen to think this one is worth saving, the fool being you or your child, for example, it is time to begin a new program, and abandon the one which has failed to work. First hand experience teaches; so too does second hand knowledge. We can learn things in life either way, but we tend to perish first hand.
55th • YangYouthful inexperience
Opportune▼
5
5th • YangYouthful inexperience
Opportune
04.5x Youthful inexperience holds opportunity:
Accepting (is) the way to gain access
And then there are fine forms of foolishness. Some will say that it takes two decades for young human beings to grow: enough time for body and brain to mature. Others might claim this could take at least two million more years. One who claims this sort of youth will not be an ignorant fool and the questions will keep on coming forever. Why stop growing? Ignorance can be ten times the work and has no freedom or fun, no healthy laughter or play. It is dying to grab hold of the answers. The young ones, with their long youth, have much to teach the mature. A sage remains ready to learn: answers can’t fill up his questions, beliefs can’t end his search. He still wants to be everywhere, suspending belief and disbelief both, fingers in all of the pies when not giving lectures on virtue and worth. Why call one who would kill this “mature”?
6Top • YangSmiting the halfwit
Not worthwhile to practice transgression
Worthwhile to defend from transgression▼
6
Top • YangSmiting the halfwit
Not worthwhile to practice transgression
Worthwhile to defend from transgression
04.6x Worthwhile (and) productive to defend from transgression:
Those above (and) those below make peace
We will teach him a lesson he will never forget. We will teach him a thing or two. What sort of wise teachings are these? Was he told he’d be beaten? Is this what is due? Have mistakes already hurt more? Most of the higher primates are most of the time at peace. Now and then an alpha will bite or thump on a beta, or twice sometimes on a rival. But where do we draw humanity’s line? And where do we go across it? Supposing the point is to give an act negative value, when consequences are otherwise absent, to mimic a fair and just world. Do we give only fair and just pain? Are extreme measures fairly measured? Is the precious freedom to risk and make errors preserved? Discipline is for the disciple, something to choose to adopt, not something to discipline into disciples. A proper response will lead to this choice.
Reference in Original Text & Resources
This content is derived from Bradford Hatcher's THE BOOK OF CHANGES: Yijing, Word By Word.
Original text for Hexagram 4 begins on Page 84-92.
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