Hexagram 4
Learning Curve
méng
Reading it as a decision
A still mountain sits over hidden water here — obscured footing under a calm surface, the classic shape of not yet knowing what you're actually dealing with. The classical text frames this less as ignorance to be ashamed of and more as a stage every serious undertaking passes through: a real answer comes once, clearly, to someone genuinely asking — not to someone testing the same question over and over hoping for a different reply.
With the read landing in mixed territory rather than a clean verdict, this isn't the moment to force clarity that isn't there yet. What tends to work is deliberately going after better information — a mentor, a domain expert, real research — instead of proceeding on assumption or bravado.
The classical text
Judgment (卦辭)
蒙，亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告。利貞。
Meng: the untaught child seeks out the teacher, not the reverse; a first question gets an answer, but repeated pestering earns only silence.
The six lines (爻辭)
初六：發蒙，利用刑人，用說桎梏，以往吝。
Breaking open ignorance; useful to apply firm discipline, then remove the restraints — pushing further only brings trouble.
九二：包蒙吉。納婦吉。子克家。
Taking in the untaught brings luck; taking a wife brings luck; the son proves able to run the household.
六三：勿用娶女，見金，夫不有躬，無攸利。
Do not marry this woman — she is dazzled by wealth and loses herself to a man not her own; nothing favorable.
六四：困蒙，吝。
Trapped inside one's own ignorance; trouble.
六五：童蒙，吉。
A young child, still untaught; good fortune.
上九：擊蒙。不利為寇，利御寇。
Striking down ignorance directly; unfavorable to act like a raider, favorable to guard against raiders.
This is a general reference, not a live reading — it doesn't know your situation. iYarrow casts a fresh hexagram for the actual question you're weighing.
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