I Ching Oracle / Hexagrams / 4
The Judgement
Success. It is not I who seek the young fool; the young fool seeks me. At the first oracle I inform him. If he asks two or three times, it is importunity, and I give no information.
Inexperience seeking instruction; ask sincerely, ask once.
The Image
A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain; the noble one fosters character by thoroughness in all he does.
This hexagram on ten matters
- WorkCAREER
- You or the other party are still learning, and mistakes here are process, not disaster. Bearing with folly in kindness — ability only grows where error is survivable.
- LoveRELATIONSHIP
- One side is noticeably naive. If you are the one who knows more, do not rush to correct; if you are being taught, asking beats pretending.
- MoneyFINANCE
- Losses come from inexperience more than bad luck. Tuition must be paid here — just not at a ruinous rate.
- HealthBODY
- You may be misreading your own body. Rather than self-diagnosing from what you read, ask someone qualified.
- StudyLEARNING
- The most apt hexagram of all. The young fool seeks me, not I the fool — ask first, and having asked once, actually listen.
- An examEXAM
- You have not truly understood it yet. Ask about what you do not know rather than drilling questions to paper over the gap.
- PeopleSOCIAL
- Be a student. Find someone willing to teach you and genuinely do as they say.
- A choiceDECISION
- You do not know enough to decide. Get the unclear parts answered, then return to this.
- TravelJOURNEY
- Feasible, but go with someone or with a clear route. Wandering alone wastes the trip.
- A lost itemLOST ITEM
- You have misremembered where it was. Ask someone who was there; their memory may be better than yours.
The Six Lines
To make a fool develop, discipline is useful. But to go on that way brings humiliation.
Discipline is useful in developing a fool. But to go on that way brings humiliation — force stops working if it is all you use.
To bear with fools in kindliness brings good fortune.
Bearing with fools in kindliness. Tolerating what others do not know is this line's real capability.
Take not a maiden who loses possession of herself. Nothing furthers.
Take not a maiden who loses possession of herself. Drawn by surface conditions and losing yourself: this line says outright that nothing furthers.
Entangled folly brings humiliation.
Entangled folly. Being stuck inside your own ignorance and not asking is the only problem here. Speaking up dissolves it.
Childlike folly brings good fortune.
Childlike folly brings good fortune. The best line in the hexagram. Admit what you do not know and actually learn it; progress is fastest now.
In punishing folly, it does not further one to commit transgressions.
In punishing folly, do not commit transgressions. Correcting others is fine, but only defensively; teaching with aggression overshoots.
The governing line
Nuclear · Opposite · Reverse
The nuclear hexagram shows the middle stretch of the matter; the opposite is the same situation seen from the reverse position; the reverse is the view from the other party's side.